The tammar wallaby ("Macropus eugenii") are a small species of wallaby from Australia. They were the first macropods to be seen by Europeans. Francisco Pelsaert, captain of the Batavia, saw them when the ship was wrecked on the Abrolhos Islands in 1629. He said they looked like hopping cats. There are three sub-species of tammar wallaby:
The name tammar comes from the word "tamma", meaning sheoak. The wallaby lives under sheoak plants.
Tammar wallabies became extinct on mainland South Australia in the 1930's. Extinction has been caused by habitat destruction, hunting, and foxes. In 1998 a small population of South Australian wallabies was found living on Kawau Island near Auckland, in New Zealand. This group had been established by former South Australian governor, Sir George Grey in 1862 as part of his own private zoo. In New Zealand these wallabies were seen as a pest, and scientists have been studying ways to get rid of them. 85 wallabies were taken back to South Australia. After extensive fox controls at Innes National Park, 10 wallabies were released in November 2004. Another 36 were released in June 2005. These first releases were tracked with radio collars. Another group has been put into a captive breeding program at Monarto Zoo.
Tammar wallabies live in thick scrub during the day and come out into grassland to feed at night. They eat mainly grass and herbs. In dry areas they have been known to survive by drinking seawater. They range over an area of about .
They are about in height, with a dark grey brown fur. They have reddish colour on their arms and sides, with pale grey fur on their bellies. They may also have a feint white line on their cheeks.
The wallabies have a very unusual breeding pattern. The fertilized eggs remain dormant inside the mother until the summer solstice when foetal development restarts. This is called "embryonic diapause". All the young are born on the same day about 31 days later, at the end of January or the beginning of February.
The tammar wallaby is the marsupial chosen for the genome sequencing project. Scientists are studying the milk from the wallaby as they think it might contain a new and powerful antibiotic.
Antonine Wall
The Antonine Wall is a stone and turf fortification built across northern Great Britain by the Roman Empire in the middle 2nd century. The Roman emperor Antoninus Pius built the wall to control barbarians: the ancient Britons to the north of the wall, in Caledonia. The wall is now in Scotland, and runs between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde in the modern Scottish Lowlands. When the Romans built the wall, it was the northern border of the Roman Empire.
The Roman legions (armies) of the governor of Roman Britain, Lollius Urbicus, built the wall for the emperor between 139 and 142. The wall was about long. Its foundations were made of stone and was between and wide. The wall itself was made of turf. In front of the wall (on the northern side) was a ditch. The ditch was away from the wall. The ditch was at least deep and was nearly wide in places. The Romans used the wall until after 158. The last Romans went away from the wall in around 163. After that, the wall fell into ruins slowly.
The Antonine Wall is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site called Frontiers of the Roman Empire. It shares this listing with Hadrian's Wall in England and the German fortifications known as the "Limes Germanicus". The barrier was the second of two "great walls" created by the Romans in Great Britain. Its ruins are less visible than the better known Hadrian's Wall to the south.
Construction began in AD 142 at the order of emperor Antoninus Pius, and took about twelve years to complete. Pressure from the Caledonians may have led Antoninus Pius to send the empire's troops farther north. The wall was protected by sixteen forts with a number of small fortlets between them; troop movement was facilitated by a road linking all the sites known as the Military Way. The soldiers who built the wall commemorated the construction and their struggles with the barbarians in a number of decorative slabs, twenty of which still survive.
Despite this good start, the wall was abandoned after only twenty years. The garrisons were sent back to Hadrian's Wall. In 208 the emperor Septimius Severus re-established legions at the wall and ordered repairs. This has led to the wall being referred to as the Severan Wall. However, this occupation ended only a few years later, and the wall was never fortified again. Most of the wall and its associated fortifications have been destroyed over time, but some remains are still visible. Many of these have come under the care of Historic Scotland and the UNESCO World Heritage Site Committee. Most of the wall is private property.
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland is a liberal and non-sectarian political party in Northern Ireland. It is neutral on the issue of whether Northern Ireland should stay in or leave the United Kingdom. The party currently has 8 out of 90 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Its current leader is Naomi Long
The party was founded in 1970 and gained its first elected Member of Parliament (MP) at the 2010 UK General Election. It is close to the British Liberal Democrats.
Paddy Ashdown
Jeremy John Durham "Paddy" Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon (27 February 1941 – 22 December 2018) was a British politician and international diplomat. He served as leader of the Liberal Democrats from July 1988 to August 1999.
Paddy Ashdown was born in New Delhi, British India, but was brought up in Northern Ireland and his Irish accent brought him the nickname "Paddy". He served in the Royal Marines from 1959 to 1972 and saw fighting in Borneo, Hong Kong and Northern Ireland. At the 1983 general election, Ashdown became the Liberal Party's Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Yeovil.
In 1988, when the Liberal Party merged with the Social Democratic Party to form the Liberal Democrats, Ashdown was elected the leader of the new party and led the party through the 1992 and 1997 general elections. He resigned in 1999, and was given both a knighthood and a seat in the House of Lords. In the House of Lords, he was given the title Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon. From 2002 to 2006 he served as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
His reputation was damaged slightly in 1992, when it was revealed that he had a five-month extra-marital affair with his secretary, and many British newspapers exposed this in great detail. "The Sun" newspaper ran a famous headline which played on Ashdown's name, calling him "Paddy Pants-Down".
Ashdown was diagnosed with "serious" bladder cancer in October 2018. He died two months later on 22 December 2018 from the disease in Norton-sub-Hamdon, Somerset, at the age of 77.
Jim Murphy
James Francis 'Jim' Murphy (born August 23, 1967 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a British politician. He was the leader of the Scottish Labour Party. He was the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of East Renfrewshire.
He was first made a Member of Parliament at the 1997 General Election for the Eastwood constituency. He has been the East Renfrewshire MP from 2005 onwards. He held two cabinet posts: Minister of State for Europe (June 2007-October 2008) and Secretary of State for Scotland (October 2008-May 2010). He was made the shadow Secretary of State for Defence in October 2010. He became the Shadow Secretary of State for International Development in 2013. He resigned from this job in November 2014 because he wanted to be the leader of the Scottish Labour Party.
On 13 December 2014 he became the leader of the Scottish Labour Party. Because he was an MP in theUK Parliament, the deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Partyrepresented him in the Scottish Parliament. The deputy leader was Kezia Dugdale.