def
Guru
Posts: 7
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Post by def on Oct 5, 2023 20:30:14 GMT 10
Hi All
I used to visit this site daily for thylacine and thylacoleo news - but probably haven’t visited for about 10 years or so! Back in the good old days when Debbie was around.
It seems there isn’t really much chat on this subject anymore. So what’s the consensus these days? Extinct and extinct?
Cheers
Def
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Post by Ian Thomas on Oct 6, 2023 6:10:33 GMT 10
G'day Def - been awhile, then. Welcome back! Yeah, I know. Conversations about Thylacoleo & the supposed Gippsland Thylacine have pretty much died. There still are True Believers "out there" but our consensus is that, sadly, both Thylacoleo and mainland Thylacines are long extinct. Dead and gone.  "Our consensus"? That's my sister Deb & me. What's happened these 10 years past? Well, basically we grew up and got jobs. The "real world" caught up with us. Deb's an electrical engineer working in Defence these days. Can't tell much about what exactly she works on - her sec clearance is now NV2, so I'm told. They're totally paranoid about security in Canberra and in the Navy, primarily bc our 'friends across the lake' 🇺🇸 make demands. A certain 4-letter-g'ment-agency even interviewed our neighbours about my sis: how do they know she really is my sis? I mean, faark!  However .. here's a hint that Vincent, an ex-USN dude, will surely get: in Greek mythology, what was the Shield of Zeus?  Me? Well, I've studied & worked with electronics since I was in short pants. My dad gave me a few $$$s for my 21st which I put into stocks. ASX profits mean I have a budget for electronics RnD - mostly to do with prospecting in the 'Triangle'. But sadly, it's unwise to talk much about that bc of the leftist politics here in Marxist Victoria. So .. there things stand. Stuff's happening but stalking Thylacoleo with cameras is, alas, not really 'in the frame'. If you're silly enough 'fess up to photographing just about anything in state parks etc nowadays, you can land yourself in the proverbial legal soup. Victoria's Labor government has bankrupted the State and so they're desperate for extra revenue: fines are very welcome. 💸 Whatever. The Wheel-of-Fortune turns and we wait for better times.
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Post by dennisw on Oct 6, 2023 10:13:40 GMT 10
There is not much here these days but there are at least a dozen active on Facebook discussing thylacine, thylacoleo and big cats. An Air Force helicopter pilot was out prospecting with a metal detector when he came face to face with what could only be a thylacoleo. Once he figured out what he had seen he started a Facebook group to discuss it with others. He ran out of time to run the group so I have taken over as admin. and try to keep only sensible interested parties informed and there are nearly 2,400 members. We still get regular reports and I still have cameras out in active areas but these things are terribly uncooperative when it comes to posing for photos. Members here are welcome to follow the group if interested; www.facebook.com/groups/408964766121261 |
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Post by vincent on Oct 6, 2023 10:16:35 GMT 10
Uh ... no. I had to do a web search for that one.
The Aegis integrated weapons and radars are essential to U.S. and allied naval warfare systems. I never worked on that system, so I don't know anything about it.
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Post by Ian Thomas on Oct 6, 2023 11:36:47 GMT 10
Uh ... no. I had to do a web search for that one.
The Aegis integrated weapons and radars are essential to U.S. and allied naval warfare systems. I never worked on that system, so I don't know anything about it.
By Jove, he's got it! 👍  Yeah, the USN's anti-everything shield. Wikipedia gives a description of it.
Thinking like the proverbial adversary, if you could 'persuade' Aegis defenders to keep their high-power radars activated, say bmo drone swarms, and if you had radar-trackers at stand-off distance, say AWAC-type aircraft, then you could track the fleet in real time. Preparatory to your real attack ..
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Post by Ian Thomas on Oct 6, 2023 11:48:37 GMT 10
There is not much here these days but there are at least a dozen active on Facebook discussing thylacine, thylacoleo and big cats. ... I have taken over as admin. and try to keep only sensible interested parties informed and there are nearly 2,400 members. We still get regular reports and I still have cameras out in active areas but these things are terribly uncooperative when it comes to posing for photos.
Members here are welcome to follow the group if interested; www.facebook.com/groups/408964766121261 Sadly, I myself am persona non grata on FB: certain doctrinaire, "perpetually offended" Green ones ganged up years ago to have me banned therefrom. 🙄
But, y'know, if you happen to be handed any interesting reports, Denny, by all means pass'em on. Confidentiality guaranteed, needless to say ... |
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Post by vincent on Oct 7, 2023 3:29:09 GMT 10
They won't let me in, either. I didn't offend anybody. I simply refused to give them a photo of myself.
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Post by dennisw on Oct 7, 2023 10:33:58 GMT 10
If any of the people on Facebook report anything of serious interest I will certainly let the Quest know. Don't feel bad about being banned from Facebook I spend half my time in Facebook jail or at the very least restricted. I do cheat a little sometimes and post under my Hebrew name (and in Hebrew - Google can translate it for those who don't read Hebrew) Facebook don't get what I am saying. They even banned me because apparently the term "faggot" is hate speech these days, even though I only said it in a joke.
Vince if sending a photo is your problem - use mine, I don't care. Personally I might be inclined to create a Mickey Mouse avatar.
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Post by Ian Thomas on Oct 7, 2023 13:40:15 GMT 10
If any of the people on Facebook report anything of serious interest I will certainly let the Quest know. Don't feel bad about being banned from Facebook.. I spend half my time in Facebook jail...
Vince if sending a photo is your problem - use mine, I don't care. Personally I might be inclined to create a Mickey Mouse avatar Ta. Appreciated. Been so tied up with RnD stuff these last several years I haven't given any thought whatsoever to trailcam photography. Still have a box full of cameras from olden days of the Bobuck Survey and the original Thylacoleo Quest, however. Facebook? What I say is, F'em🖕. I only ever employed it for political sloganeering but found that Twatter - aka Twat-X or whatever Elon pleases to call it - is better suited for that purpose. The char limit means Twatter's only good for 1-liners and the odd graphic. So you just post and forget - no getting bogged down in tedious dialogue & insults. This suits the average Twatter denizen whose attention span is typically short. And of course, the part-time agitator really should cater for the IQ-60 set because they vote. 
But ah, stuff it. I've been too busy of late to fritter time away doing memes.
. . . . . Photos?
For generating avatars/portraits, you have AI these days. Speeds up image-creation by orders of magnitude! Coupla freebies (I think?) might be ..
For real persons/scenery/locations as opposed to AI constructs, two freeby picture libraries, might be ..
They ask you to acknowledge the image creators, which is not unreasonable. Therefore, if looking for a real-person photograph/avatar, you probly want to 'Shop/Gimp the image a lot and maybe credit the source in the metatags. Or possibly stego it. I believe FB claims copyright on images uploaded which is why they wipe users' metas and swap in their own. 🙄
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Post by saggitarius on Oct 9, 2023 8:15:43 GMT 10
Getting back to the original query, I believe the thylacines in Gippsland are now probably gone. I worked in the media for almost 50 years and spoke to many people who genuinely believed they had seen a thylacine. Far too many people from all walks of life and professions to throw them all in the "nutters" heap.
I formed the belief that there were distinct colonies of thylacine in South Gippsland (Wilson's Prom, Leongatha, Inverloch, Wonthaggi areas) and East Gippsland (coastal strip from Golden Beach, Loch Sport through to Cape Conron). There were also reports from the foothills (Briagolong and Stockdale).
What changed? The department of ever-changing-names started using 1080 Foxoff baits to control foxes in these areas and the thylacine reports dropped to virtually zero in a couple of years. Large goannas have also disappeared in the areas baited, probably from being secondary victims after eating the primary victims.
On the flip side, I have heard that emu and kangaroo/wallaby numbers are rebounding in these areas. Is it because a top-range predator which had been preying on the young has been removed from the scene?
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Post by dennisw on Oct 9, 2023 9:32:00 GMT 10
Forty years ago there were also occasional thylacine reports from the Brisbane Ranges near Ballarat and the Otways but these also seem to have ceased and fox baiting may be the cause. Marsupials have a greater tolerance of 1080 than placentals but cyanide and strychnine have also been used in some places - that will get rid of everything.
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