Could our reefs be saved after all? Weed-like cauliflower coral has evolved unique immunity genes that means it could survive global warming

So a very vigorous coral is a "weed".  The Green/Left never miss a chance at negativity.  And saying it has developed "immune" responses to survive is a stretch.  Starfish, lowered water levels, and  unexpected heat variations are the big enemies of coral, not viruses and bacteria

A common coral has evolved unique strategies to cope with environmental change. Scientists say the cauliflower coral - which is traditionally thought of as a weed - could be one of the only corals to survive dramatic changes in the climate.

As one of the most abundant and widespread reef-building corals in the world it could be crucial to the future survival of the world's reefs, scientists found.

Researchers from the University of Miami say the common coral species might have evolved unique immune strategies to cope with environmental change.

Roughly 30 per cent of the cauliflower coral's (Pocillopora damicornis) genome was unique compared to several other reef-building corals.

This adaptation could be crucial for the long-term survival of coral reefs as climate change and ocean acidification continue to ravage the oceans.

'This coral is traditionally thought of as a weed, and yet it may be one of the last corals to survive environmental changes such as climate change,' said senior author of the study Nikki Traylor-Knowles, an assistant professor of marine biology and ecology at the University of Miami.

To conduct the research, scientists extracted and sequenced the genomic DNA from two healthy fragments and two bleached fragments of P. damicornis.

Their genome was then compared to publicly available genomes for several other coral species.

'The study shows that this is an important coral with a very complex and unique immune system, which may explain why it is able to survive in so many different locations,' said the paper's lead author Ross Cunning who is now a researcher at Shedd Aquarium.

The results suggest that the evolution of an innate immune system has been a defining feature of the success of hard corals like P. damicornis.

The immune system of corals, like humans, is vital to protect overall health and deal with changes in its surroundings.

If an animal has a stronger immune system then it will be better equipped to deal with environmental changes.

These new findings, published in Scientific Reports, suggest that some corals have many more immunity genes than would be expected.

'This study helps us better understand how corals deal with stress,' said Dr Traylor-Knowles.

'Its complex immune system indicates that it may have the tools to deal with environmental change much more easily than other corals.'

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When will we start deporting these black goons

An African gang attacked a group of chefs outside an exclusive restaurant, who fought their way to safety with a shovel.

The group of up to 15 men used iron bars and knuckledusters and launched the unprovoked attack outside Donovans in St Kilda, Melbourne on Thursday night.

Business owners on St Kilda's foreshore are now forming 'action plans' in an attempt to protect staff and customers from violence. 

Following his shift at the popular restaurant, Daniel Maetzing, 24, was waiting for a friend when the group approached him and demanded he hand over his belongings.

When he refused to do so, the gang began to violently attack him. 'All of sudden it escalated, the first hit I got was to the back of the head, from there it carried on,' Mr Maetzing told 9NEWS.

One of the attackers snapped the chef's glasses while another lunged at him with a champagne bottle.

The 24-year-old suffered serious bruising and a laceration to his head, having to spend the night in hospital to monitor the injuries.

'They don't value other peoples' lives. Will it take someone to die before we start focusing on our safety?' Mr Maetzing told The Herald Sun.

The wife of a Donovan's worker told the publication six of the African youths attacked chefs who had just finished their shifts with metal poles they had hidden inside their clothing.

She added the shovel was used by other chefs to fight the gang off and drag their colleagues to safety.

Thirty minutes prior to the vicious brawl, a 23-year-old was punched to the head and robbed by the same group of youths nearby. When he refused to hand over his phone, he got hit several times in the head before they forcefully stole it.

The Herald Sun reported multiple restaurants long the St Kilda beach strip are implementing security plans to defend staff and patrons.

One worker said the continuous violence has warned locals that youth gangs are 'back' and for businesses to be prepared.

There are also plans to turn the St Kilda Life Saving Club into a remote police station for the summer.

The Victorian government is also installing CCTV cameras across the foreshore.

A witness said he saw the brawl scenes spill out onto the road as he drove past the Donovans restaurant at about 10pm.

Speaking to 3AW Mornings on Friday, the witness called John said he thought he was watching a Halloween stunt and was forced to swerve to avoid hitting those involved.

He said: 'I saw a man wearing chef's gear and he was swinging this shovel around trying to protect himself from around 10 to 15 black Africans.'

John added he saw another group of about 10 Africans standing in the car park as he looked back, half of which were girls.  

Donovans declined to comment on the incident when approached by Daily Mail Australia.  

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The petulant man: Turnbull has become a miserable ghost



It was a Friday night in early March 2008 when I received a call from Malcolm Turnbull on my home phone. The (then) shadow treasurer was in an agitated state. He told me Brendan Nelson, who succeeded John Howard as Liberal Party leader in December 2007, was hopeless and should step down.

I was not a Liberal Party member and I certainly did not have a vote in the partyroom. I doubted Nelson would be a successful opposition leader. However, I reminded Turnbull that Nelson had been leader for only a couple of months and that he deserved time.

Turnbull’s position was that the Liberal Party would collapse unless Nelson was replaced by him. I advised patience and we never spoke about the issue again.

As it turned out, Turnbull successfully challenged Nelson for the Liberal Party leadership in September 2008 and held the position until he was replaced by Tony Abbott in December 2009.

The lesson from that exchange a decade ago was that Turnbull is impulsive and impatient.

There is more evidence of this right now. A month ago the former prime minister was recorded making the following comment at a forum in New York: “When you stop being prime minister, that’s it. There is no way I’m going to be hanging around like embittered Kevin Rudd or Tony Abbott … these people are like some sort of miserable, miserable ghosts.”

Turnbull is a clever man. So he would have expected that his “miserable ghosts” reference would raise attention.

Rudd took the bait, Abbott remained silent. Returning to Sydney on October 22, Turnbull defended his decision not to publicly support Liberal candidate Dave Sharma in the Wentworth by-election on the basis that he had retired from politics. Then on Wednesday the ABC’s Q&A announced that Turnbull would be appearing on a special program next Thursday. There will be no one else on the panel. From retiree to miserable ghost in just more than a couple of weeks, it seems.

ABC news and current affairs is in such poor shape at the moment that it cannot run a specialist current affairs program on its main channel late at night. The once news-setting Lateline died recently while on Emma Alberici’s watch, which leaves Q&A.

During the early period of the Abbott government, Q&A presenter Tony Jones and executive producer Peter McEvoy used the program to promote Turnbull. It provided an opportunity for the ambitious Liberal to put on his leather jacket and appeal to a green-left audience on what are called progressive issues.

In the lead-up to the 2013 election, the ABC’s Lateline and Q&A effectively had promoted Clive Palmer, then head of the Palmer United Party. Palmer narrowly defeated Liberal Party candidate Ted O’Brien in the Queensland seat of Fairfax.

As Abbott said on Sky News’ The Bolt Report on Monday, the ABC criticises the Coalition and the Labor Party from the Left. That’s why the public broadcaster is so loved by the Greens and self-proclaimed “progressives”. The ABC is a conservative-free-zone without a conservative presenter, producer or editor on any of its prominent television, radio or online outlets, and many of its panels go to air without the voice of even one conservative commentator.

However, the ABC has plenty of time to hear from disaffected present or former Liberal Party members. That’s why John Hewson appears so often on the public broadcaster. And that’s why Malcolm Fraser received such a friendly reception when he appeared on Q&A in 2010 with Jones in the presenter’s chair. Stand by for many appearances by Turnbull in the years ahead.

The unfashionable fact — which dare not speak its name on the ABC or in Fairfax Media — is that Turnbull is primarily responsible for the Coalition’s present circumstances. He lost 14 seats to Labor in the July 2016 election. It was Turnbull’s idea to call a double-dissolution election, including an eight-week campaign. It was Turnbull’s decision to run a meaningless “jobs and growth” campaign and not take the attack to Bill Shorten and Labor on issues such as border protection and trade union abuse of power. It was the worst campaign by a government in recent memory.

Turnbull led the Coalition to a narrow one-seat majority. Then, after he was replaced by Scott Morrison, he quit Wentworth causing an unnecessary by-­election. Then he intervened from New York by publicly advising the Prime Minister to refer Peter Dutton’s eligibility to sit in parliament to the High Court. Then from Indonesia he criticised Morrison’s decision to consider relocating the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital in Jerusalem.

It was perfectly appropriate for Turnbull to discuss this matter with Indonesian President Joko Widodo when he represented Australia at the oceans conference in Bali. Where Turnbull erred was in talking to the media about his personal views following the meeting. That was entering the political debate, something he said he would not do three weeks ago. Turnbull gave the impression he believed Australia’s position on Israel should be determined by the attitude of the government in ­Indonesia. No former Liberal leader has been as disruptive as Turnbull so soon after losing the top position. The fact is that Abbott was quiet in the lead-up to the 2016 election. When Turnbull rejected Howard’s advice and refused to give his predecessor a good job after the 2016 election, Abbott made life tough for Turnbull, as he is quoted as acknowledging in David Speers’s new book, On Mutiny (MUP).

Before the leadership change, Morrison advised Turnbull not to initiate a spill. He did. Morrison then supported Turnbull against Dutton’s challenge. When it was obvious Turnbull had lost the support of most of his colleagues, Morrison entered the contest and won. His reward is to be attacked and criticised by his predecessor in full miserable ghosts mode — soon to be brought to us all in its entirety on Q&A.

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The Eastman case is still ongoing!

In 1995 Eastman was convicted of the murder of Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Colin Winchester and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. However, a 2014 judicial inquiry recommended the sentence be quashed and he should be pardoned. On 22 August of the same year, the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory quashed the conviction, released Eastman from prison, and ordered a retrial. A retrial commenced on 18 June 2018

The defence counsel for David Eastman says there are too many unknowns and too many gaps for the jury to find him guilty of the murder of Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Colin Winchester.

Concluding his address to the ACT Supreme Court jury, George Georgiou SC said the prosecution relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, comparing that to strands in a cable.

But under scrutiny and careful analysis, jurors might think the strands in the cable had begun to stretch, to whither and to break away, he said.

"There are too many unknowns, too many gaps and too many pieces of evidence that cannot be explained for the case to be made out beyond reasonable doubt," Mr Georgiou said.

Eastman, 73, a former Treasury official has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Winchester, who was shot twice in the head as he parked on the driveway next to his Canberra home about 9.15pm on January 10, 1989.

The prosecution alleges Eastman had developed a murderous hatred of Mr Winchester, who he blamed for imperilling his bid to rejoin the Commonwealth Public Service.

In his address to the jury, Mr Georgiou raised the possibility Mr Winchester could have been murdered by an organised crime group and not Eastman.

He told the jurors they should not allow any emotion or bias to intrude on their important task of considering the facts of the case.

"The charge of murder against Mr Eastman has not been made out beyond reasonable doubt," he said, urging them to return a verdict of not guilty.

Trial judge Justice Murray Kellam has now begun his summing up of the case to the jury, which is expected to conclude in mid-November.

Jurors will then retire to consider their verdict in the trial which has been running since June 18.

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Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here