Ripples In A Teacup

Australians have voted against proposals to change their constitution to recognise a formal body for Indigenous people which would give advice on laws. The referendum (called Australia's Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum and also as The Voice referendum) which took place last Saturday asked voters whether they wanted to recognise their Indigenous people in their constitution, and whether they wanted to introduce an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament. The proposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament was meant to be a formal body for Indigenous Australians that would give advice to the Australian government on issues affecting Indigenous Australian communities. Those who campaigned in favour of the proposals argued the vote was important for many Indigenous Australians who aren't currently recognised in Australia's 122-year-old constitution. The campaign against these proposals claimed that if implemented, the Aborigi

Global warming has many side-effects, one of which is the exacerbation of coral bleaching. Another side-effect is  the proliferation of crown-of-thorns starfish, which are resistant to marine heatwaves and devour coral reefs . The crown-of-thorns starfish (frequently abbreviated to COTS), Acanthaster planci, is a large starfish that preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps (Scleractinia). The crown-of-thorns starfish receives its name from venomous thorn-like spines that cover its upper surface, resembling the biblical crown of thorns. It is one of the largest starfish in the world. New information about the crown-of-thorns starfish has come from research led by Professor Maria Byrne from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney and published in the journal Global Change Biology.  Byrne and colleagues found that juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish had a higher heat tolerance than not only coral, but also adults of the same species. It has been found that j

My thoughts are in a whirl as I absorb the news that is still pouring in from Israel and the Gaza strip. I should state upfront that I am no expert on the Israel-Palestine dispute. It is very clear that Israel has been taken totally unawares by the Hamas offensive – definitely a colossal intelligence failure for a country which has a very good reputation in this department. The much vaunted Iron Dome was overwhelmed by over 2,200 rockets fired over a space of just twenty minutes. There is no doubt that Sunni Hamas has been funded and supported by external parties. Shia Iran is most likely the main backer and it is possible that the small-but-ambitious Qatar has also opened its wallet for Hamas’s benefit. Israel and Saudi Arabia were on the verge of entering into a historic peace deal and now KSA has come out in support of Hamas . Saudi Arabia possibly had no option but to voice support for Hamas, given public opinion in the Kingdom. There has been so much suffering endured by the pe

For the first time in the 234-year history of the US Congress, the speaker of the House of Representatives was removed by a motion to vacate, when, last Tuesday, a small coterie of Republicans ejected Kevin McCarthy . Mr McCarthy had been appointed to the speaker’s post only in January 2023! It had taken McCarthy 15 rounds of voting to secure the position in January . In the House of Representatives, the only way Mr McCarthy could ascend to the speakership, after a humiliating 15 rounds of voting, was to make a series of apparently contradictory promises to members of his own side—and then agree to a rule whereby any one of 222 Republicans could bring forward a motion to replace him. Why did the Republicans turn against one of their own? Faced with the threat of a federal government shutdown , Speaker Kevin McCarthy dropped demands for steep spending cuts and relied on Democratic votes for passage of a funding package that left behind aid to Ukraine , but increased federal disaster a