Just to keep the theme here: (a) on a Tasmanian note and (b) enkindling the fires of an obvious enthusiasm for masturbation, let me add the following piece on the Tasmanian tiger. This may not interest Aussies from Subi or Melbun or Adelai or Brisbun or Synee, but it might go down well in Hobarr. The interest in the Babi-Baha’i theme seems to have died out—like the Tasmanian tiger.See yas lateRon
————————————————————————
A PERILOUS EXISTENCE
On 7 September 1936 the world’s last captive thylacine or Tasmanian tiger died in the Hobart Zoo. The thylacine is the only mammal to have become extinct in Tasmania since European settlement. I have spent a significant part of my life in northern Tasmanian, where many sightings of the tiger have occurred since 1937.
Today, 20 May 2008, in a world first, scientists announced that they have extracted a gene from the extinct Tasmanian tiger and successfully inserted it into a mouse embryo. It is the first time a gene from any extinct animal has been brought back to life inside another living creature. Obtaining the thylacine gene, called Col2a1, was itself a major challenge, because DNA begins breaking down after death. However, the researchers from the University of Melbourne and the University of Texas, say the technology will not lead to the cloning of an entire Tasmanian tiger.1
When the last Tasmanian tiger died in 1936 my maternal grandfather was about to retire on a Canadian old age pension and my mother was about to meet my father. The Baha
