Did somebody say menulog?
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Mangos 
At a pub in FNQ I visited many years ago, the sign on the men’s dunnies was “Mangoes”.
The sign on the ladies’ read “No Man Goes”.
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Drop Bears 
Drop Crocs 
Evidence of ancient tree-climbing ‘drop crocs’ found in Australia
BBC. Lana Lam. Sydney
An AI-generated reconstruction of what a ‘drop croc’, or mekosuchine crocodile, may have looked like
Scientists have unearthed Australia’s oldest known crocodile eggshells which may have belonged to “drop crocs” - creatures that climbed trees to hunt prey below.
The discovery of the 55-million-year-old eggshells was made in a sheep farmer’s backyard in Queensland with the findings published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
The egghells belonged to a long-extinct group of crocodiles known as mekosuchines, who lived in inland waters when Australia was part of Antarctica and South America.
Co-author Prof Michael Archer said “drop crocs” were a “bizarre idea” but some were “perhaps hunting like leopards - dropping out of trees on any unsuspecting thing they fancied for dinner”.
The clay pit at Murgon holds millions of years of clues to the animals and environments of the past.
Prof Archer, a palaeontologist at the University of New South Wales, said mekosuchine crocodiles - which could grow to about five metres - were plentiful 55 million years ago, long before their modern saltwater and freshwater cousins arrived in Australia about 3.8 million years ago.
The “drop croc” eggshells were discovered several decades ago but only recently analysed with the help of scientists in Spain.
“It’s a bizarre idea,” Prof Archer said of the “drop crocs”, but some were probably “terrestrial hunters in the forests”.
The findings add to earlier discoveries of younger mekosuchine fossils - found in 25-million-year-old deposits in another part of Queensland.
“Some were also apparently at least partly semi-arboreal ‘drop crocs’,” Prof Archer said.
Since the early 1980s, he has been part of a group of scientists excavating a clay pit in Murgon, a small regional town about 270km (168 miles) north-west of Brisbane.
Over the decades, it has become known as one of Australia’s oldest fossil sites as it used to be surrounded by a lush forest.
“This forest was also home to the world’s oldest-known songbirds, Australia’s earliest frogs and snakes, a wide range of small mammals with South American links, as well as one of the world’s oldest known bats,” Dr Michael Stein, a co-author of the report, said.
Prof Archer recalls how in 1983, he and another colleague “drove to Murgon, parked the car on the side of the road, grabbed our shovels, knocked on the door and asked if we could dig up their backyard”.
"After explaining the prehistoric treasures that might lie under their sheep paddock and that fossil turtle shells had already been found in the area, they grinned and said ‘of course!’.
“And, quite clearly, from the many fascinating animals that we’ve already found in this deposit since 1983, we know that with more digging there will be a lot more surprises to come.”
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This is just drop bears but stupider right?
Sadly, it’s mostly a case of dumb journos not doing the research and possibly opportunistic scientists not correcting them hard enough on their mistakes because they’re getting attention to their research for once.
The hypothethesis that mekosuchines were tree-dwellers has been around for a while (they’re very well adapted to land life rather than being primarily amphibious hunters as modern crocs are), but was largely abandoned a few years back when analysis of their toe bones revealed they had no special climbing adaptations. And the supposedly climbing ones weren’t very big anyway, sort of goanna-sized.
If you want some prehistoric Australia croc nightmare fuel, may I instead introduce Quinkana, a croc the size of a modern saltie that was long-legged and galloped around on land?
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“Ah, Scall-ops”*
*I don’t know if that was them, but if it was that’s some hectic ■■■■■■■ foreshadowing.
Minister for women “allegedly” groped by footballers….
Aaaaaaaand it’s Essendon. We all knew that was coming
This is a dark day in Australian sport.
Maybe not the darkest, but, you know… Dull.
Like when you don’t feel comfortable with your sunnies on or off.
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Ok I just saw the groping report on the news, WTAF.
It’s hard supporting this club.
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30 years ago ffs. Let it go.
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This is disappointing but unsurprising.
I have heard similar from the same era.
I don’t think anyone doubts the AFL has and continues to ‘manage’ complaints.
Just so this doesn’t go on a potential tangent, lets make one thing clear: she was not trying to get the club into trouble.
It was raised in the context of discussing a bill: Restricting Non-Disclosure Agreements (Sexual Harassment at Work) (link to Hansard). She was recalling a personal experience relevant to the legislation up for discussion.
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There is no statute of limitations on anything involving EFC
“AFL players” may have sufficed but when it’s Essendon - load up, more clicks & more outrage
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For those of you who are sick of all the negative reporting about youth crime and how the government needs to get tougher, this article is well worth reading.
It shows that you can change behaviours by putting programs in place that are aimed at helping kids, rather than just locking them up.
The last few paragraphs are particularly interesting with regard to use of resources.
“You cannot arrest your way out of a social problem, it’s up to the community to wrap their arms around those in need,”
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I’ve visited Halls Creek both before and after it became a dry community, and the difference was stark. First time I visited, there were drunken indigenous people everywhere, with some already asleep on the nature strips while their kids just sat around bored out of their minds. It was about 12 midday from memory. Maybe 25 years ago??
Second time after they brought in the ban, it was like chalk and cheese. Smiling faces, parents and kids playing together etc, it was great.
Being a nearby town to FC, I hope they have the same set up there , I’m sure they do. Just shows you things can turn around quite quickly if the local community is involved and gets behind these ideas.
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Order the wet lettuce leaves
I passed through Halls Creek back in July.
I didn’t want to stop there…after Tennant Creek, it was the place that gave off the worst vibe.
We stopped at Halls Creek about four years ago and it wasn’t pleasant. We saw a tour bus parked on the Darwin side of the creek with a smashed side window and as we crossed the bridge over the creek our car got hit by a rock and luckily hit the door and not the window. As we drove into town a police car was heading out, probably to take a look.
We camped at the caravan park where someone’s van got broken into and all night someone was moving around the town and howling about every half hour.
The difference with Fitzroy Crossing was stark and it was one of the few places that employed locals in their Tourist Info Centres and people just seemed more relaxed and friendlier.
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A few months after I passed through Halls Creek, a couple of Grey Nomads were passing through and stopped for fuel.
For some reason the guy got under his van to check something while his wife paid for the fuel…he left his keys in the ignition and a local (with a history of car theft) jumped in and drove off…straight over the guy who was still under the van.
He ended up being flown to Darwin and was in a coma.