Friends of the Armchair Traveller

  Earlier this week our friend Ian Gibbins sent me   a copy of a presentation he gave recently.  Here's what Ian wrote to me about that event: "Meanwhile we in South Australia are having a major environmental disaster, probably the first biological event 100% due to climate change in this part of the world (in addition to the coral bleaching etc in the tropics): the massive toxic algal bloom has devastated marine life over a huge stretch of water, with no real signs of abating anytime soon.  I’ve become involved with the main citizen science projects monitoring and trying to explain what is happening. If you are interested, here is an extended article I recently wrote about the algal toxins following on from a talks I gave at a public forum hosted by Flinders University ." https://www.iangibbins.com.au/ science/citizen-science/south- australian-harmful-algal- bloom-2025/ Cheers IAN So I'm now going to do a very lazy thing and,  with Ian's permission,  cop...

  "Israel deeply regrets the tragic mishap that  occurred  today at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza,"  the statement from Benjamin Netanyahu's office read. "Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff, and all civilians." "The military authorities are conducting a thorough investigation." People and rescuers work to recover the body of Palestinian cameraman  Hussam al-Masri after he was killed and contractor Hatem Khaled was wounded  shortly afterwards in another strike while he was filming the site.  (Reuters: Hatem Khaled) Hussam Al-Masri , as a contractor for Reuters, was operating  the camera Israeli forces appeared to target. Journalists Mariam Abu Daqa, Moaz Abu Taha, Mohammed Salama , and  Ahmad Abu Aziz were also killed in the attacks. A second Reuters camera operator, Hatem Khaled , was injured.  "Israel deeply regrets the tragic mishap that  occurred  today at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza,"    This i...

Now that I'm 82 years old, I figure there's not a lot of time left for me in this life. All my life I've been hearing about God and how he often talks to people directly, well special people. I've been hoping that one day I might hear from God, a few words, a pithy sentence or two, possibly a conversation? But despite all my efforts no words, no conversation, not even a postcard or an email. Perhaps I'm expecting too much of God?  But if God is as all knowing and as all powerful as they all say, surely it would not be too difficult for him to send me an email? In Tigray they talk to God directly.  They go to a great deal of trouble to make these conversations with God happen, they even carve churches out of rock faces in cliffs and sometimes very high up on a mountain. I think their desire to communicate with God has pushed them to seek extremely risky pathways. Inside some of the rockfaces, cliffs or mountains, these "churches" have survived for centuries...

  Yesterday   I sent a recent Guardian article to my friend David King, on a subject we've often discussed in the past, the problem of proliferation of plastic waste. Hello David, just wondering if you've seen this article recently published in Guardian. I had no idea the situation was as bad as it has been described here: Despite  national packaging targets  set by governments in 2018 for 70%  of plastic packaging to be recycled by 2025, only about 6% of used and  discarded soft plastics were being   baled, sorted, shredded, washed,  melted –  or chemically processed – and turned into new products,  according to data   published in December by Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia.  The rest has headed to landfill. What a stupid species we are. pt So the question is "Why are we so stupid?" Going to waste: two years after REDcycle’s collapse, Australia’s soft plastics are hitting the environment hard Almost 95% of Australia’s so...