Thailand is a Monarchy

I will admit that I have traveled to many different countries and only upon arriving do I learn what form the political system of that country takes. My recent trip to Thailand was no different, upon arrival in Bangkok and after a checking out some of the sights, I noticed that there was a picture of a man in many different places around the city. I have noticed in my travels that countries which have an elected head of state don't tend to have pictures of the country leader strewn about, generally because they change so regularly that nobody forms a strong enough attachment to any of them that they start to hang pictures of them in the streets. So after seeing all of these pictures I wondered who the person was, I assumed that he was their king, however I wanted to be sure, so did a little Google research and also looked in my guidebook.

I discovered that Thailand is actually a constitutional monarchy, and that this king (I was right they were pictures of the king), Bhumibol Adulyadej, is the longest serving head of state in history, and Thailand's longest reigning monarch. His reign  has lasted over 66 of the 84 years of his life. During his reign there has been 15 coups, 16 different constitutions and 27 changes of Prime Minister. In order to survive that long as the head of state in a county which has had so many different forms of government during his reign, from military regimes to more democratic government systems, he must be a remarkable man. After learning all this information it didn't surprise me that the king was revered and that Bangkok had so many pictures of him hanging in different places around the city. 

If you would like to read more about King Bhumibol, check out Wikipedia.

Australia has thousands of species of flies

I got a sample of printing products the other day and contained in this sample was a small desk calendar which each month has a new fact. This month what I have learnt is that in Australia there are over 6000 different species of flies. This count includes blow flies, fruit flies, house flies and mosquitoes (which are apparently considered a form of fly). My first thought was, wow, how can there be so many different species of the one insect. My second thought was, why would somebody want to catalogue these different types of flies? It was this second thought that drove me to do a little more research on the subject, via Google, and discovered an animal health website which had detailed information on different species of flies (not all 6000, just some of the more common species). 

Aside from the information on some of the more common species of flies, the website informs that there are more effective methods for exterminating each species, depending on their habits and which sites they choose to breed. I guess since we are always looking for more effective ways to kill these pests, that would explain why so much research has been performed and why someone has catalogued that there are 6000 species of flies. I guess my only real concern now, is that since there are so many different species of flies, and we are always on the lookout for was to better exterminate them, that perhaps this might be seen as insect cruelty, and people might create Fly Rights activist groups. The next step is that these groups might lobby the government, first to create an endangered species list of insects, and then try and get different species of flies added to the list. Then it is just small step until I am being arrested in my own home for swatting a fly! Okay, maybe this scenario is a long shot, but if the day comes when you get arrested for swatting a fly, don't tell me I didn't warn you!

If you want to learn more about the different fly species, check out the Bayer Animal Health website.

World record for the longest free-fall

I was reading an article the other day about Felix Baumgartner who recently became the first man to break the speed of sound in free-fall. The jump took place 65 years to the day after Chuck Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier, whereas Chuck was being propelled in a jet, Felix was falling to the ground being propelled only by gravity (what goes up, must come down), which I think is a much scarier thought! Felix ascended to the height of 39km, to the edge of space, in a specially designed helium balloon before making his jump. He reached a top speed of 1342.8km/h and was in free-fall for 4 minutes and 20 seconds. Although Felix broke the sound barrier, and the records for highest manned balloon flight and highest free-fall jump, he did not beat the record for the longest free-fall.

The longest free-fall was actually achieved by Joseph Kittinger who fell for a record of 4 minutes and 36 seconds, 16 seconds longer than Felix Baumgartner. Joseph jumped, in 1962 (50 years before Felix's jump), from a height of approximately 31km above the Earth (8km closer to the Earth then Felix) and only reached speeds of 988km/h (354.8km/h less than Felix). Even though Joseph was in free-fall for a longer period of time, he actually only fell about 27km in free-fall, Felix on the other hand fell an astonishing 36.5km (9.5km longer than Joseph). Joseph spent a longer period of time in free-fall due to the lower speeds at which he fell. However since both Felix and Joseph used a Drogue parachute (a smaller parachute which is deployed to provide control and stability to a free-falling jumper), their free-falls are technically not considered to be genuine. The record for the longest genuine free-fall is thus considered to be held by Eugene Andreev who, in 1962, fell 24.5km (3km less distance than Joseph and 12km less than Felix) from a height of 25.46km above the Earth. As his jump was completed without the assistance of a Drogue parachute, he is considered to hold the world record for the longest free-fall.

If you would like to read the original article, check out The Age online or read about free-falls on Wikipedia.

The first Australian Police Force were originally Convicts

I was recently visiting Perth and whilst there playing cards with my sister and some other relations. The cards that we were using had a different fact on each card. One that interested me the most said that the first Australian Police Force was made up of the most well behaved convicts. I had recently visited Fremantle Prison where I learnt that the convicts that landed in Fremantle had to first build their own prison upon arrival, which I also found fascinating. So with my new found interest in convicts I decided to do a little Google research into the first Australian Police Force. It turns out that the New South Wales (NSW) Police Force was the first Australian Police Force and the cards didn't lie because the members of this force were actually recruited from the ranks of the best behaved convicts. The forces were named the Night Watch and the Row Boat Guard. These forces were created in 1789, however upon further reading, it turns out that although these convicts formed the first force of police in Australia, none of them were considered the first police officer in Australia.

Originally in 1788 the policing of the colony was performed by the Royal Navy Marines, however since this was not a job that they were particularly interested in doing, Governor Arthur Phillip appointed a free settler, John Smith, who performed the role of police constable. Although he performed the role for only a short while, his time as constable did earn him the record of being the first Australian Police Officer. It was after this appointment ended that the Night Watch and the Row Boat Guard were formed. In 1790 the Night Watch was replaced by the Sydney Foot Police (later simply known as the Sydney Police), who remained a separate force until all the NSW colonial police forces were amalgamated in 1862.  The Row Boat Guard were both a separate Water Police force and a part of the Sydney Police, and were the fore runners of what today is known as the Marine Area Command. The NSW Police Force is now one of the largest police organisations in the English Speaking world and it is interesting to know that the seed that they grew from was that of a few well behaved convicts!

Learn more about the NSW Police Force on their website.

Vasily Zaitsev

I watched a movie the other day called 'Enemy at the Gates'. I really enjoyed the movie, it is set during World War II on the battlefield and revolves around a duel fought between a Russian and German sniper in the battle of Stalingrad. Vasily Zaitsev was the Russian sniper (now if you haven't seen the movie and plan to watch it, don't read on as I am about to ruin the ending) and the German sniper was Erwin Konig, who was the head of the German sniper school. Vasily won the duel with the German sniper in the end, and also won the love of the girl, so happy endings all round in the film. However at the end it mentions that Vasily's sniper rifle is on display in a museum, which got me to wondering how accurately the film portrayed Vasily and the actual events of the battle. I did a little Google search and discovered that yes there was a Vasily Zaitsev who was a sniper and according to his memoirs he did have a duel with a German sniper during the battle of Stalingrad (however it only lasted 3 days), who it was revealed from his dog tags was the head of a German sniper school, however those were about the only two facts that they got right in the movie. 

Vasily in the movie was portrayed as one of many snipers operating in Stalingrad during the battle, although he was the most famous and the best. In real life Vasily was not only the best and most famous but he created a school where he trained other snipers during the battle of Stalingrad, and his tactics are still used today by snipers around the world. Overall I think the movie actually underrated the abilities of Vasily, who was credited with killing over 300 Nazi soldiers during World War II,  and would have been a much better film if they had let history and the character of Vasily drive the story instead of basing it around a love story and a duel. This blog seems to have turned into more of a critique on the movie than what I learnt and it seems that I didn't like the film when I actually did. So in conclusion, watch the film (even though I have ruined the ending, it was predictable anyway) but remember that Vasily was much different in real life than how he is portrayed in the film, and there was no love story in the real battle of Stalingrad.

Read more about Vasily Zaitsev on Russiapedia.