Fascinating news from the national capital this week (and no, it’s not the Federal election result!) that a specially trained ‘dragon detecting dog’ had been enlisted by the Capital Territory’s Parks and Conservation Service to sniff out threatened members of the endangered Grassland Earless Dragon population.
Coincidentally hitting the newsrooms at the same time the dragon-infested Game of Thrones finale hit the screens, Tommy, the Springer Spaniel cheerfully made his own news, rounding up Canberra’s dragons in 20-metre areas within a minute, an achievement the Parks and Garden Service said was a fraction of the time it took a human ranger’s eye.
“Grassland Earless Dragon monitoring currently involves four staff undertaking regular checks over a period of seven weeks,” the Service said.
“Conservation detection dogs are a highly effective, accurate and efficient tool for detecting illusive species in a range of habitats.”
Well-earned praise for the dog and another spectacular achievement for the automatic Spell Checker.
“Illusive species?”
“Elusive” perhaps.
‘Illusive’, according to the nearest dictionary PS-sssst! could sniff out means “Illusory, of the nature of an illusion. Unreal.”
Next step? Sniffer dogs for spell checkers perhaps
The old and the graceful
Staying in Canberra where there’s even more good news, this time for older residents living in aged care but needing a trip to hospital.
After a three-year trial, a new service which brings the hospital to the aged care residence is to be expanded, offering seniors free treatment where they’re familiar and reducing already heavy demands on the hospital.
While all concerned with such a worthwhile program are to be congratulated, PS-sssst’s highest accolade is set aside for the genius or geniuses who came up with its title: Geriatric Rapid Acute Care Evaluation, delightfully acronymised as GRACE!
Whoever said the public sector wasn’t brilliant beyond the call of duty clearly wasn’t looking!
Vanishing giveaway
To Rama’s weekly giveaway now in which three lucky readers have the chance to add a DVD copy of the psychological thrilling movie The Vanishing starring Gerard Butler, Peter Mullan and Connor Swindells to their collections.
To enlist in the Rama Army of PS News winners, all you needed to know was the life-changing event that impacted on the three main characters of the movie and then be among the first three correct entrants whose entries crawl out of the infamous PS News Barrel of Booty.
The answer to the Rama’s life-changing question was that the trio stumbled upon a hidden fortune in gold which wasn’t theirs to keep, an event successfully named by DVD winners Colleen B of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Scott C from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Gracie L from South Australia’s Country Health SA.
Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone who took part. The DVD prizes will be on their way to their new homes soon.
In the meantime, for another chance to win with Rama, simply visit her giveaway for this week at this PS News link and give it a go.
Good luck!
Twits and posters
And finally, Facebook and Twitter lovers will be thrilled to learn that PS News is back on the platform adding its share of daily tweets and posts to the world of social media as our commitment to the war against fake news.
So tell your friends, tweet your twits and post your facebook fancies for free on the ever-interesting, never dull contributions from the carefully chosen collection of PS news and information published in PS News.
For Facebook fans, you can sign on at this PS News link and for Twitter tanglers the sign-on is here.
Till next week…..
