Thanks to Paul Kirby and BBC Online News for the Headline
The Hungarian election was boosted by a two day campaign visit to back Hungarian Prime Minister ( Now ex Prime Minister) Victor Orbἀn by Vice-President of America JD Vance.
Vance’s visit was pointless and did not stop the opposition party ‘s leader Peter Magyar winning the election, indeed,it’s possible that the Hungarian’s were not happy with the American Vice President interfering in their election given the recent actions by the American Government on Foreign Policy .
No harm done, Vance has said that he will work with the new Hungarian Prime Minister, who in turn will be trying to undo a lot of the buddy buddy corruption that Orbἀn put in place and take his rightful democratically elected spot in ensuring Hungary is run for the benefit of everyone not the benefit of the few.
JD Vance showed himself up by backing Orbἀn. I wish the new Government success.
The Hungarian Parliament building glows warmly along the Danube River as storm clouds gather above.
Never is a very finite result, one that life or nature may just take you by surprise and over-ride.
I, for one take comfort that in one lifetime I cannot “visit” every single place on Earth. Let us stick to planet Earth as if we look at infinity then it becomes more unlikely that anyone will visit Everywhere.
There are some places that for whatever reason look a bad option to visit, but it’s not always the place , sometimes it’s circumstances or people that are the problem and the situation may be transitory. Generally if there’s a Foreign Office recommendation not to visit then I wouldn’t want to , as it is probably dangerous.
Thanks to Justin Rowlatt and Ema Sajljak and BBC News Online for the Headline
This Headline hit me like a brick , as we had a very sick pigeon in the garden who we brought to a wildlife centre who diagnosed it as having trichomonosis. The poor thing could hardly move and had been blown off the fence. So unfortunately it had to be euthanised .
The latest series of BBC Springwatch hinted at this aswell , with Chris Packham being very brave in saying that feeding the birds may not be good for them and that maybe we should stop doing it , but he also said that it gave such a lot of pleasure to people that maybe it would be a step to far.
However, bird populations are declining , particularly finches and sparrows. Pigeons on the whole are hardy creatures , and we thought the poor bird had “bird flu” but pigeons are nearly totally resistant to ” bird flu” and the main carriers are wildfowl, seabirds and raptors.
Trichomonosis or “Tricc” as the girl called it is very contagious , and her advice was not to feed the birds for a few days until they had dispersed. However, as it is getting warmer and they are probably better searching for their own food, we’ve decided not to feed until the weather gets colder again.
I don’t mean to exclude other people and it’s very tough if you don’t have family. To be honest just my family being there is enough. I know they’ve got my back. If you haven’t got family then look to build a family with other people without family.
I recently have fallen in love with Ginger, even the man in the shop has noticed my admiration for this nobbly spice. No not the pop star with the hair, the actual spice. I’m buying big chunks of it now as I used to try and buy broken bits and would have it lying around in the kitchen or in my fridge for ages. It dried out and I would do my best to get the last bit of flavour out of it.
Now even in the quantities I’m buying ( I’ve had to use a second source, the vegetable market) it won’t last a week. My secret is washing the ginger then letting it dry and then grating what I need off of it. I’m mainly using it for drinks , so I boil it up and then sieve the pithy bit and presumably the skin off of it. I must admit I wonder if it’s a bit like the potato and that the best nutrition is just under the skin.
However, the next phase will be to add it to cakes. I’ve already added it to stir frys and no one has complained.
So here’s to ginger, it’s a wonderful spice.
AI Generated Image.(In my experience Ginger is a lot more nobbly and cannot just be sliced, so grater is best )
Thanks to James Gregory at BBC News Online for the Headline.
Unfortunately the criminal activity of requesting “protection money” by violent and extremist groups like IS (Islamic State) continues to this day and a French Muliti-National concrete firm found itself in hot water because in order to “do business” in Syria during their civil war they paid large amounts of money both to protect their employees, enable them to safely travel to work and also protect their premises. Lafarge paid groups about £4.83million to keep their plant operating in North Syria.
Lafarge had invested heavily in Syria , and the French Court said that their actions were purely for financial gain and they ignored the implications of the money being used by terrorist groups to attack other targets.
Even some of their employees have been jailed including the CEO and Lafarge which is now Swiss owned is saying that they are hoping that the legacy of the case will soon be over, however , there are still some investigations continuing into crimes against humanity.
Sad that in an area where infrastructure is being destroyed that a Company protects it’s assets in order to rebuild damaged areas by financing the very people who are destroying those assets.
Thanks to Mathew Weaver and The Guardian Online for the Headline.
I thought this was an interesting story. That Barron Trump sensitive to who he was took it on himself to make a phone call to the British Police reference a violent attack on a lady he was talking to.
The transcript from the call to the Police, which was used in the case makes it clear that Barron Trump was aware that he was a “media personality” and was concerned about his profile being used for erroneous purposes in the Public Domain.
But the boy did good and the woman’s attacker was brought to justice with the information that Barron Trump provided. He acquiesced to the police call handler and managed to get the details over so that the Police were able to attend the scene.
Thank you to Diana Resnik from Online Euronews for the Headline
I was fascinated to hear the results of a survey completed in Aberdeen Bay which measured actual behaviour in the immediate vicinity of wind turbines combining AI-powered (is this not virtual reality?) and detailed expert analysis to prove that not one bird was injured in a collision with one of the blades. Result eh?
Also the German Offshore Wind Energy Association(BWO ) has commissioned a study involving one and a half years of research and monitored with the help of radar and AI based cameras four million bird movements which showed that 99.8per cent of migratory birds reliably avoided the wind turbines. Clever birds!
It seems that there is a conflict between the Bird Watchers and the Climate Change Protestors, both support the idea of “wind farms” and both want to work together to protect Nature and the Environment
The Bird Watchers in Germany have suggested politely keeping the site of a wind turbine at least 6000 metres from the nest of a “lesser spotted eagle” as they say there is a danger to native bird species. This recommendation is included in the “Helgoland Paper”. Have you heard of it ? Neither have I?
However, the first survey referred to in the article comes from Vattenfall(One of Europe’s largest producers and retailers of electricity and heat) and Spoor( a High tech AI and Camera Visualisation method for analysing Bird Behaviour near Windfarm Blades).
The Vattenfall and Spoor survey, the name which sounds a bit like a weird Dickens Law Firm in “Bleak House” comes out , not surprisingly in favour of the Wind Farms and their rotating blades. It also has the gravitas for the cameras , but perhaps not the conclusions of the full report to be verified by the British Ornithological society.
This is by no means the end of the story , let’s face it common sense would say that birds are going to collide with things that are flying through the air that they aren’t expecting to be there. Just like whales will always get stranded and animals will fall sick.
It’s keeping people busy finding out what the real impacts are. Humans are the bees in this, the reward the nectar of low-cost , sustainable energy, hopefully the results will not be bleak.
Seagulls fly over offshore wind turbines glowing in the sunset light
thenotsomightyom 