Complied by Young at Heart đź’” Yammerings and Tourism Australia’s beach ambassador Brad Farmer, the inland beach of Wagga Wagga made a surprise appearance at 9th place. Despite its 350km distance from the nearest coastline, the beach was chosen for its unique qualities. "I can now give Riverside: Wagga Beach a tick and add it to my personal list,” Farmer said
Wagga Beach is the first inland beach to earn a spot on the list. Where the Beach are you? ... Do (Visit Wagga Wagga)Z
Shock beach named in Australia’s best: Bondi? Pfft. Whitehaven? Not even close
Wagga Beach creates history while turning tide on usual definition
A paragraph from Winston Churchill’s autobiography by Historian (and entrepreneur at Oxford’s Foundry) Judson Alphin.
Here are some thoughts on inspiring a bunch of young adults to become the best they can be; to Dream, to Move, to Dare to Risk.
“Come on now all you young men, all over the world. You have not an hour to lose. You must take your places in Life’s fighting line. Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Don’t be content with things as they are. ‘The earth is yours and the fulness thereof.’ Enter upon your inheritance, accept your responsibilities. Raise the glorious flags again, advance them upon the new enemies, who constantly gather upon the front of the human army, and have only to be assaulted to be overthrown. Don’t take No for an answer. Never submit to failure. Do not be fobbed off with mere personal success or acceptance. You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was made to be wooed and won by youth. She has lived and thrived only by repeated subjugations.”
Shaun Micallef's American family adventure was no easy ride
The children took full advantage of their final opportunity to bilk us out of every cent they could
These 3 supertrees can protect us from climate collapse - Vox – But can we protect them? “Dozens of countries have extraordinary tropical forests, but three stand out: Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. These countries not only have the largest areas of tropical forest within their borders; they also have the highest rates of deforestation. We traveled to protected areas deep inside these countries to learn the superpowers of three tree species that play an unusually important part in staving off environmental disaster, not just locally, but globally. These trees play many ecological roles, but most impressive is how they produce rainfall, remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and support hundreds of other species. If these ecosystems collapse, the climate effects are likely to be irreversible. And so what happens to these forests truly affects all life on Earth. This is the story of three trees at the center of our climate crisis that provide big benefits to you, me, and the world. Meet the trees, get to know their superpowers, and learn how scientists are trying to protect them…” [this article is beautifully conceived, illustrated and informative – please read and support the protection and planting of these trees..]
The Best Nature Books of 2019
Amy Brady – Chicago Review of Books – “This year has been the best in recent memory for nature writing. There were so many great nature books out this year that I broke up my annual round-up of favorites into four separate lists. You can read the first three here , here, and here. Below is list number four, featuring fantastic new books that hit shelves between October and December. Read them all to feel closer to — and learn more about — the natural worldThe Year in Pictures 2019 -The New York Times – “So much of the year’s news played out in the streets. Week after week, protesters poured onto the wide boulevards of Hong Kong, where the photographer Lam Yik Fei seemed to be everywhere. Brexit drew tens of thousands into the streets of London. A subway fare increase was the final spark that led to protests in Santiago, Chile, and people heaved makeshift bombs along a bridge linking Venezuela and Colombia. The tumult of mass gatherings produced some of the year’s most powerful pictures. But a quiet image of two people stood out as perhaps the saddest: Ă“scar Alberto MartĂnez RamĂrez lay with his arm limply draped over his 23-month-old daughter, Angie Valeria, their lifeless bodies locked together on the banks of the Rio Grande, where they drowned trying to cross from Mexico into the United States.
Every year the photo editors of The New York Times cull through 365 days of photographs in an attempt to recapture and visually distill the year. The result is this collection of images, a visual chronicle of violence, political power struggles, climate catastrophes, mass shootings and a few poignant scenes of everyday life. Some stories were obvious in their photographic power. The wildfires that erupted across California seemed urgent and frightening. Blazes destroyed large parts of the Amazon rainforest. And the entire roof of the 850-year-old Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris caught fire, and came perilously close to bringing down the medieval structure. By comparison, Washington’s power struggles mostly eluded the camera. The intrigue that may lead to the impeachment of an American president — the biggest domestic story of this year and probably the next — took place over secret phone calls and behind the closed doors of the Oval Office. Nonetheless, our photographers Doug Mills, Erin Schaff and Damon Winter made subtle and telling images of a process often obscured by political maneuvering and stagecraft…”