Technology is becoming marvellously intuitive. After booking a holiday with friends, we were surprised to discover Google had already added the dates and location to our Gmail calenders, in the blink of our eye once we confirmed the booking.
Convenient – if a little scary.
But smart technology can and does often make mistakes. We all know how digital images and news can be ‘enhanced,’ for nefarious activities.
Google Maps Fail
Years ago, when GPS navigation was in its infancy, Google Maps directed me to drive off the edge of a steep cliff, insisting that a road existed, only it didn’t. Naturally, I continued on the ‘real’ road, forcing the app to “recalculate [the] route.”
When the car repeated its deranged vocal message insisting I drive off the edge of the cliff, I stopped the car and asked a local resident tending her garden for directions. This was a much safer option!
Google Lens
Google Lens has also had difficulty identifying certain native Australian plants. Understandably, their unique weird shapes and forms confuse the megalithic search engine. This is called Banksia Giant Candles and once flourished in my garden.
However, I was quite surprised at Google, while looking at the following photo from yesterday.
It was taken at one of Australia’s biggest traditions, the soldier memorial ceremonies on April 25th, otherwise known as Anzac Day.
You see, each year, I write a post about Anzac Day and talk about the history, significance, various local ceremonies or Anzac Day Cookie recipes. This year, I didn’t want to repeat the same information over again and wasn’t even going to write at all, but then, well, Google did have to go loco on me.
And I had to say something!
As I glanced at the following photograph, my finger accidentally grazed/hovered close enough to ‘Google Lens,’ for a search listing to engage.
Up popped results of the photograph’s location, suggesting it was Cascais beach, Portugal, The Channel Islands or La Greve du Portieux, which I suspected was in France. Further investigation revealed that La Greve du Portieux was a bed of breakfast on the Eastern coast of France.
Seriously?
I admit, there is a association between Anzacs soldier in WWI and France, but given that location was enabled on the photograph, it was easy to detect to all and sundry that the photo referred to Redcliffe, a beach in Australia!
But it was nice to know that if I closed my eyes to the architecture, I could be on a French beach, or a bed and breakfast on the coast of France!
This begs the question:
Have you ever felt discombobulated with a Google Search or Google Lens result?
Has Google ever led you astray?
Does my photograph remind you of France or just any old beach at sunrise?
The explosive delight of a Spring flower bud opening,
a field of poppies flourishing where once there was death,
the tenacity of a weed, seizing life in a crevice, this is the gift a garden offers.
Gardens are places where life blossoms,
blissfully ignorant of dire world events.
In a chaotic world, we search for serenity, and a Zen garden can, “help erase the stresses of everyday life,” with emptiness and openness amidst a balance of natural and man-made elements.
Zen gardens are meticulously planned and contain special elements that we might include in creating our own garden.
Zen Gardens were created around temples to provide a quiet place for monks to contemplate. In a contemporary sense, these gardens can also be incredibly meditative for the people who visit, care and maintain them.
Hakone Ninja Institute, Japan
Composed of natural elements such as stone, plant, wood and sand, a Zen Garden might also contain footbridges, walkways and lanterns that are carefully placed to contrast the balance with nature whilst still inducing a peaceful, meditative atmosphere.
The meaning of each element, and how the elements balance and interact, is very abstract and subjective; the viewer is supposed to discover his own meanings. [Wiki]
Zen Garden Royal Palace, Tokyo
Sand
“The main element in a Zen garden is the raked sand bed. Properly, it should be small stones, or pebbles of granite, in irregular shapes. Round pebbles do not rake into patterns as easily.” [Wiki]
It may look plain, but a well-manicured bed of raked sand stems from the traditional Shinto belief that spirits need a purified space, of white sand, in order to make an area hospitable.
In contemporary Zen gardens, such as seen in Ju Raku En, at the University of Southern Queensland, in Toowoomba, Australia, the sand element might represent water and the raked pattern, waves.
The Japanese Garden in Toowoomba, Australia
Ju Raku En is a presentation of Buddhist paradise with the celestial sea (the lake) lapping the rocky shores of the three islands where the immortals are said to dwell. The material world is the outer edge of the lake and a symbolic journal to paradise may be made by crossing one of the four bridges to the islands.
Stones
One, or more, natural-looking larger stones are often incorporated in the sand beds of a Zen Garden. They are arranged in groups to resemble islands in the sea, (raked sand); mountain tops emerging from the clouds, or sometimes represent animals.
Mt Fuji above the clouds
Stones may also symbolise eternity, fertility and is similar to how people might look for shapes in the clouds.
Historically, the arrangement of large rocks was used as a political message and considered more important than trees.
In the gardens of the Heian period, Sakutei-ki wrote:
Sometimes, when mountains are weak, they are without fail destroyed by water. It is, in other words, as if subjects had attacked their emperor. A mountain is weak if it does not have stones for support. An emperor is weak if he does not have counsellors. That is why it is said that it is because of stones that a mountain is sure, and thanks to his subjects that an emperor is secure. It is for this reason that, when you construct a landscape, you must at all cost place rocks around the mountain.Japanese_dry_garden
Platform
Another important element in a Zen garden is a platform from where a viewer may sit, stand or contemplate the surroundings, searching for meaning.
Wall
The sand beds are typically sectioned off using a low fence or a wall. This signifies and separates the area of calm contemplation from the outside world and all its associated worries of life. Gates made out of wooden fences or cloth are called Torii and also symbolise boundaries.
Plants in the Zen Garden
Evergreen conifer trees are popular choices and provide an elegant contrast along with lichen and moss which is encouraged to grow on the rocks, simulating nature.
Guest Host for the Friendly Friday Challenge In the Garden
Sofia is our very special guest host for the Friendly Friday Challenge. Sofia is renowned for her stunning floral portraits and close-ups. They are a testament to her skills in, and her love of, photography. Originally from Lisbon, Sofia now finds Scotland a place where her garden flourishes, awakening as it is, to Spring’s calling.
Do check out her post here and join in with the challenge: everyone is welcome!
The Friendly Friday challenge runs for two weeks, after which Sarah at Travel with Me will post a new theme for Friendly Friday.
Anyone reading independent news reports would be well aware of the existential threat posed by the climate crisis. Predictions state the planet has only ten years within which we can enact significant change if we want to avoid devastating environmental consequences.
When does climate change become climate crisis?
The answer is, “decades ago.”
The Climate Covenant, Martin C. Frederiks IV
With wild disinformation on the climate crisis raging and short-term strategic planning so prevalent in business circles, it’s encouraging to read an independent perspectivefrom an accomplished writer whose fundamental message is – if we actually start doing the right things now, we can make a difference so our children can enjoy a sustainable lifestyle on this planet.
IV Words Blogger Martin Fredericks, in his new book, The Climate Covenant, seeks not only to inspire real, unbiased discussions on climate change, but also seeks to motivate readers to become truly active in making non-violent demands for climate change. That is, by amplifying the message with elected officials and throughout the wider community, because the matter isurgent.
The Cost of Economic Development and Redefining Growth
Every time we build – every time we “grow” – there are cost to humanity. And the bill is coming due.
Martin C. Frederiks Iv, the climate covenant
Even before the great depression and monetarist economic theory, economic growth was seen as progressive and highly desirable. Nature, it was believed, was infinitely bountiful and was there for the use of mankind.
Martin Frederik reinforces that there will be a tipping point after which nature cannot recoverfrom man’s activities and, therefore, economic growth and activities need to be reframed and perhaps, redefined.
Instead of analysing progress and growth in terms of G.D.P, new constructions, or interest rates, it is suggested society might rather measure, “growth,” in terms of improvements in water quality, or increases in re-forestation levels.
How different would an economically prosperous country be, in a nature-based growth scenario?
Is this possible under the current economic models? With new practices, attitudes and initiatives aimed at coping with changing conditions, Martin Frederiks believes it is.
Climate Change Obstacles and Initiatives
The Climate Covenant also comprehensively examines the latest debates on the contributions of clean coal, methane emissions, gas flares and other fossil fuel emissions, to global warming; the petroleum industry’s attitudes, policies and requests for pandemic bail-outs; the disinformation about greenwashing campaigns; Greta Thunberg’s climate activism and the environmental problems with ‘build back better,’ all with real-life examples.
Wind and Renewable Energy Solutions
The author explains how clean energy, from wind, can be part of a climate solution. A proven example: Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany derives a massive 40% of their energy from wind turbines, whilst Martin’s home state of North Dakota has 1.8%.
Dakota’s energy infrastructure can’t currently cope with moving wind-generated electricity, and the solving of this problem is complex. Building electrical infrastructure requires massive investment, business needs clarification from the Government on the tax implications for and of new technology, plus there’s widespread community opposition to the aesthetics of wind turbines and all that must be sorted.
But again, it is possible. The old energies are not without big problems, either. Contrast the Northern German successful transition with Texas:-
10-13% of power distribution failures in Texas were due to issues with solar or wind facilities, (the frozen wind turbine fallacy), while the other 87-90% was due to equipment malfunctions at coal and natural gas facilities and distribution networks.
Disinformation on Climate Change and Weather Anomalies?
A salient point the author makes in the book, The Climate Covenant, is that reporters so often make decisions about how they pitch stories using value-based judgements rather than science, especially when it relates to an aberrant weather event that may, or may not be related, to the climate crisis.
Science has already debunked the populist opinions that if there’s no really hot weather, global warming can’t be real. Although all kinds of weather will be experienced with climate change, it is known wild weather and extreme weather events will be experienced more frequently as the atmosphere warms.
Personally, I have lost count of the number of times I have heard or read, “This is a once in a lifetime extreme weather event,” from a news report, in the last five years.
Therefore, The Climate Covenant’s intention is to motivate readers into NON-VIOLENT actions that reduce and eliminate negative environmental and planetary impacts.
According to the author, there is no time to wait. He believes we must:
Think and act in situations so that how and what we do is about saving the planet and is ALWAYS part of the calculations
Support locally grown and sustainable food producers
Contact our political representative and insist they pass and enact legislation that addresses climate change
Vote for the ones that have this goal
Work on and contribute to campaigns for candidates who put the climate crisis at the top of their agenda
Plus, Martin gives us 25 more simple and effective ways we can all fight the climate crisis.
Be the change we want to see in the world
Further to his mission to increase knowledge and motivate action, Martin Frederiks has founded the Knights of the Climate Covenant, a nonprofit organisation with a global mission to increase the number of people who take nonviolent personal, community and political actions to address global warming and resulting climate change. (see below)
The more people who are informed, the closer Martin believes we are to reaching the critical 3.5% of climatic activists necessary to initiate and demand real sustainable and lasting positive change, not only for our planet but for our shared future.
Back in the 80s, when I was studying the environment, the question of how to effect climate action in a globally just way was hard to figure out. Why shouldn’t Third World countries develop and exploit natural resources and enjoy the pleasures that a higher standard of living can bring? Just because it is “bad for the environment?” When the first world is largely responsible and enjoyed the benefits!
Equitable Climate Change
Who wouldn’t want a car, air-conditioning/heating, a comfortable home and life? Here’s a good reason:
Burning of fossil fuels and deforestation> polluting emissions and habitat and biodiversity loss> increased global temperatures> melting polar ice>disturbances of oceanic and global weather systems> increased mega-fires, drought and extreme weather events> agricultural and economic disruption>breakdown of food and supply chains> environmental catastrophe?
..the richest 1% must reduce emissions by a factor of 30, while the poorest 50% in the world can actually increase emissions by a factor of three for the world to stay within the global carbon budget in a fair way.
Read also a wonderful post from Jill on Greta Thunberg – the Covid crisis has replaced the environment in the headlines but one still feels in awe of Greta’s words which inspire us all to do more.
By the time the humble spud or apple reaches your supermarket shelf from its trek from the farm, it could be up to three weeks old, due to storage times: days waiting for freighting in trucks, sitting in the open air at wholesale markets, transportation to distribution centres and then to individual supermarkets. Then, there is the shelf time waiting until the customer selects it, for purchase.
It doesn’t help the consumer or the farmer.
We have come to expect produce to be available year-round, but this comes at a cost in terms of nutritional content and quality. Some fruits that grow naturally in warmer/colder climates have been genetically modified to lengthen their growing season. In the 1970-‘s, a range of foods were genetically modified to ensure they had a longer shelf life or to make fresh crops more resistant to pesticide attack in the non-optimal growing months. Food quality has changed.
As we all know fresh is best, how can the fresh food supply chain be compressed, so that produce reaches us sooner and in better condition?
Alternatives to the Supermarket
A farmer-led online co-operative company called Food Connect was one way I sourced fresh produce sooner than the tired offerings at my supermarket. This company guaranteed to get fruit and veg to your point of collection from the farm within three days.
The range is limited to seasonal produce, (which is the way it should be), so the boxes had a set selection of products. Customized boxes cost the customer a lot more and were supply dependent.
But now there is another alternative.
What is REKO?
Reko is an online farmers market where the supply chain involves the farmer or producers selling directly to the customer with zero wastage and minimal delays in the transportation of goods.
This concept originated in Scandinavia, by a Finnish gentleman and has now grown to more than 500 local groups in Scandinavia, Canada and North America.
The reach and success of online farmers markets, such as the Reko model, have been made possible by technology. A positive is that Covid has helped this model flourish. Plus it supports your local growers!
The Reko model means more time available to farmers tend and develop farm animals/produce – a job that is always 7 days a week.
How Reko Online Farmers Markets work
Customers read the Reko Facebook group posts for their area, each week on social media to see what each farmer or supplier is offering.
If there is something that appeals, the customer orders by posting a comment, indicating the quantities they’d like, send through the payment via direct bank deposit, (ie no credit card fees), and collects the produce at the nominated time and pick up point. Voila!
Straight from the farm to your fridge all within 24 hours.
Reko offers more than just fruit and vegetables.
A home gardener who has excess produce may sell via the REKO group and if you are selling cakes or prepared meals, you must have a commercial-style kitchen. When we grew zucchinis in our home garden, we planted so many plants we could have fed an army, so REKO would have been a way to share our products and make a little money to be able to buy more seeds! If only it had been possible back then.
Advantages of Online Vegetable and Produce Ordering
A way to stay Covid safe in a variant outbreak!
Pick up from your car appeals too!
Local growers supporting local community
Hand made or home grown sold by person growing it
A supply chain model that makes food or products available as fresh as is humanly possible
Farmers get cash directly and there is no excess wastage of product
Less wastage = lower prices + a better environmental outcome.
Costs are reduced as farmers don’t need to spend time away from their farm, spending hours in the hot sun/cold rain setting up and sitting at an outdoor market, or selling to wholesale distributors, or fiddling with cash and change. There’s less wastage as they don’t take more product to sell than is required, as the grower in the youtube video explains.
Why is it different from a farmers market?
No sitting out in the rain
Farmers only harvest as much as has been ordered
Less transport time and fossil fuel emissions
No signage, change, Point of sale machine, tent or tables needed as pick up is direct from the farmers car boot or truck
Farmer received the money directly – keeping costs down and cash flow is instant
In the 1950s the British military detonated a total of 21 nuclear weapons in various sites in Australia. Maralinga is the most infamous of these sites.
British soldiers were told working at Maralinga was a ‘secret’ assignment and despite the displacement of some local Aboriginal people, many indigenous folks were still exposed to high levels of radiation and later became sick or died. These reports were not publicized.
Australian author Judy Nunn’s Maralinga is a fictional account based on true events.
The novel starts with a love blossoming between a British soldier and female journalist in their home country before a confidential mission changes everything. While their story is the most prominent in the novel, several Aboriginal voices are also peppered throughout the text. Maralinga is character-driven as well as very much centering itself in two starkly different landscapes.
There may be a misconception that this is a book for the female demographic. It isn’t. This book has wide appeal for those interested in Australian and English history, romanticism, the 1950s, war, feminism and vivid landscapes.
While those that are already hard ’n’ fast Judy Nunn fans are sure to love it, it’s a good introduction to those that haven’t been driven to pick up her titles before.
However, if you are like me, you may find you are sufficiently incensed at the violation of sovereign Australian territory and the complete lack of regard for the health of those involved and the health of the local indigenous population.
Times were different then, but not so different that they did not take certain precautions. The personnel involved were told to don sunglasses and turn away from the blast to provide protection. Some onlookers wore shirts and shorts! Incredible now with the hindsight of time that the English organizers could think this was safe practice.
Documentation on Maralinga and the contamination can be found here.
It’s been ten years since I started Something to Ponder About, and the reproduction of this early post is quietly marking that occasion.
According to the [U.S.] EPA, the average person produces approximately 4.9 pounds of “solid waste” or trash per day. Thankfully, you can recycle many everyday household items to help promote a cleaner, greener environment.
It really isn’t that hard to Reduce your waste and Recycle. But rather than focus on the problems, spreading the word about easy solutions is more palatable for me.
No doubt you have heard it all before and you may have already adopted some measures. You don’t need to be a hard-core zero waste advocate. Start with a minor changes and add one more each week.
Get your friends on board. You can set the example for your family, friends and workplace because we need to do better than the following graph indicates.
Simple Waste Solutions
Take Care or Take your Trash Home
• Eliminate your need for bins in forest areas. Birds and animals may spread litter from public trash cans around and it ends up contaminating waterways. When you visit a park or beach, remember to take your trash with you. Keep trash and recyclables in a bag or backpack until you can put them in a proper receptacle.
Public refuse bins in Japan are almost non-existent. You won’t see any trash in Japanese streets either. Japanese citizens take their rubbish home so it can be sorted to Recyclables, compostables and refuse.
• Keep a Litter bag in your car. Be like the Japanese people.
Choose Re-usable and Compostable Packaging
• Carry your own Re-usable stainless steel straws or decorative re-usable Water Bottle and Travel mug instead of buying bottled water or coffee in polystyrene cups.
• Polystyrene litter such as disposable coffee cups or packing materials can be eaten by animals who mistake it for food. Polystyrene can poison and/or clog stomachs leading to death by either toxicity or starvation.
Once released into the environment, polystyrene products does not decompose to a non-recognizable form.
Reduce Litter at Home
Keep backyards clean and free of things that can blow into the street and become litter.
Tie up garbage and recycling bags securely so loose papers and other items cannot fall out and become litter.
Avoid overfilling your bins and ensure the lid is properly closed after depositing your trash or recycling inside, preventing accidental spills and overflows contaminating local waterways – endangering wildlife.
Recycling in the Kitchen
• Cloth napkins and kitchen towel, for spills and cleaning, rather than paper disposables. They are much more absorbent and easily washed out for re-use many times over.
• Compost food scraps
Start a Worm Farm for food scraps and cardboard packaging. My worms love devouring cardboard. Break it up and wet it. A cardboard box is a good alternative to buying worm blankets.
• Use your consumer power to influence choice: Avoid buying food or ancillary items with excess packaging when you shop. This will decrease litter from the start.
Plastic shopping bags take between 10-20 years to decompose.
Wildlife such as Turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and eat them causing suffocation, drowning and gut obstruction. Do not accept plastic bags for items you purchase, if you can carry your purchase without them.
Alternatives to Plastic Carry Bags
• Refashion the scrap fabrics into re-usable bags or use natural canvas or fibre bags for your groceries and errands. Keep several reusable bags handy, in your car or handbag/backpack, so that they are always handy whenever you might need them.
Plastic beer can holders or bags can entangle an animal swimming. It may suffocate or drown. Six packs rings causing 6 million sea bird deaths a year and over 100,000 marine mammal deaths.
Eco Six Pack Rings, started in 2017 by three different groups, are made with all-natural ingredients. These include both straw and wheat fiber. While sturdy enough to hold six full-size cans, Eco Six Pack Rings are intended to fall apart if accidentally littered. This prevents them from creating the same environmental damage their plastic forefathers did. According to the company, “the product will degrade in less than 200 days (depending on the ecosystem).”
If you are in USA, and you are into visual learning, here are heaps of solutions. I especially noted the online shipping options: who knew Amazon/online options were so wasteful? Choose slower shipping to save cardboard.
Smoking in the Workplace
Cigarette butts, are made of a form of plastic and can persist in the environment for 10-12 years! 4.5 trillion non-biodegradable cigarette butts are littered worldwide.
• Do you have a “no smoking” policy at your house or workplace? Containing cigarette butt litter is facilitated by requiring smokers to use only designated areas or not smoking at all.
• Do not dump anything toxic down a storm drain.
Marketing Flyers and Advertising Leaflets
• Remove flyers or take-out menus promptly from your post box/front door or windscreen before they are blown away and become litter.
• You can stop litter at the source. Reduce your junk mail by writing to Direct Marketing companies to request no junk mail to be sent to your address.
• Participate and promote local recycling programs such as kerbside cleanup (Australia).
Here are some more ideas on reducing and recycling waste:
Metal: Old forks and spoons, as well as cans, are perfect for making a variety of unique items like a custom keyholder, beautiful jewellery, or a fun mirror. Old cans make excellent cookie cutters, too.
Clothing and bedding: Get creative and use an old pair of jeans to make a funky “jeans chair.” Old bedding can be torn or cut into smaller pieces and used for cleaning rags. Any type of fabric is also great for reupholstering furniture if you’re really feeling crafty.
Coffee grounds and tea bags: You can use coffee grounds as fertiliser or dried coffee grounds or tea bags [plastic free tea bags, of course], in the freezer as a deodoriser, too.
Something to Ponder About 