Category Archives: Uncategorized

A compound made by cannabis plants has been found to wipe out drug-resistant bacteria and break down persistent films of the microbes, raising hopes for a new weapon in the fight against superbugs.

Scientists screened five cannabis compounds for their antibiotic properties and found that one, cannabigerol or CBG, was particularly potent at killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, one of the most common hospital superbugs.

Tests in the lab showed that CBG, which is not psychoactive, killed common MRSA microbes and “persister” cells that are especially resistant to antibiotics and which often drive repeat infections. The compound also cleared up hard-to-shift “biofilms” of MRSA that can form on the skin and on medical implants.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jan/19/cannabis-compound-could-be-weapon-in-fight-against-superbugs

A week ago smoke billowed from my boundary with Night Cap NATIONAL PARK.

Heavy rain has fallen overnight with the rain gauge overflowing. Coopers Creek ran black for a few hours as the hills and valley’s ash was flushed down.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-18/gondwana-era-nightcap-oak-devastated-by-bushfire/11877770?WT.ac=statenews_nsw

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2020/jan/17/the-week-in-wildlife-in-pictures

Now our thoughts are with the Alpine areas of Victoria where the fires are out of control. 

5 months of extraordinary tension beginning to subside.

Lets refresh who is who in climate denial in Canberra.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/16/there-is-no-link-the-climate-doubters-within-scott-morrisons-government

As the clouds replace the smoke and the humidity increases, the creatures of the bush are on the move. A carpet snake tried to occupy the spare room and a juvenile goanna searched for a way inside the cabin.

 

Two tiny tree frogs moved into the shower room. The photos I took were blurry.  First mosquitos of the season too.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/13/photographer-mother-kangaroo-dying-queensland-australia

A little rain has fallen. Gentle as it washes the ash from the fires into the soil.

Garden looks greener by the minute.

Finger limes abundant..ideal dry weather producer of the most delicious capsule of lime juice. Salads, like cous cous or bulger, become a delicious side dish.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2020/jan/13/oceans-are-as-hot-as-humans-have-known-them-and-were-to-blame

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-11/australia-bushfire-crisis-just-dont-mention-climate-change/11857590

January 11, 2020

View all comments

Sydney Morning Herald.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/class-actions-against-negligent-governments-it-s-a-burning-issue-20200109-p53q1h.html

How are these oafs still in power? That’s the question exercising the country just now. But a deeper one underlies it. Our federal government owes us a duty of care. What should we do if they betray it?

When ex-Victoria police commissioner Christine Nixon committed the sin of dining with friends on Black Saturday, 2009, she was likened to Nero, fiddling while Rome burned. Her career never recovered. Yet our current political leaders, exponentially more arrogant, are fireproof.

Having intensified this crisis with coal, confounded it with politics, ignored the fire chiefs, dumped us in it then vanished for weeks while Australians became refugees in their own country, they’re are still making silly adverts, forcing unwanted handshakes on dissenting adults and bullying their way around the corridors of power. How do they get away with it?

Is it because they’re shameless? Or Christian? Or men? Is it all of the above? Are they funded by the fossil-fuel lobby fighting to retain control with its last, wheezing gasp?

10 days into 2020. Yesterday smoke spiraled to my north…………..watched it smolder until it decreased 5 hours later.

Smoke blocked out my back corner which still has a lot to still burn easily. Many rain forest trees are rapidly loosing their leaves.

Uneasy sleep but to hear that we could get rain tomorrow lifted my spirits.

Sorting my library into boxes ready for distribution at market fund raisers. Its a difficult process with some older Penguins I have managed to keep since the 60s and 70s. Some limited editions, all with a memory from when they entered my life.

Light relief from the mexit nonsense in the UK. A family or firm that really needs to look at their own carbon output and excesses I give some credit to the couple in trying to break away from an institution that belongs in a bygone century.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/06/urgent-new-roadmap-to-recovery-could-reverse-insect-apocalypse-aoe

There is a strong scientific consensus that the decline of insects and global biodiversity is a serious threat that must be addressed. Photograph: Rebecca Cole/The Guardian
The world must eradicate pesticide use, prioritise nature-based farming methods and urgently reduce water, light and noise pollution to save plummeting insect populations, according to a new “roadmap to insect recovery” compiled by experts.
The call to action by more than 70 scientists from across the planet advocates immediate action on human stress factors to insects which include habitat loss and fragmentation, the climate crisis, pollution, over-harvesting and invasive species.
Phasing out synthetic pesticides and fertilisers used in industrial farming and aggressive greenhouse gas emission reductions are among a series of urgent “no-regret” solutions to reverse what conservationists have called the “unnoticed insect apocalypse”.