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1000 results for “helena_is_here”
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@helena_is_here @michelschep Ja, dank hiervoor. Die laatste draad was ik ook al eens tegengekomen. Op #Mastodon hebben we een prachtig systeem van #ContentWarnings, maar als we die gebruiken om #PoC ermee om de oren te slaan, dan slaat dat wel de plank mis (no pun intended).
En uit dat eerste artikel maak ik op dat het voor gemarginaliseerde groepen het verblijf op de #haatvolière meer een noodzakelijke gemeenschap betreft dan een vrolijk verblijf en dat je die niet zomaar even verplaatst.
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@helena_is_here @michelschep Ja, dank hiervoor. Die laatste draad was ik ook al eens tegengekomen. Op #Mastodon hebben we een prachtig systeem van #ContentWarnings, maar als we die gebruiken om #PoC ermee om de oren te slaan, dan slaat dat wel de plank mis (no pun intended).
En uit dat eerste artikel maak ik op dat het voor gemarginaliseerde groepen het verblijf op de #haatvolière meer een noodzakelijke gemeenschap betreft dan een vrolijk verblijf en dat je die niet zomaar even verplaatst.
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"Mijn hemel.
Soort van manifest van NSC nav wat er in Amsterdam is gebeurd.
"We moeten aan de slag"Dit zijn de punten die Van Vroonhoven benoemde tijdens het debat. En er staat niets over extreem-rechts.
Recht op geloofsafval in de Grondwet?"(Heleen Hüpscher @helena_is_here )
#NSC #houwdegen
https://partijnieuwsociaalcontract.nl/nieuws/nicolien-van-vroonhoven-tijdens-debat-geweldsincidenten-in-amsterdam -
Waarom? Why? #copyrights
Het verspreiden van deze foto ivm relevantie politiek Iran lijkt me belangrijker dan op auteursrechten te wijzen #IranProtests #WKQatar -
Waarom? Why? #copyrights
Het verspreiden van deze foto ivm relevantie politiek Iran lijkt me belangrijker dan op auteursrechten te wijzen #IranProtests #WKQatar -
''We send our support': Coldplay perform Iranian protest song #Baraye in Buenos Aires'
#IranianProtests
https://youtu.be/aJb3uc1D1D8 -
''We send our support': Coldplay perform Iranian protest song #Baraye in Buenos Aires'
https://youtu.be/aJb3uc1D1D8 #IranianProtests -
How 2026 is shaping up in Montana politics
HELENA — 2026 is here, and that means Montana is once again in an election year. But chances…
#UnitedStates #US #USA #1stCongressionalDistrict #2026elections #2ndcongressionaldistrict #AlaniBankhead #america #AmyEddy #BrianMiller #DanWilson #geopolitics #MattRains #MichaelBlackWolf #MichaelEisenhauer #Politics #unitedstatesofamerica #UnitedStatesPolitics #USPolitics #usapolitics
https://www.europesays.com/2672826/ -
Today is the feast of Saint George. Patron Saint of England. Born in Lydda in 270 AD, he joined the Roman army & became a personal guard of Emperor Diocletian, who sent him on a mission to Britain. Through George, Empress Helena converted to Christianity, & through her, her son Constantine the Great.
Diocletian in the meantime, decreed that Christianity be destroyed. George originally stayed at Lydda to encourage the faithful, but ultimately decided to return to see Diocletian to intercede for Christians, and was ultimately put to death for his faith.
More: https://stgeorgehistsoc.org.au/the-life-of-st-george-the-patron-soldier-saint-of-england/
Famously presented on UK Sovereigns, here is, instead, a coloured medallion of the saint in the famous scene slaying the dragon (which was, in reality, possibly a large lizard such as a Komodo dragon, rather than a genuine fire-breathing beast, or maybe it's just an allegory for good defeating evil?).
#Numismatics #CoinCollecting #Saint #SaintOfTheDeay #OnThisDay #Christianity @numismatics
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Mostly Monday Reads: Trumperville
“That peace prize is a shoo-in next year.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I’ve had a rough few days here in my hometown of New Orleans. I’ve been working on getting signal whistle kits together and have enjoyed the camaraderie of brothers and sisters in arms. As the sky has turned quite gray the last few days and temperatures have dropped, it sets a scene that I knew was coming, but now I’ve seen. Of course, the National Guard is overwhelmingly visible in the French Quarter. I’ll share some photos taken by friends who were gigging or living their lives there from Saturday.
Yesterday morning, during my walk, I spoke with the two professors who have a woodworking shop in an old storefront across the street from me. They were given 2 weeks’ notice to move out of the apartment they shared for 31 years. The landlord was eager to renovate the property and convert it into student housing. Today’s walk left me even more stunned.
There was an old black man pushing a luggage cart up and down the street with all of his earthly goods and his cat on top. I didn’t take a photo because it felt too sacred to capture. He headed up towards the Abandoned Navy Base and then up to the bridge area. The large gray Tabby looked like a prince, while the old man just kept muttering Stay, stay, stay. I saw my first real discussion on a group Signal Chat of a large contingent of ICE stooges getting ready to make a raid. There are tears in my eyes as I write this.
I guess making America Great these days means putting old people on the street, ensuring our hard-working neighbors stay holed up in their houses, relying on the good-hearted to protect them and bring them provisions. It means separating families and shipping them off to the swamp hellholes of Louisiana here while everyone desperately searches for their whereabouts. It also means appointing illegal prosecutors to cases “for the people”, massive Bachanalia on the taxpayers’ money in a shit hole in Florida, and an illegal attack on Venezuela. You can also read about it as rural clinics and hospitals shut down, making small-town America unlivable during a time when we’re seeing a plague of measles and other diseases long thought gone.
We’ve never been a perfect union, but I’ve never seen or read about such a great undoing as the one we’re living through now. The midterms are more important than ever. All of this makes it very scary to go outside. I’m going to continue with the Hegseth/Venezuela disaster that BB wrote about yesterday.
This is from Jennifer Rubin writing for The Contrarian. “War Crime…or Murder? Killing shipwreck survivors is patently illegal and morally abhorrent.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who makes up in false bravado what he lacks in judgment and expertise, appears to have committed an inexcusable, unjustified violation of black-letter international and domestic law, according to a stunning Washington Post story released last Friday. The incident occurred during our Sept. 2 Caribbean military operation against suspected drug traffickers:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive,according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. “The order was to kill everybody,” one of them said.
After the attack, two survivors clung to the “smoldering wreck.” Then, in an action that should shock the conscience, forces murdered the two survivors. “The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack—the opening salvo in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere—ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said,” The Post reported. “The two men were blown apart in the water.”
The Trump regime claims the report is false, but the evidence has not been specifically debunked. No explanation has been given as to why the video was edited to omit this part of the attack.
Putting aside for the moment the legitimacy of the underlying order to shoot these boats out of the water (which, frankly, is hard to justify based on a false theory and made-up facts), it is impossible to imagine any Pentagon lawyer blessing this action. The concept of hors de combat—literally, out of combat—is a fundamental aspect of the law of war that prevents harming those disabled from combat.
If we are at war, this is a shocking violation of the law of war and specifically the Department of Defense Law of War Manual (updated in July 2023). Per the latter, those shipwrecked (or “those in distress at sea or stranded on the coast who are also helpless”) are protected under the Geneva Convention, and in turn, U.S. law. Not only must shipwrecked individuals “not be knowingly attacked, fired upon, or unnecessarily interfered with,” but our military must “without delay, take all possible measures to search for and collect the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked at sea, to protect them against pillage and ill-treatment, to ensure their adequate care, and to search for the dead and prevent their being despoiled.”
Conservative lawyer Jack Goldsmith reiterates, “ The DOD Manual is clear because the law here is clear: “Persons who have been incapacitated by . . . shipwreck are in a helpless state, and it would be dishonorable and inhumane to make them the object of attack.” Todd Huntley, a former Special Operations military lawyer cited in The Post report, agrees that even if the U.S. were at war an order to kill all the survivors “would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime.”
Meanwhile, Trump is saying Hegseth didn’t give that order. They’re also more than doubling down on attacks against Venezuela. This feels like one more thing to get everyone to stop investigating the Epstein Files. However, this is a deadly distraction and one that will tarnish our National image in South America, sending it back to the 1960s. This is from AXIOS. “Trump backs Hegseth as Congress plans boat strike review.” This article was written by Avery Lotz.
President Trump said he believesDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s denial of a report alleging he ordered military forcesto leave no survivors in a strike on a suspected drug trafficking boat from Venezuela.
The big picture: The U.S. has ramped up its military pressure on Venezuela and President Nicolás Maduro despite legal experts and lawmakers sounding the alarm over the legality of the strikes on alleged drug traffickers that have killed dozens.
- Hegseth slammed The Washington Post’s report that he directed military officials to kill everyone aboard a vessel, which allegedly resulted in a secondstrike to take out two survivors. The Intercept also previously reported on the follow-up attack.
- He dismissed the allegations as “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory” on X but said “these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.'”
Driving the news: “He said he did not say that, and I believe him 100%,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
- The president added that “we’ll look into it” and thathe wouldn’t have wanted a second strike.
- “The first strike was very lethal. It was fine. And if there were two people around, but Pete said that didn’t happen,” he said. “I have great confidence.”
- Trump added, “Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,”
Friction point: But lawmakers have expressed increasing concern over the shadowy operations and are seeking to conduct their own oversight of the strikes.
- House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said in a Saturday statement that they “take seriously” the reports of follow-up strikes and are “taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question.”
- Similarly, Senate Armed Services Committee ChairSen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said in a statement the committee will conduct “vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”
What they’re saying: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that if the allegations are proven true, “this rises to the level of a war crime.”
- Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, also said on CBS that there “are very serious concerns in Congress about the attacks on the so-called drug boats down in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and the legal justification that’s been provided”
There are many more sad stories about how this cruel administration is turning its back on the GLBT community. If I haven’t been crying about the things above, I’ve also been crying on the Anniversary of AIDS Awareness and World AIDS Day. Each year reminds me of all my beautiful friends from high school and university who were lost to this disease. Now, I think about the adults and children all over the world who have lost access to medicines. This is from Forbes. “On This World AIDS Day, The U.S. Declines To Participate.” This was written by “Dave Wessner, a virologist who covers infectious diseases.”
The United States will not formally commemorate World AIDS Day this year. This decision comes on the heels of recent federal funding cuts that threaten to disrupt hard-earned progress combatting this global epidemic. Despite significant scientific advancements in HIV treatment and prevention, many people worry about our efforts to end this ongoing crisis.
Since 1988, December 1 has been recognized as World AIDS Day by communities throughout the world. It is a day to remember the people who have died of HIV/AIDS, demonstrate our continued support for people living with HIV and strengthen the global efforts to end this epidemic.
U.S. presidents have recognized the day in various ways. Seventeen years ago, President George W. Bush discussed the unparalleled success of his signature initiative, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. He also noted that the red ribbon displayed at the White House was, “a symbol of our resolve to confront HIV/AIDS and to affirm the matchless value of every life.” Just a year ago, President Joe Biden remarked that, “we renew our commitment to accelerating efforts to finally end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”
This year, the U.S. State Department sent an email to employees that stated, “The U.S. Government will not be commemorating World AIDS Day this year.”
One could argue that a day of commemoration does not save lives. But funding does. And the HIV/AIDS funding landscape has changed dramatically during the Trump administration. Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, noted in a recently released report that, “this year’s disruption to the global response has exposed the fragility of the progress we have fought so hard to achieve.”
My friend John Autin captured this photo Saturday night in the French Quarter of the National Guard Occupation.
Politico reports today on the number of Trump nominees withdrawing. “Record-setting personnel issues are marring Trump’s second term. The president has nearly doubled Joe Biden’s mark for nominees withdrawn from the Senate in the first year.” Something rotten is in the beltway.
On the surface, President Donald Trump’s second-term personnel operation has been a smoothly running machine. The Senate has confirmed more than 300 civilian nominees since January, even changing the chamber’s rules to move them faster.
But there are clear signs of breakdowns behind the scenes. Trump has withdrawn a record number of nominees for a president’s first year in office as he faces a combination of GOP pushback against some picks, vetting issues, White House infighting and, in some cases, the president’s own mercurial views.
Trump has withdrawn 57 nominations, according to Senate data — roughly double the 22 nominations he withdrew during the first year of his first administration and the 29 his immediate predecessor, Joe Biden, withdrew during his first year.
The pace of withdrawals, the highest since at least the Ronald Reagan presidency, has flown below the radar in the day-to-day churn on Capitol Hill, with many Republican senators expressing surprise at the data in interviews. But they also acknowledged the obvious: In some instances, the White House just isn’t making sure Trump’s nominees can get the votes.
“It would appear that some nominees haven’t been vetted, and … somebody says, ‘Go with them anyways,’” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said in an interview.
After POLITICO reported he made racist comments in a group chat, Ingrassia withdrew despite telling senators he had “no recollection of these alleged chat leaks, and do not concede their authenticity.” But Senate Republicans had already privately telegraphed to the Trump administration for months that his nomination was in serious peril.
Asked about the withdrawals, a person close to the White House granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal dynamics pointed to Ingrassia as a key example.
“Would I say some vetting has been questionable? One thousand percent,” the person said, adding of Ingrassia: “That was a vetting nightmare that was only allowed to happen based on certain relationships and acquaintances with people that are making the decisions.”
DHS outside the Boggs Bldng on Poydras. Downtown New Orleans
The New York Times reports that Alina Haba was found to be an illegal U.S. Attorney by an Appeals Court. “Appeals Court Says Alina Habba Is Unlawful U.S. Attorney. The judges wrote that the Trump administration appeared to have become frustrated by legal and political barriers that have prevented its preferred U.S. attorneys from leading federal prosecutors’ offices.” All the best people, you know.
A federal appeals court said on Monday that Alina Habba had been serving unlawfully as the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, dealing a blow to the Trump administration and most likely setting up a showdown at the Supreme Court.
Ms. Habba is one of a number of U.S. attorneys whom the Trump administration has sought to keep in power through a series of unusual maneuvers even though she was neither confirmed by the Senate nor appointed by district trial court judges — the two traditional pathways. Defendants in New Jersey had challenged her authority as U.S. attorney, leading to Monday’s decision.
In its ruling, the three-judge panel, based in Philadelphia, affirmed an earlier ruling by a Federal District Court judge. The court said that the government’s tactics had violated the law as written and concluded that, overall, the Trump administration appeared to have become frustrated by legal and political barriers to placing its favored U.S. attorneys in charge.
The maneuvers undertaken to keep Ms. Habba in charge exemplified the difficulties the administration had faced, the judges wrote. And yet, they said, “the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. attorney’s office deserve some clarity and stability.”
There is no moral, legal, or intellectual clarity to anyone who serves this administration. I firmly believe their goal is instability. This makes the Midterm elections even more significant.
And, again, hello from Occupyied New Orleans. The national news has started covering us as the movement of ICE goons into the area continues. This is from CNN. “What we know – and don’t know – about the immigration crackdown expected in New Orleans this week.”
As Department of Homeland Security agents are expected to surge into New Orleans this week, the latest Democrat-led city targeted by a federal immigration enforcement crackdown, a common thread has emerged among local officials: They’re being kept in the dark – and it’s spiking fear among the immigrant community.
There is “mass chaos and confusion” as the campaign looms, newly elected Councilmember at-Large Matthew Willard told CNN. He said he and other local officials have received scant details about the operation – and the information they have received “isn’t reassuring.”
“We’re really just fearful of the unknown, and looking at the coverage that we’ve seen in other cities by CNN, we certainly don’t want that here in the city of New Orleans,” he said.
Our new mayor is a Latina who was born in Mexico. This is what Councilwoman Helena Morena had to say. CNN also talked to Orleans Parish’s Congressman.
New Orleans Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, who was born in Mexico, has said she’s received limited information about the expected operation but that the fear among immigrant communities is palpable.
“You have parents who are scared to send their children to school,” Moreno, a Democrat, told CNN affiliate WWL. “At my church,” she said, “there is a one o’clock service, Spanish-speaking service every Sunday, that keeps getting smaller and smaller. People are really, really scared.”
Her office has released guidelines for interacting with immigration enforcement agents, urging people to comply with orders from law enforcement and to record with their phones if they feel safe.
US Rep. Troy Carter, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee, told WWL he also wasn’t briefed on any Border Patrol operations and suggested federal agents had profiled people in other cities.
“Turn on the television. Turn on the internet. Pick up a newspaper and you find some people who were profiled because they looked a certain way,” Carter said. “Never mind the fact that they were actually US citizens.”
My Holiday Craft Project
There’s a huge rally this evening at the Park that is deep in the city’s complex of Federal Buildings. When I worked at the New Orleans Fed, my office faced directly towards it. I’m actually hoping they get an overflow of people. It’s right there on St. Charles near the Old City Hall, and you’ve undoubtedly seen it if you’ve watched any Mardi Gras parades on TV.
So, I’m so sorry I’m such a Debbie Downer today. I’m going to go pack up more signal whistle kits for the rally.
I hope you had a wonderful long weekend. I’m not going anywhere. This country is not going down on my watch. If my Daddy could bomb NAZIs, I can certainly frustrate a few.
Please stay safe out there… these ICE GOONS are serious! Our legislature and the Governor have empowered them. I just weep for my city and neighbors today.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
#alinaHaba #attacksOnVenezuala #iceImmigrationRaids #nationalGuardInNewOrleans #occupiedNewOrleans #peteHegsethWeirdoSexualAssaulter #splendidIsolation #trumpWithdrawsRecordNominations #venezuelaBoatStrikes #warrenZevon #worldAidsDay
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Mostly Monday Reads: Trumperville
“That peace prize is a shoo-in next year.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I’ve had a rough few days here in my hometown of New Orleans. I’ve been working on getting signal whistle kits together and have enjoyed the camaraderie of brothers and sisters in arms. As the sky has turned quite gray the last few days and temperatures have dropped, it sets a scene that I knew was coming, but now I’ve seen. Of course, the National Guard is overwhelmingly visible in the French Quarter. I’ll share some photos taken by friends who were gigging or living their lives there from Saturday.
Yesterday morning, during my walk, I spoke with the two professors who have a woodworking shop in an old storefront across the street from me. They were given 2 weeks’ notice to move out of the apartment they shared for 31 years. The landlord was eager to renovate the property and convert it into student housing. Today’s walk left me even more stunned.
There was an old black man pushing a luggage cart up and down the street with all of his earthly goods and his cat on top. I didn’t take a photo because it felt too sacred to capture. He headed up towards the Abandoned Navy Base and then up to the bridge area. The large gray Tabby looked like a prince, while the old man just kept muttering Stay, stay, stay. I saw my first real discussion on a group Signal Chat of a large contingent of ICE stooges getting ready to make a raid. There are tears in my eyes as I write this.
I guess making America Great these days means putting old people on the street, ensuring our hard-working neighbors stay holed up in their houses, relying on the good-hearted to protect them and bring them provisions. It means separating families and shipping them off to the swamp hellholes of Louisiana here while everyone desperately searches for their whereabouts. It also means appointing illegal prosecutors to cases “for the people”, massive Bachanalia on the taxpayers’ money in a shit hole in Florida, and an illegal attack on Venezuela. You can also read about it as rural clinics and hospitals shut down, making small-town America unlivable during a time when we’re seeing a plague of measles and other diseases long thought gone.
We’ve never been a perfect union, but I’ve never seen or read about such a great undoing as the one we’re living through now. The midterms are more important than ever. All of this makes it very scary to go outside. I’m going to continue with the Hegseth/Venezuela disaster that BB wrote about yesterday.
This is from Jennifer Rubin writing for The Contrarian. “War Crime…or Murder? Killing shipwreck survivors is patently illegal and morally abhorrent.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who makes up in false bravado what he lacks in judgment and expertise, appears to have committed an inexcusable, unjustified violation of black-letter international and domestic law, according to a stunning Washington Post story released last Friday. The incident occurred during our Sept. 2 Caribbean military operation against suspected drug traffickers:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive,according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. “The order was to kill everybody,” one of them said.
After the attack, two survivors clung to the “smoldering wreck.” Then, in an action that should shock the conscience, forces murdered the two survivors. “The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack—the opening salvo in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere—ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said,” The Post reported. “The two men were blown apart in the water.”
The Trump regime claims the report is false, but the evidence has not been specifically debunked. No explanation has been given as to why the video was edited to omit this part of the attack.
Putting aside for the moment the legitimacy of the underlying order to shoot these boats out of the water (which, frankly, is hard to justify based on a false theory and made-up facts), it is impossible to imagine any Pentagon lawyer blessing this action. The concept of hors de combat—literally, out of combat—is a fundamental aspect of the law of war that prevents harming those disabled from combat.
If we are at war, this is a shocking violation of the law of war and specifically the Department of Defense Law of War Manual (updated in July 2023). Per the latter, those shipwrecked (or “those in distress at sea or stranded on the coast who are also helpless”) are protected under the Geneva Convention, and in turn, U.S. law. Not only must shipwrecked individuals “not be knowingly attacked, fired upon, or unnecessarily interfered with,” but our military must “without delay, take all possible measures to search for and collect the wounded, sick, and shipwrecked at sea, to protect them against pillage and ill-treatment, to ensure their adequate care, and to search for the dead and prevent their being despoiled.”
Conservative lawyer Jack Goldsmith reiterates, “ The DOD Manual is clear because the law here is clear: “Persons who have been incapacitated by . . . shipwreck are in a helpless state, and it would be dishonorable and inhumane to make them the object of attack.” Todd Huntley, a former Special Operations military lawyer cited in The Post report, agrees that even if the U.S. were at war an order to kill all the survivors “would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime.”
Meanwhile, Trump is saying Hegseth didn’t give that order. They’re also more than doubling down on attacks against Venezuela. This feels like one more thing to get everyone to stop investigating the Epstein Files. However, this is a deadly distraction and one that will tarnish our National image in South America, sending it back to the 1960s. This is from AXIOS. “Trump backs Hegseth as Congress plans boat strike review.” This article was written by Avery Lotz.
President Trump said he believesDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s denial of a report alleging he ordered military forcesto leave no survivors in a strike on a suspected drug trafficking boat from Venezuela.
The big picture: The U.S. has ramped up its military pressure on Venezuela and President Nicolás Maduro despite legal experts and lawmakers sounding the alarm over the legality of the strikes on alleged drug traffickers that have killed dozens.
- Hegseth slammed The Washington Post’s report that he directed military officials to kill everyone aboard a vessel, which allegedly resulted in a secondstrike to take out two survivors. The Intercept also previously reported on the follow-up attack.
- He dismissed the allegations as “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory” on X but said “these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.'”
Driving the news: “He said he did not say that, and I believe him 100%,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
- The president added that “we’ll look into it” and thathe wouldn’t have wanted a second strike.
- “The first strike was very lethal. It was fine. And if there were two people around, but Pete said that didn’t happen,” he said. “I have great confidence.”
- Trump added, “Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,”
Friction point: But lawmakers have expressed increasing concern over the shadowy operations and are seeking to conduct their own oversight of the strikes.
- House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said in a Saturday statement that they “take seriously” the reports of follow-up strikes and are “taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question.”
- Similarly, Senate Armed Services Committee ChairSen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said in a statement the committee will conduct “vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”
What they’re saying: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that if the allegations are proven true, “this rises to the level of a war crime.”
- Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, also said on CBS that there “are very serious concerns in Congress about the attacks on the so-called drug boats down in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and the legal justification that’s been provided”
There are many more sad stories about how this cruel administration is turning its back on the GLBT community. If I haven’t been crying about the things above, I’ve also been crying on the Anniversary of AIDS Awareness and World AIDS Day. Each year reminds me of all my beautiful friends from high school and university who were lost to this disease. Now, I think about the adults and children all over the world who have lost access to medicines. This is from Forbes. “On This World AIDS Day, The U.S. Declines To Participate.” This was written by “Dave Wessner, a virologist who covers infectious diseases.”
The United States will not formally commemorate World AIDS Day this year. This decision comes on the heels of recent federal funding cuts that threaten to disrupt hard-earned progress combatting this global epidemic. Despite significant scientific advancements in HIV treatment and prevention, many people worry about our efforts to end this ongoing crisis.
Since 1988, December 1 has been recognized as World AIDS Day by communities throughout the world. It is a day to remember the people who have died of HIV/AIDS, demonstrate our continued support for people living with HIV and strengthen the global efforts to end this epidemic.
U.S. presidents have recognized the day in various ways. Seventeen years ago, President George W. Bush discussed the unparalleled success of his signature initiative, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. He also noted that the red ribbon displayed at the White House was, “a symbol of our resolve to confront HIV/AIDS and to affirm the matchless value of every life.” Just a year ago, President Joe Biden remarked that, “we renew our commitment to accelerating efforts to finally end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”
This year, the U.S. State Department sent an email to employees that stated, “The U.S. Government will not be commemorating World AIDS Day this year.”
One could argue that a day of commemoration does not save lives. But funding does. And the HIV/AIDS funding landscape has changed dramatically during the Trump administration. Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, noted in a recently released report that, “this year’s disruption to the global response has exposed the fragility of the progress we have fought so hard to achieve.”
My friend John Autin captured this photo Saturday night in the French Quarter of the National Guard Occupation.
Politico reports today on the number of Trump nominees withdrawing. “Record-setting personnel issues are marring Trump’s second term. The president has nearly doubled Joe Biden’s mark for nominees withdrawn from the Senate in the first year.” Something rotten is in the beltway.
On the surface, President Donald Trump’s second-term personnel operation has been a smoothly running machine. The Senate has confirmed more than 300 civilian nominees since January, even changing the chamber’s rules to move them faster.
But there are clear signs of breakdowns behind the scenes. Trump has withdrawn a record number of nominees for a president’s first year in office as he faces a combination of GOP pushback against some picks, vetting issues, White House infighting and, in some cases, the president’s own mercurial views.
Trump has withdrawn 57 nominations, according to Senate data — roughly double the 22 nominations he withdrew during the first year of his first administration and the 29 his immediate predecessor, Joe Biden, withdrew during his first year.
The pace of withdrawals, the highest since at least the Ronald Reagan presidency, has flown below the radar in the day-to-day churn on Capitol Hill, with many Republican senators expressing surprise at the data in interviews. But they also acknowledged the obvious: In some instances, the White House just isn’t making sure Trump’s nominees can get the votes.
“It would appear that some nominees haven’t been vetted, and … somebody says, ‘Go with them anyways,’” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said in an interview.
After POLITICO reported he made racist comments in a group chat, Ingrassia withdrew despite telling senators he had “no recollection of these alleged chat leaks, and do not concede their authenticity.” But Senate Republicans had already privately telegraphed to the Trump administration for months that his nomination was in serious peril.
Asked about the withdrawals, a person close to the White House granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal dynamics pointed to Ingrassia as a key example.
“Would I say some vetting has been questionable? One thousand percent,” the person said, adding of Ingrassia: “That was a vetting nightmare that was only allowed to happen based on certain relationships and acquaintances with people that are making the decisions.”
DHS outside the Boggs Bldng on Poydras. Downtown New Orleans
The New York Times reports that Alina Haba was found to be an illegal U.S. Attorney by an Appeals Court. “Appeals Court Says Alina Habba Is Unlawful U.S. Attorney. The judges wrote that the Trump administration appeared to have become frustrated by legal and political barriers that have prevented its preferred U.S. attorneys from leading federal prosecutors’ offices.” All the best people, you know.
A federal appeals court said on Monday that Alina Habba had been serving unlawfully as the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, dealing a blow to the Trump administration and most likely setting up a showdown at the Supreme Court.
Ms. Habba is one of a number of U.S. attorneys whom the Trump administration has sought to keep in power through a series of unusual maneuvers even though she was neither confirmed by the Senate nor appointed by district trial court judges — the two traditional pathways. Defendants in New Jersey had challenged her authority as U.S. attorney, leading to Monday’s decision.
In its ruling, the three-judge panel, based in Philadelphia, affirmed an earlier ruling by a Federal District Court judge. The court said that the government’s tactics had violated the law as written and concluded that, overall, the Trump administration appeared to have become frustrated by legal and political barriers to placing its favored U.S. attorneys in charge.
The maneuvers undertaken to keep Ms. Habba in charge exemplified the difficulties the administration had faced, the judges wrote. And yet, they said, “the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. attorney’s office deserve some clarity and stability.”
There is no moral, legal, or intellectual clarity to anyone who serves this administration. I firmly believe their goal is instability. This makes the Midterm elections even more significant.
And, again, hello from Occupyied New Orleans. The national news has started covering us as the movement of ICE goons into the area continues. This is from CNN. “What we know – and don’t know – about the immigration crackdown expected in New Orleans this week.”
As Department of Homeland Security agents are expected to surge into New Orleans this week, the latest Democrat-led city targeted by a federal immigration enforcement crackdown, a common thread has emerged among local officials: They’re being kept in the dark – and it’s spiking fear among the immigrant community.
There is “mass chaos and confusion” as the campaign looms, newly elected Councilmember at-Large Matthew Willard told CNN. He said he and other local officials have received scant details about the operation – and the information they have received “isn’t reassuring.”
“We’re really just fearful of the unknown, and looking at the coverage that we’ve seen in other cities by CNN, we certainly don’t want that here in the city of New Orleans,” he said.
Our new mayor is a Latina who was born in Mexico. This is what Councilwoman Helena Morena had to say. CNN also talked to Orleans Parish’s Congressman.
New Orleans Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, who was born in Mexico, has said she’s received limited information about the expected operation but that the fear among immigrant communities is palpable.
“You have parents who are scared to send their children to school,” Moreno, a Democrat, told CNN affiliate WWL. “At my church,” she said, “there is a one o’clock service, Spanish-speaking service every Sunday, that keeps getting smaller and smaller. People are really, really scared.”
Her office has released guidelines for interacting with immigration enforcement agents, urging people to comply with orders from law enforcement and to record with their phones if they feel safe.
US Rep. Troy Carter, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee, told WWL he also wasn’t briefed on any Border Patrol operations and suggested federal agents had profiled people in other cities.
“Turn on the television. Turn on the internet. Pick up a newspaper and you find some people who were profiled because they looked a certain way,” Carter said. “Never mind the fact that they were actually US citizens.”
My Holiday Craft Project
There’s a huge rally this evening at the Park that is deep in the city’s complex of Federal Buildings. When I worked at the New Orleans Fed, my office faced directly towards it. I’m actually hoping they get an overflow of people. It’s right there on St. Charles near the Old City Hall, and you’ve undoubtedly seen it if you’ve watched any Mardi Gras parades on TV.
So, I’m so sorry I’m such a Debbie Downer today. I’m going to go pack up more signal whistle kits for the rally.
I hope you had a wonderful long weekend. I’m not going anywhere. This country is not going down on my watch. If my Daddy could bomb NAZIs, I can certainly frustrate a few.
Please stay safe out there… these ICE GOONS are serious! Our legislature and the Governor have empowered them. I just weep for my city and neighbors today.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
#alinaHaba #attacksOnVenezuala #iceImmigrationRaids #nationalGuardInNewOrleans #occupiedNewOrleans #peteHegsethWeirdoSexualAssaulter #splendidIsolation #trumpWithdrawsRecordNominations #venezuelaBoatStrikes #warrenZevon #worldAidsDay
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#Napa River runs from the head waters on Mt. St. Helena to the San Pablo Bay. The river is tidal from the bay up to Trancas Ave in the city of Napa.
Here is a site with info on the Napa River, its' watershed, riparian habitat, wildlife, restoration project and rainfall and stream level data.
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It's like 'dead birds flying': How #BirdFlu is spreading in the wild
By Gabrielle Emanuel, Goats And Soda
February 7, 20257:12 AM ET"A little over a year ago, Marcela Uhart was walking on the beach in Punta Delgada, Argentina. It was peak breeding session on this peninsula known for its rich marine wildlife. Usually, the salty breeze brought with it the sounds of baby elephant seals calling to their moms in high pitched yells.
"'This time it was silent,' recalls Uhart. 'The beaches were just loaded with carcasses. We saw basically every [#ElephantSeal] pup dead. We estimate about 18,000 dead baby elephant seals.'
"Dead from bird flu.
"And it wasn't just elephant seals. There were #terns – with their yellow beaks and black heads – stumbling about having seizures on the sand. The scene played out again and again in the weeks that followed, up and down the coastline. 'It was like birds falling out of the sky, dead,' she says.
"Uhart is a veterinarian and director of the Latin America Program at the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center at University of California, Davis. She arrived at the #PuntaDelgada beach suited up in a white hazmat suit, gloves and goggles in October 2023 ready to take samples and document the decimation. She's been tracking bird flu as it goes from one bird species to another — from seabirds to waterfowl to birds of prey — and then to marine mammals from sea lions to dolphins and then, sometimes, jumping back to birds.
"'It's just like wildfire. I mean it just killed everything it encountered,' she says, speaking to #NPR from #Argentina.
"In the U.S., bird flu headlines have focused on an unprecedented number of American cases and the impact of the virus on dairy cows and on poultry farms. But wildlife researchers like Uhart say the dramatic scene in Argentina is evidence that something new — and ominous — is going on with the virus that causes bird flu. And that ignoring it puts human health in peril.
A 'relay race' that started in 2020 and 2021
"'I've been studying flu viruses closely since 1980 and there are days when I wake up feeling like I know less about flu now than I did 10 years ago,' says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. That's especially true, he says, of bird flu.
"The particular virus that causes bird flu — H5N1 — itself is not new. It's a disease that originated in east Asia, first detected in China in 1996. The virus has mostly terrorized poultry farms and led to massive culling. It has occasionally spilled over to humans, causing some 400 deaths over the decades, but rarely spreads human-to-human. And while it has jumped over into wild birds periodically — killing many birds in many places — it never took off globally.
"Then came 2020 and 2021, when the version that's driving the current outbreak emerged.
"The virus evolved so some wild birds are able to migrate just far enough to reach another bird community or mammal population to pass the virus on before dying.
"'What you see here is like a relay race,' Uhart says. 'We were all skeptical that this could be possible, but then somehow this started happening.'
"'We've gone from this concept of dead birds don't fly to this new virus that seems to be a bit more like dead bird flying,' explains Erik Karlsson, head of the Virology Unit at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge in Cambodia and the director of the National Influenza Center of Cambodia.
"This means that the virus doesn't just stick around on poultry farms and periodically jump over into wildlife, but can sustain itself in wild birds, moving from one flock to the next without burning itself out.
"Scientists are still trying to understand exactly how the virus spreads between animals. One theory is that scavenger birds feast on mammal carcasses 'that are loaded with virus, then they get infected, obviously, and can spread it easily on their feet or beaks,' says Uhart. Another theory, she says: "It could be that [animals] poop in the water and the other animals drink [that water].' [That's what I think...]
"One theory of transmission is that birds come into contact with animals, like these elephant seal pups, who have died of bird flu — and pick up the virus.
How far can dead birds fly?
"Wild birds are particularly well suited to take this virus global — and fast.
"'If the natural reservoir for this virus was any other animal species than birds, we might expect to see it only located on a certain continent because animals don't swim across oceans. They don't climb over mountain ranges. The one animal species that does is birds,' says Osterholm.
"Traveling in infected wild birds, the virus took off and jumped over to North America in late 2021. From there, it went to #SouthAmerica leaving, destruction in its wake.
"'In South America, it traveled the 6,000 kilometer spine in about six months,' says Michelle Wille, senior research fellow at the Center for Pathogen Genomics at the University of Melbourne. 'So this is a virus that's not assisted by airplanes. This is a virus that's traveling by mass mortality after mass mortality after mass mortality after mass mortality.' It is killing not just birds in large numbers but also mammals, like elephant seals and #SeaLions, as well as #porpoises, #dolphins and #otters to a lesser degree.
"This year, South America has been a lot quieter. 'Surprisingly, Brazil does not have these recent cases in wild birds,' says Helena Lage Ferreira, a veterinary biologist at the University of São Paulo who studies #AvianFlu. Her team has tried to determine whether the birds have acquired #immunity. So far, results have been unclear. 'It's very difficult to understand," she says.
"Meanwhile, there's a new part of the planet at risk. Researchers are realizing the virus is now plaguing #Antarctica.
"They worry about this trend because Antarctica is a particularly hard place to study — and many of the animals that live there don't live elsewhere in the world. Even if there are researchers on the ground to collect samples, 'you have to wait for months and months on months, until those samples actually get to a lab, potentially also in the opposite hemisphere of the world,' says Uhart. And, by that time, she speculates, the virus will have already spread much further.
"This adds to a broader problem: Globally, nobody knows how many wild animals the virus has killed.
"'No one's counting. We have no idea,' says Wille. 'It is a global catastrophe'
Wildlife with the virus are bad news for humans"Researchers say the rapid spread is catastrophic for the animal species that are being hard hit. For example, in #Peru, thousands of Peruvian #pelicans have died. 'In a few weeks, almost one in two individuals of a species that just completely disappeared,' says Wille. And, she adds, it's still too early to know how these mass die-offs will impact ecosystems but it's likely to be significant.
"On top of that, this matters for human health.
"Wille and a team of other wildlife experts estimate that millions of birds have been infected and died, and tens of thousands of marine mammals have died. Each animal that is infected — particularly mammals — is another chance for the virus to evolve and become better suited to infecting people.
"This rapid evolution was evident earlier this year, when the first U.S. person — from Louisiana — died of bird flu. When scientists sequenced the virus from different organs from the body, they found 'the virus was changing within,' says Uhart. While this patient didn't pass the virus on to other people, Uhart says this case indicates how quickly the virus can change.
"There's another element in this genetic game. The virus is able to mix and match its genes with local influenza viruses if one animal is infected with multiple flu viruses. As this highly deadly bird flu virus arrives in new places it can mingle with a big pool of less deadly flu viruses and create new 'Frankenstein' viruses, explains Wille.
"And with each genetic change, there is the chance the virus could become more severe.
"At the moment, the virus can infect humans but has not yet evolved to jump readily from one human to another. That could change.
"And without keeping up with the virus's journey in wild animals, experts worry, humans will be caught unprepared and ill-equipped to tackle bird flu.
"'Ever since #H5N1 [bird flu] showed up,' says Osterholm, 'I tend to sleep with one eye open.'"
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/07/g-s1-46402/bird-flu-wild-animals-mammals-virus?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#HPAINews #HPAI #AvianInfluenza #BirdFlu #USHealth #CDCCensorship #WorldHealth #Extinction #Wildlife -
It's like 'dead birds flying': How #BirdFlu is spreading in the wild
By Gabrielle Emanuel, Goats And Soda
February 7, 20257:12 AM ET"A little over a year ago, Marcela Uhart was walking on the beach in Punta Delgada, Argentina. It was peak breeding session on this peninsula known for its rich marine wildlife. Usually, the salty breeze brought with it the sounds of baby elephant seals calling to their moms in high pitched yells.
"'This time it was silent,' recalls Uhart. 'The beaches were just loaded with carcasses. We saw basically every [#ElephantSeal] pup dead. We estimate about 18,000 dead baby elephant seals.'
"Dead from bird flu.
"And it wasn't just elephant seals. There were #terns – with their yellow beaks and black heads – stumbling about having seizures on the sand. The scene played out again and again in the weeks that followed, up and down the coastline. 'It was like birds falling out of the sky, dead,' she says.
"Uhart is a veterinarian and director of the Latin America Program at the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center at University of California, Davis. She arrived at the #PuntaDelgada beach suited up in a white hazmat suit, gloves and goggles in October 2023 ready to take samples and document the decimation. She's been tracking bird flu as it goes from one bird species to another — from seabirds to waterfowl to birds of prey — and then to marine mammals from sea lions to dolphins and then, sometimes, jumping back to birds.
"'It's just like wildfire. I mean it just killed everything it encountered,' she says, speaking to #NPR from #Argentina.
"In the U.S., bird flu headlines have focused on an unprecedented number of American cases and the impact of the virus on dairy cows and on poultry farms. But wildlife researchers like Uhart say the dramatic scene in Argentina is evidence that something new — and ominous — is going on with the virus that causes bird flu. And that ignoring it puts human health in peril.
A 'relay race' that started in 2020 and 2021
"'I've been studying flu viruses closely since 1980 and there are days when I wake up feeling like I know less about flu now than I did 10 years ago,' says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. That's especially true, he says, of bird flu.
"The particular virus that causes bird flu — H5N1 — itself is not new. It's a disease that originated in east Asia, first detected in China in 1996. The virus has mostly terrorized poultry farms and led to massive culling. It has occasionally spilled over to humans, causing some 400 deaths over the decades, but rarely spreads human-to-human. And while it has jumped over into wild birds periodically — killing many birds in many places — it never took off globally.
"Then came 2020 and 2021, when the version that's driving the current outbreak emerged.
"The virus evolved so some wild birds are able to migrate just far enough to reach another bird community or mammal population to pass the virus on before dying.
"'What you see here is like a relay race,' Uhart says. 'We were all skeptical that this could be possible, but then somehow this started happening.'
"'We've gone from this concept of dead birds don't fly to this new virus that seems to be a bit more like dead bird flying,' explains Erik Karlsson, head of the Virology Unit at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge in Cambodia and the director of the National Influenza Center of Cambodia.
"This means that the virus doesn't just stick around on poultry farms and periodically jump over into wildlife, but can sustain itself in wild birds, moving from one flock to the next without burning itself out.
"Scientists are still trying to understand exactly how the virus spreads between animals. One theory is that scavenger birds feast on mammal carcasses 'that are loaded with virus, then they get infected, obviously, and can spread it easily on their feet or beaks,' says Uhart. Another theory, she says: "It could be that [animals] poop in the water and the other animals drink [that water].' [That's what I think...]
"One theory of transmission is that birds come into contact with animals, like these elephant seal pups, who have died of bird flu — and pick up the virus.
How far can dead birds fly?
"Wild birds are particularly well suited to take this virus global — and fast.
"'If the natural reservoir for this virus was any other animal species than birds, we might expect to see it only located on a certain continent because animals don't swim across oceans. They don't climb over mountain ranges. The one animal species that does is birds,' says Osterholm.
"Traveling in infected wild birds, the virus took off and jumped over to North America in late 2021. From there, it went to #SouthAmerica leaving, destruction in its wake.
"'In South America, it traveled the 6,000 kilometer spine in about six months,' says Michelle Wille, senior research fellow at the Center for Pathogen Genomics at the University of Melbourne. 'So this is a virus that's not assisted by airplanes. This is a virus that's traveling by mass mortality after mass mortality after mass mortality after mass mortality.' It is killing not just birds in large numbers but also mammals, like elephant seals and #SeaLions, as well as #porpoises, #dolphins and #otters to a lesser degree.
"This year, South America has been a lot quieter. 'Surprisingly, Brazil does not have these recent cases in wild birds,' says Helena Lage Ferreira, a veterinary biologist at the University of São Paulo who studies #AvianFlu. Her team has tried to determine whether the birds have acquired #immunity. So far, results have been unclear. 'It's very difficult to understand," she says.
"Meanwhile, there's a new part of the planet at risk. Researchers are realizing the virus is now plaguing #Antarctica.
"They worry about this trend because Antarctica is a particularly hard place to study — and many of the animals that live there don't live elsewhere in the world. Even if there are researchers on the ground to collect samples, 'you have to wait for months and months on months, until those samples actually get to a lab, potentially also in the opposite hemisphere of the world,' says Uhart. And, by that time, she speculates, the virus will have already spread much further.
"This adds to a broader problem: Globally, nobody knows how many wild animals the virus has killed.
"'No one's counting. We have no idea,' says Wille. 'It is a global catastrophe'
Wildlife with the virus are bad news for humans"Researchers say the rapid spread is catastrophic for the animal species that are being hard hit. For example, in #Peru, thousands of Peruvian #pelicans have died. 'In a few weeks, almost one in two individuals of a species that just completely disappeared,' says Wille. And, she adds, it's still too early to know how these mass die-offs will impact ecosystems but it's likely to be significant.
"On top of that, this matters for human health.
"Wille and a team of other wildlife experts estimate that millions of birds have been infected and died, and tens of thousands of marine mammals have died. Each animal that is infected — particularly mammals — is another chance for the virus to evolve and become better suited to infecting people.
"This rapid evolution was evident earlier this year, when the first U.S. person — from Louisiana — died of bird flu. When scientists sequenced the virus from different organs from the body, they found 'the virus was changing within,' says Uhart. While this patient didn't pass the virus on to other people, Uhart says this case indicates how quickly the virus can change.
"There's another element in this genetic game. The virus is able to mix and match its genes with local influenza viruses if one animal is infected with multiple flu viruses. As this highly deadly bird flu virus arrives in new places it can mingle with a big pool of less deadly flu viruses and create new 'Frankenstein' viruses, explains Wille.
"And with each genetic change, there is the chance the virus could become more severe.
"At the moment, the virus can infect humans but has not yet evolved to jump readily from one human to another. That could change.
"And without keeping up with the virus's journey in wild animals, experts worry, humans will be caught unprepared and ill-equipped to tackle bird flu.
"'Ever since #H5N1 [bird flu] showed up,' says Osterholm, 'I tend to sleep with one eye open.'"
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/07/g-s1-46402/bird-flu-wild-animals-mammals-virus?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#HPAINews #HPAI #AvianInfluenza #BirdFlu #USHealth #CDCCensorship #WorldHealth #Extinction #Wildlife -
It's like 'dead birds flying': How #BirdFlu is spreading in the wild
By Gabrielle Emanuel, Goats And Soda
February 7, 20257:12 AM ET"A little over a year ago, Marcela Uhart was walking on the beach in Punta Delgada, Argentina. It was peak breeding session on this peninsula known for its rich marine wildlife. Usually, the salty breeze brought with it the sounds of baby elephant seals calling to their moms in high pitched yells.
"'This time it was silent,' recalls Uhart. 'The beaches were just loaded with carcasses. We saw basically every [#ElephantSeal] pup dead. We estimate about 18,000 dead baby elephant seals.'
"Dead from bird flu.
"And it wasn't just elephant seals. There were #terns – with their yellow beaks and black heads – stumbling about having seizures on the sand. The scene played out again and again in the weeks that followed, up and down the coastline. 'It was like birds falling out of the sky, dead,' she says.
"Uhart is a veterinarian and director of the Latin America Program at the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center at University of California, Davis. She arrived at the #PuntaDelgada beach suited up in a white hazmat suit, gloves and goggles in October 2023 ready to take samples and document the decimation. She's been tracking bird flu as it goes from one bird species to another — from seabirds to waterfowl to birds of prey — and then to marine mammals from sea lions to dolphins and then, sometimes, jumping back to birds.
"'It's just like wildfire. I mean it just killed everything it encountered,' she says, speaking to #NPR from #Argentina.
"In the U.S., bird flu headlines have focused on an unprecedented number of American cases and the impact of the virus on dairy cows and on poultry farms. But wildlife researchers like Uhart say the dramatic scene in Argentina is evidence that something new — and ominous — is going on with the virus that causes bird flu. And that ignoring it puts human health in peril.
A 'relay race' that started in 2020 and 2021
"'I've been studying flu viruses closely since 1980 and there are days when I wake up feeling like I know less about flu now than I did 10 years ago,' says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. That's especially true, he says, of bird flu.
"The particular virus that causes bird flu — H5N1 — itself is not new. It's a disease that originated in east Asia, first detected in China in 1996. The virus has mostly terrorized poultry farms and led to massive culling. It has occasionally spilled over to humans, causing some 400 deaths over the decades, but rarely spreads human-to-human. And while it has jumped over into wild birds periodically — killing many birds in many places — it never took off globally.
"Then came 2020 and 2021, when the version that's driving the current outbreak emerged.
"The virus evolved so some wild birds are able to migrate just far enough to reach another bird community or mammal population to pass the virus on before dying.
"'What you see here is like a relay race,' Uhart says. 'We were all skeptical that this could be possible, but then somehow this started happening.'
"'We've gone from this concept of dead birds don't fly to this new virus that seems to be a bit more like dead bird flying,' explains Erik Karlsson, head of the Virology Unit at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge in Cambodia and the director of the National Influenza Center of Cambodia.
"This means that the virus doesn't just stick around on poultry farms and periodically jump over into wildlife, but can sustain itself in wild birds, moving from one flock to the next without burning itself out.
"Scientists are still trying to understand exactly how the virus spreads between animals. One theory is that scavenger birds feast on mammal carcasses 'that are loaded with virus, then they get infected, obviously, and can spread it easily on their feet or beaks,' says Uhart. Another theory, she says: "It could be that [animals] poop in the water and the other animals drink [that water].' [That's what I think...]
"One theory of transmission is that birds come into contact with animals, like these elephant seal pups, who have died of bird flu — and pick up the virus.
How far can dead birds fly?
"Wild birds are particularly well suited to take this virus global — and fast.
"'If the natural reservoir for this virus was any other animal species than birds, we might expect to see it only located on a certain continent because animals don't swim across oceans. They don't climb over mountain ranges. The one animal species that does is birds,' says Osterholm.
"Traveling in infected wild birds, the virus took off and jumped over to North America in late 2021. From there, it went to #SouthAmerica leaving, destruction in its wake.
"'In South America, it traveled the 6,000 kilometer spine in about six months,' says Michelle Wille, senior research fellow at the Center for Pathogen Genomics at the University of Melbourne. 'So this is a virus that's not assisted by airplanes. This is a virus that's traveling by mass mortality after mass mortality after mass mortality after mass mortality.' It is killing not just birds in large numbers but also mammals, like elephant seals and #SeaLions, as well as #porpoises, #dolphins and #otters to a lesser degree.
"This year, South America has been a lot quieter. 'Surprisingly, Brazil does not have these recent cases in wild birds,' says Helena Lage Ferreira, a veterinary biologist at the University of São Paulo who studies #AvianFlu. Her team has tried to determine whether the birds have acquired #immunity. So far, results have been unclear. 'It's very difficult to understand," she says.
"Meanwhile, there's a new part of the planet at risk. Researchers are realizing the virus is now plaguing #Antarctica.
"They worry about this trend because Antarctica is a particularly hard place to study — and many of the animals that live there don't live elsewhere in the world. Even if there are researchers on the ground to collect samples, 'you have to wait for months and months on months, until those samples actually get to a lab, potentially also in the opposite hemisphere of the world,' says Uhart. And, by that time, she speculates, the virus will have already spread much further.
"This adds to a broader problem: Globally, nobody knows how many wild animals the virus has killed.
"'No one's counting. We have no idea,' says Wille. 'It is a global catastrophe'
Wildlife with the virus are bad news for humans"Researchers say the rapid spread is catastrophic for the animal species that are being hard hit. For example, in #Peru, thousands of Peruvian #pelicans have died. 'In a few weeks, almost one in two individuals of a species that just completely disappeared,' says Wille. And, she adds, it's still too early to know how these mass die-offs will impact ecosystems but it's likely to be significant.
"On top of that, this matters for human health.
"Wille and a team of other wildlife experts estimate that millions of birds have been infected and died, and tens of thousands of marine mammals have died. Each animal that is infected — particularly mammals — is another chance for the virus to evolve and become better suited to infecting people.
"This rapid evolution was evident earlier this year, when the first U.S. person — from Louisiana — died of bird flu. When scientists sequenced the virus from different organs from the body, they found 'the virus was changing within,' says Uhart. While this patient didn't pass the virus on to other people, Uhart says this case indicates how quickly the virus can change.
"There's another element in this genetic game. The virus is able to mix and match its genes with local influenza viruses if one animal is infected with multiple flu viruses. As this highly deadly bird flu virus arrives in new places it can mingle with a big pool of less deadly flu viruses and create new 'Frankenstein' viruses, explains Wille.
"And with each genetic change, there is the chance the virus could become more severe.
"At the moment, the virus can infect humans but has not yet evolved to jump readily from one human to another. That could change.
"And without keeping up with the virus's journey in wild animals, experts worry, humans will be caught unprepared and ill-equipped to tackle bird flu.
"'Ever since #H5N1 [bird flu] showed up,' says Osterholm, 'I tend to sleep with one eye open.'"
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/07/g-s1-46402/bird-flu-wild-animals-mammals-virus?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#HPAINews #HPAI #AvianInfluenza #BirdFlu #USHealth #CDCCensorship #WorldHealth #Extinction #Wildlife -
It's like 'dead birds flying': How #BirdFlu is spreading in the wild
By Gabrielle Emanuel, Goats And Soda
February 7, 20257:12 AM ET"A little over a year ago, Marcela Uhart was walking on the beach in Punta Delgada, Argentina. It was peak breeding session on this peninsula known for its rich marine wildlife. Usually, the salty breeze brought with it the sounds of baby elephant seals calling to their moms in high pitched yells.
"'This time it was silent,' recalls Uhart. 'The beaches were just loaded with carcasses. We saw basically every [#ElephantSeal] pup dead. We estimate about 18,000 dead baby elephant seals.'
"Dead from bird flu.
"And it wasn't just elephant seals. There were #terns – with their yellow beaks and black heads – stumbling about having seizures on the sand. The scene played out again and again in the weeks that followed, up and down the coastline. 'It was like birds falling out of the sky, dead,' she says.
"Uhart is a veterinarian and director of the Latin America Program at the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center at University of California, Davis. She arrived at the #PuntaDelgada beach suited up in a white hazmat suit, gloves and goggles in October 2023 ready to take samples and document the decimation. She's been tracking bird flu as it goes from one bird species to another — from seabirds to waterfowl to birds of prey — and then to marine mammals from sea lions to dolphins and then, sometimes, jumping back to birds.
"'It's just like wildfire. I mean it just killed everything it encountered,' she says, speaking to #NPR from #Argentina.
"In the U.S., bird flu headlines have focused on an unprecedented number of American cases and the impact of the virus on dairy cows and on poultry farms. But wildlife researchers like Uhart say the dramatic scene in Argentina is evidence that something new — and ominous — is going on with the virus that causes bird flu. And that ignoring it puts human health in peril.
A 'relay race' that started in 2020 and 2021
"'I've been studying flu viruses closely since 1980 and there are days when I wake up feeling like I know less about flu now than I did 10 years ago,' says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. That's especially true, he says, of bird flu.
"The particular virus that causes bird flu — H5N1 — itself is not new. It's a disease that originated in east Asia, first detected in China in 1996. The virus has mostly terrorized poultry farms and led to massive culling. It has occasionally spilled over to humans, causing some 400 deaths over the decades, but rarely spreads human-to-human. And while it has jumped over into wild birds periodically — killing many birds in many places — it never took off globally.
"Then came 2020 and 2021, when the version that's driving the current outbreak emerged.
"The virus evolved so some wild birds are able to migrate just far enough to reach another bird community or mammal population to pass the virus on before dying.
"'What you see here is like a relay race,' Uhart says. 'We were all skeptical that this could be possible, but then somehow this started happening.'
"'We've gone from this concept of dead birds don't fly to this new virus that seems to be a bit more like dead bird flying,' explains Erik Karlsson, head of the Virology Unit at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge in Cambodia and the director of the National Influenza Center of Cambodia.
"This means that the virus doesn't just stick around on poultry farms and periodically jump over into wildlife, but can sustain itself in wild birds, moving from one flock to the next without burning itself out.
"Scientists are still trying to understand exactly how the virus spreads between animals. One theory is that scavenger birds feast on mammal carcasses 'that are loaded with virus, then they get infected, obviously, and can spread it easily on their feet or beaks,' says Uhart. Another theory, she says: "It could be that [animals] poop in the water and the other animals drink [that water].' [That's what I think...]
"One theory of transmission is that birds come into contact with animals, like these elephant seal pups, who have died of bird flu — and pick up the virus.
How far can dead birds fly?
"Wild birds are particularly well suited to take this virus global — and fast.
"'If the natural reservoir for this virus was any other animal species than birds, we might expect to see it only located on a certain continent because animals don't swim across oceans. They don't climb over mountain ranges. The one animal species that does is birds,' says Osterholm.
"Traveling in infected wild birds, the virus took off and jumped over to North America in late 2021. From there, it went to #SouthAmerica leaving, destruction in its wake.
"'In South America, it traveled the 6,000 kilometer spine in about six months,' says Michelle Wille, senior research fellow at the Center for Pathogen Genomics at the University of Melbourne. 'So this is a virus that's not assisted by airplanes. This is a virus that's traveling by mass mortality after mass mortality after mass mortality after mass mortality.' It is killing not just birds in large numbers but also mammals, like elephant seals and #SeaLions, as well as #porpoises, #dolphins and #otters to a lesser degree.
"This year, South America has been a lot quieter. 'Surprisingly, Brazil does not have these recent cases in wild birds,' says Helena Lage Ferreira, a veterinary biologist at the University of São Paulo who studies #AvianFlu. Her team has tried to determine whether the birds have acquired #immunity. So far, results have been unclear. 'It's very difficult to understand," she says.
"Meanwhile, there's a new part of the planet at risk. Researchers are realizing the virus is now plaguing #Antarctica.
"They worry about this trend because Antarctica is a particularly hard place to study — and many of the animals that live there don't live elsewhere in the world. Even if there are researchers on the ground to collect samples, 'you have to wait for months and months on months, until those samples actually get to a lab, potentially also in the opposite hemisphere of the world,' says Uhart. And, by that time, she speculates, the virus will have already spread much further.
"This adds to a broader problem: Globally, nobody knows how many wild animals the virus has killed.
"'No one's counting. We have no idea,' says Wille. 'It is a global catastrophe'
Wildlife with the virus are bad news for humans"Researchers say the rapid spread is catastrophic for the animal species that are being hard hit. For example, in #Peru, thousands of Peruvian #pelicans have died. 'In a few weeks, almost one in two individuals of a species that just completely disappeared,' says Wille. And, she adds, it's still too early to know how these mass die-offs will impact ecosystems but it's likely to be significant.
"On top of that, this matters for human health.
"Wille and a team of other wildlife experts estimate that millions of birds have been infected and died, and tens of thousands of marine mammals have died. Each animal that is infected — particularly mammals — is another chance for the virus to evolve and become better suited to infecting people.
"This rapid evolution was evident earlier this year, when the first U.S. person — from Louisiana — died of bird flu. When scientists sequenced the virus from different organs from the body, they found 'the virus was changing within,' says Uhart. While this patient didn't pass the virus on to other people, Uhart says this case indicates how quickly the virus can change.
"There's another element in this genetic game. The virus is able to mix and match its genes with local influenza viruses if one animal is infected with multiple flu viruses. As this highly deadly bird flu virus arrives in new places it can mingle with a big pool of less deadly flu viruses and create new 'Frankenstein' viruses, explains Wille.
"And with each genetic change, there is the chance the virus could become more severe.
"At the moment, the virus can infect humans but has not yet evolved to jump readily from one human to another. That could change.
"And without keeping up with the virus's journey in wild animals, experts worry, humans will be caught unprepared and ill-equipped to tackle bird flu.
"'Ever since #H5N1 [bird flu] showed up,' says Osterholm, 'I tend to sleep with one eye open.'"
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/07/g-s1-46402/bird-flu-wild-animals-mammals-virus?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#HPAINews #HPAI #AvianInfluenza #BirdFlu #USHealth #CDCCensorship #WorldHealth #Extinction #Wildlife -
It's like 'dead birds flying': How #BirdFlu is spreading in the wild
By Gabrielle Emanuel, Goats And Soda
February 7, 20257:12 AM ET"A little over a year ago, Marcela Uhart was walking on the beach in Punta Delgada, Argentina. It was peak breeding session on this peninsula known for its rich marine wildlife. Usually, the salty breeze brought with it the sounds of baby elephant seals calling to their moms in high pitched yells.
"'This time it was silent,' recalls Uhart. 'The beaches were just loaded with carcasses. We saw basically every [#ElephantSeal] pup dead. We estimate about 18,000 dead baby elephant seals.'
"Dead from bird flu.
"And it wasn't just elephant seals. There were #terns – with their yellow beaks and black heads – stumbling about having seizures on the sand. The scene played out again and again in the weeks that followed, up and down the coastline. 'It was like birds falling out of the sky, dead,' she says.
"Uhart is a veterinarian and director of the Latin America Program at the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center at University of California, Davis. She arrived at the #PuntaDelgada beach suited up in a white hazmat suit, gloves and goggles in October 2023 ready to take samples and document the decimation. She's been tracking bird flu as it goes from one bird species to another — from seabirds to waterfowl to birds of prey — and then to marine mammals from sea lions to dolphins and then, sometimes, jumping back to birds.
"'It's just like wildfire. I mean it just killed everything it encountered,' she says, speaking to #NPR from #Argentina.
"In the U.S., bird flu headlines have focused on an unprecedented number of American cases and the impact of the virus on dairy cows and on poultry farms. But wildlife researchers like Uhart say the dramatic scene in Argentina is evidence that something new — and ominous — is going on with the virus that causes bird flu. And that ignoring it puts human health in peril.
A 'relay race' that started in 2020 and 2021
"'I've been studying flu viruses closely since 1980 and there are days when I wake up feeling like I know less about flu now than I did 10 years ago,' says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. That's especially true, he says, of bird flu.
"The particular virus that causes bird flu — H5N1 — itself is not new. It's a disease that originated in east Asia, first detected in China in 1996. The virus has mostly terrorized poultry farms and led to massive culling. It has occasionally spilled over to humans, causing some 400 deaths over the decades, but rarely spreads human-to-human. And while it has jumped over into wild birds periodically — killing many birds in many places — it never took off globally.
"Then came 2020 and 2021, when the version that's driving the current outbreak emerged.
"The virus evolved so some wild birds are able to migrate just far enough to reach another bird community or mammal population to pass the virus on before dying.
"'What you see here is like a relay race,' Uhart says. 'We were all skeptical that this could be possible, but then somehow this started happening.'
"'We've gone from this concept of dead birds don't fly to this new virus that seems to be a bit more like dead bird flying,' explains Erik Karlsson, head of the Virology Unit at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge in Cambodia and the director of the National Influenza Center of Cambodia.
"This means that the virus doesn't just stick around on poultry farms and periodically jump over into wildlife, but can sustain itself in wild birds, moving from one flock to the next without burning itself out.
"Scientists are still trying to understand exactly how the virus spreads between animals. One theory is that scavenger birds feast on mammal carcasses 'that are loaded with virus, then they get infected, obviously, and can spread it easily on their feet or beaks,' says Uhart. Another theory, she says: "It could be that [animals] poop in the water and the other animals drink [that water].' [That's what I think...]
"One theory of transmission is that birds come into contact with animals, like these elephant seal pups, who have died of bird flu — and pick up the virus.
How far can dead birds fly?
"Wild birds are particularly well suited to take this virus global — and fast.
"'If the natural reservoir for this virus was any other animal species than birds, we might expect to see it only located on a certain continent because animals don't swim across oceans. They don't climb over mountain ranges. The one animal species that does is birds,' says Osterholm.
"Traveling in infected wild birds, the virus took off and jumped over to North America in late 2021. From there, it went to #SouthAmerica leaving, destruction in its wake.
"'In South America, it traveled the 6,000 kilometer spine in about six months,' says Michelle Wille, senior research fellow at the Center for Pathogen Genomics at the University of Melbourne. 'So this is a virus that's not assisted by airplanes. This is a virus that's traveling by mass mortality after mass mortality after mass mortality after mass mortality.' It is killing not just birds in large numbers but also mammals, like elephant seals and #SeaLions, as well as #porpoises, #dolphins and #otters to a lesser degree.
"This year, South America has been a lot quieter. 'Surprisingly, Brazil does not have these recent cases in wild birds,' says Helena Lage Ferreira, a veterinary biologist at the University of São Paulo who studies #AvianFlu. Her team has tried to determine whether the birds have acquired #immunity. So far, results have been unclear. 'It's very difficult to understand," she says.
"Meanwhile, there's a new part of the planet at risk. Researchers are realizing the virus is now plaguing #Antarctica.
"They worry about this trend because Antarctica is a particularly hard place to study — and many of the animals that live there don't live elsewhere in the world. Even if there are researchers on the ground to collect samples, 'you have to wait for months and months on months, until those samples actually get to a lab, potentially also in the opposite hemisphere of the world,' says Uhart. And, by that time, she speculates, the virus will have already spread much further.
"This adds to a broader problem: Globally, nobody knows how many wild animals the virus has killed.
"'No one's counting. We have no idea,' says Wille. 'It is a global catastrophe'
Wildlife with the virus are bad news for humans"Researchers say the rapid spread is catastrophic for the animal species that are being hard hit. For example, in #Peru, thousands of Peruvian #pelicans have died. 'In a few weeks, almost one in two individuals of a species that just completely disappeared,' says Wille. And, she adds, it's still too early to know how these mass die-offs will impact ecosystems but it's likely to be significant.
"On top of that, this matters for human health.
"Wille and a team of other wildlife experts estimate that millions of birds have been infected and died, and tens of thousands of marine mammals have died. Each animal that is infected — particularly mammals — is another chance for the virus to evolve and become better suited to infecting people.
"This rapid evolution was evident earlier this year, when the first U.S. person — from Louisiana — died of bird flu. When scientists sequenced the virus from different organs from the body, they found 'the virus was changing within,' says Uhart. While this patient didn't pass the virus on to other people, Uhart says this case indicates how quickly the virus can change.
"There's another element in this genetic game. The virus is able to mix and match its genes with local influenza viruses if one animal is infected with multiple flu viruses. As this highly deadly bird flu virus arrives in new places it can mingle with a big pool of less deadly flu viruses and create new 'Frankenstein' viruses, explains Wille.
"And with each genetic change, there is the chance the virus could become more severe.
"At the moment, the virus can infect humans but has not yet evolved to jump readily from one human to another. That could change.
"And without keeping up with the virus's journey in wild animals, experts worry, humans will be caught unprepared and ill-equipped to tackle bird flu.
"'Ever since #H5N1 [bird flu] showed up,' says Osterholm, 'I tend to sleep with one eye open.'"
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/07/g-s1-46402/bird-flu-wild-animals-mammals-virus?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#HPAINews #HPAI #AvianInfluenza #BirdFlu #USHealth #CDCCensorship #WorldHealth #Extinction #Wildlife -
Welcome #BackToWork folks, here is hoping for a good 2026.
PS if you have good news for me, today is a great day for sending it to at least add sprinkles to the pile of dirt :)
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Welcome #BackToWork folks, here is hoping for a good 2026.
PS if you have good news for me, today is a great day for sending it to at least add sprinkles to the pile of dirt :)
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Welcome #BackToWork folks, here is hoping for a good 2026.
PS if you have good news for me, today is a great day for sending it to at least add sprinkles to the pile of dirt :)
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Welcome #BackToWork folks, here is hoping for a good 2026.
PS if you have good news for me, today is a great day for sending it to at least add sprinkles to the pile of dirt :)
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CW: DnD, Combat
Praest hits the Centaurs with the Insect Plague and deals 25 poitns of damage, which is neither here nor there, and then it's the #Minotaurs' turn. They do some damage against the Toad-creature and the Ape but not enough to kill them. On the Ape's turn, he punches me, not doing too much damage, or so I thought! I had a secret 17HP off my total, so I'm down. I fail my first save. Blinky is crying. Seluna comes over and tries to give me a potion of Greater Healing. #DnD #DnDWednesdays
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Here's my #ThursdayFiveList with #The5Ws (Who, What, When, Where and Why):
Little Walter: Who (1956)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBk_h5Cr_XsChuck Willis: What Am I Living For (1958)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El5IFskYk2kJackie DeShannon: When You Walk In the Room (1963)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVCBSIn_1j0Helena Ferguson: Where Is the Party (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9NcechGx7wSweet Inspirations: Why (Am I Treated So Bad) (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYss1GUCii0 -
A quotation from Christopher Marlowe
FAUSTUS: Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium —
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. —
[They kiss]
Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies! —
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
[They kiss again]
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 5, sc. 1 (sc. 13), l. 1358ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)More about this quote: wist.info/marlowe-christopher/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #christophermarlowe #kitmarlowe #faustus #helenoftroy #illiad #trojanwar #allure #attraction #attractiveness #beauty #breathtaking #enchantment #glamor #goddess #obsession #resplendency #vision #passion
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A quotation from Christopher Marlowe
FAUSTUS: Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium —
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. —
[They kiss]
Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies! —
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
[They kiss again]
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 5, sc. 1 (sc. 13), l. 1358ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)More about this quote: wist.info/marlowe-christopher/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #christophermarlowe #kitmarlowe #faustus #helenoftroy #illiad #trojanwar #allure #attraction #attractiveness #beauty #breathtaking #enchantment #glamor #goddess #obsession #resplendency #vision #passion
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A quotation from Christopher Marlowe
FAUSTUS: Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium —
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. —
[They kiss]
Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies! —
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
[They kiss again]
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 5, sc. 1 (sc. 13), l. 1358ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)More about this quote: wist.info/marlowe-christopher/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #christophermarlowe #kitmarlowe #faustus #helenoftroy #illiad #trojanwar #allure #attraction #attractiveness #beauty #breathtaking #enchantment #glamor #goddess #obsession #resplendency #vision #passion
-
A quotation from Christopher Marlowe
FAUSTUS: Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium —
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. —
[They kiss]
Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies! —
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
[They kiss again]
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 5, sc. 1 (sc. 13), l. 1358ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)More about this quote: wist.info/marlowe-christopher/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #christophermarlowe #kitmarlowe #faustus #helenoftroy #illiad #trojanwar #allure #attraction #attractiveness #beauty #breathtaking #enchantment #glamor #goddess #obsession #resplendency #vision #passion
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Saigon-NhaTrang
Previously in Vietnam: 2002 Lao Chai and Ta Van Village, Sa Pa; 2021, Hanoi, Christmas Hanoi – YouTubeVideo 2021, Cat Cat, Sapa Trekking, 2012 Hoi An, Vietnam, 2011 HaLong Bay and Hanoi and 40 years ago, 2015 YouTube Hanoi Rain
Yes, we are on the way: one month Vietnam, on month India, one month Penang – we will add to this every couple of times…
Leaving Australia 2025Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
My waste of a time of a clip of the flight screen – though I thought it was interesting
https://youtu.be/7XiXwavwsl8?si=hNwyxxjhAb-tcKT0
Vietnam 2025
Narda in italics – Terrell whatever…
January 09
Leaving for Guangzhou.
Dinner at Marcellina with Janie. and Leon. They picked us up because we were having a meltdown about our car insurances. Which we decided to check at the last possible moment.
Then came another near disaster
We took a walk seeking gelati which we did not find because Helena (gelati queen) was in Goolwa. So, I decided to practise losing a bag. Luckily, I was unsuccessful and found it on a quick and slightly panicked return to the restaurant.
Packed. Well, Narda had us packed a month ago – she likes to start early. I suppose that as she would say (did say), we would have a roller-coaster of a time before we left. She was correct. Brendan, Sofie, Arha in tow (11-months) down from Pakistan for two-weeks, leaving the day before us, having ourselves packed and ready was a rather good notion.
Now we are flying on China Southern and I’m practising saying thank you in Chinese. “Sheshe”.( E as in egg)
The hostie said, “very good”.
The China Southern flight turned out to be one of our best ever.
- We got 3 meals in a 9-hour flight. All yummy.
- Leg room generous. 4 inches to spare.
- I watched movies the whole way. Mainly lots of episodes of All creatures great and small.
- Plenty of wine. Had some for breakfast. No one minded.
We did a house-exchange with folks from Denver a few years back. Because of COVID they didn’t get to our house until now. They will arrive soon. So, we were flat out getting setup for them to live in our house for a month – followed by our regulars from Wales/UK. Along with it being Christmas and so much family coming and going and meals here and there and everyone flying off to some place or the other.
I told the story to the boredom of all those around again, I think I even told it in our Denver blog a few years ago; but here it is again. So, we were staying in this beautiful large home in Denver. They had a marvellous bathroom with light-coloured marble top sink (probably six feet). One evening, as I have been doing forever, I mixed some oils together for my hair (I forget the formula for then as I change it often). Somehow, perhaps, my container leaked or got knocked over in the night, the oil pooled on the light-coloured marble top. About a four-inch spill. I quickly soaked it up the best I could, but the stain was still there. We went to various kitchen shops and came home with some liquid that we were told would remove it – just put a cloth over it and twenty-four hours later it would be gone. It wasn’t. It had grown by a shocking disproportionate amount. We went to a hardware place, and they said ‘this will definitely remove your troubles – in twenty-four hours’. It didn’t. with only a few days left in our stay and me in total panic we decided to use something that changed the whole once-was-white marble into a lovely grayish colour. We rang the house owner’s maintenance person who we were to contact if we had any issues with anything and he told us not to worry as the owners were quite chilled people. And that is that story. They never complained – I said sorry many times and at least once to them. Now they are at our house, and I still feel I owe them something. Of course, if they want to change our old wood bathroom top to another colour to make us equal that is fine. And this is why I do not have AI write my blogs – how could it? Stupid AI. I asked how much carry-on luggage for China Southern, and it said five kilos which made me panic all the way to the airport when I thankfully discovered it is eight kilos, and my backpack weighs 7.7 kilos with computer and camera and lens and nothing else. So, piss off AI.
I like China Southern. It is the airlines we took often during the three years we lived in China and wandered back and forth to Australia. So much better than Singapore Airline which we made lots of complaints about sometime in the past. The food is probably the best for the airlines between Adelaide and Asia. I think we were the only westerners on this flight. Didn’t know there were so many Chinese people in Adelaide – of course, there are hundred less now. We are overnight in Guangzhou so we can be rested for our flight to Vietnam where we will scamper about as the elderly do for a month before hopping over to India for a month, we recently got a five-year visa for India so looks like we will be still going there when I am 82-83. Damn!
Ah. China sun. We know that one.
Terrell tackling his oyster omelette!
The second flight was a smaller aircraft, and my dickie knee got significantly dickier. Oh well.
I have been reading “The Dharma Bums” by Jack Kerouac, after reading all about the future of AI in “Nexus” by Yuval Harari I needed to get back to my roots and read something from the 1950’s beat generation – a bit before my time but I always have related to that time and even considered myself a beatnik in the 1960s before the hippie movement replaced it.
Just read where he hopped a freight train from outside of San Francisco down to LA. I did that once in about 1967. He used to hitchhike across the states. I did that heaps, San Francisco to NYC and back but that was the 1960s. Now we just fly all over.
You may know Kerouac from his famous book, “On the road” one of the leading beat poet/novel authors of the day. Oh, I ramble here – just saying after “Nexus” reading Kerouac on a flight to China and beyond is good. Perhaps I will only read books/poems from the 1950s- 1960s from now on as it is better for one’s peace of mind. Hello, 2025!
Just one night in Guangzhou. Not having a Chinese SIM card for just a 12-hour stay we asked at a service desk to ring our hotel for how to get there and that worked out fine. Gate 38 where the shuttle to the Marriott stopped every hour. We got there at 8 pm and aside of a too warm room with an air conditioner that didn’t cool the room down all night; we even got an hotel person to help but all night nothing happened and we were awake in our very warm room a lot.
We took the six am shuttle to terminal two, allegedly the largest in the world, it was big, found the closest to breakfast we could find which for me was an oyster omelette – it was deep fried, strange but excellent. Narda couldn’t eat such a concoction and ordered two eggs but due to a lack of English or Chinese on our part we got cups of warm tea with milk. I put in ‘toast’ in my translator and she offered me beer. I suppose ‘toast’ to the Chinese means to toast like cheers mate. Welcome to China.
Now on our flight to Saigon which Narda refuses to call Ho Chi Minh due to some political reasoning of hers. More translation fun. Apparently I am the only one who is a vegetarian on this flight which sent the servers into a fringy thrashing about looking for me and ended by giving me what all the meat-eating fanatics were digging in with upmost gusto and suggested I just separate the obvious roadkill of indistinguishable origins from the vegetables; potato and a string bean, and learn to accept my lot in life. Sometimes I wonder if the real reason I have been a vegetarian for sixty years, since about 17, is for all the attention it generates. I do love animals, but this is beyond love, I am sure.
Then comes the coffee. The Chinese seem to like to mix milk and heaps of sugar in their coffee. Being diabetic I don’t want sugar. So that puts them into a tizzy too and off they go to make my coffee without sugar. Damn I am needy. Needy but happy.
I had separated my roadkill from the potatoes and lonely single string bean and so did Narda who has no issues with eating sentient creatures, so we swapped and were happy in our individual consciousness-specific needs fulfillment and enlightenment. Now I am offered a serving of what she calls porridge but in reality, is creamed rice with at the most six kernels of corn and wait… there are little pieces of chicken. Do they never give up trying to force dead animals into me, talk about a world-wide conspiracy. So, I separate and conquer and eat. I didn’t have the heart to inform her or whatever pronouns people use these days that I am on a low carb diet. It gets more difficult being me all the time.
Saigon arrival
Arriving in VietnamSaigon (I refuse to call it Ho Chi Minh, this city is not just about one person. I spoke with a resident, and she fully agreed)
Here we are in our Airbnb on the 9th floor of a very tall building. One of a cluster. It’s a town all by itself with 2 supermarkets, a swimming pool, a couple of restaurants and many many coffee shops. The clientele is young Asian couples with preschool children. We are pretty much the only oldies and the only westerners.
It’s all very friendly
Not a tourist in sight!!! Bonus.
We arrived at the airport about ten am and as with any airport it was chaotic and crowded. We signed up for grab taxi last year and have been told it is one of the best services there is anywhere. So easy; we put in the location of where we wanted to go, the app had already listed exactly where we were and a few minutes our car was reported in front of us. Being a bit confused for our first shot at this we got someone to assist and soon we were on our way. The cost for the 45-minute journey, in USD, was for $9.67 and a $1.97 tip which was 20% to our flat arriving about 3 pm. Our place is on the ninth floor of a new 34-story building. Very flash. The first thing we did was take a nap. We walked around the complex, a city within itself, about six-towers with lots of shops on the ground level. Not finding a restaurant that we could figure out we bought groceries and made dinner at home. Our first day in Saigon was a success. We couldn’t figure out their TV, which was a large screen with a projector on the opposite wall. We found YouTube and saw the awful destruction of the fires in LA.
our flat in section seven- view from our balcony of the Saigon River
- view from our balcony of the Saigon River
- our building in section 7
- our building in section 7
A day out.
Started with a 15-minute walk to our neighbouring high rise village here in section 7. Quite a scruffy walk. They have their own “shits creek”. But when we got there it was a whole other world, with stately mansions and leafy streets
We kept on walking to a main road where we found a bus, bus #20 which took us all the way to district 1 for a princely sum of 24 cents each (or 13,000 Vietnamese dongs)
We found, by chance the new metro which has two lines going about 15 stops. There was a huge crowd. A Saturday and it’s all free. Off we went. Got off a few stops in and had a coffee and came back.
On the way out we took the wrong exit to avoid another queue. Terrell made it undetected and I tried to follow and got stuck. The bloody male staff member told Terrell to tell his wife to learn to follow instructions. 🤣😆 fat chance!!
https://youtu.be/5t6L4-cCEPI?si=6RqRG9E16xB4zZbE
Today we decided to take a ferry somewhere. Bus #20 took us pretty close, a bit of walking and dodgy road crossing…….there is a walk way but no traffic stops for you so you just have to step on to the very busy road and keep walking slowly… not watch any traffic. They just drive around you. It’s terrifying.
The ferry had tickets for us to a seaside town called Vung Tau.
https://youtu.be/-x37sdYrioQ?si=xysn_NbnNc7zNahh
The ferry was fast and furious. Quite impressive with more than 100 people on board. We enjoyed standing at the back outside watching the wake and the many other boats we passed.
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
Then came the quest for dinner. We had planned to try some of the impressive list of “must eat in Vietnam” supplied to us by Brendan a long term resident of Vietnam.
Well it was chaotic. So many people milling around. We finished up in a park (on walking street) full of kids listening to extremely loud hideous music. But there was food.
first night of New Years 2025 Year of the SnakeWe bought chicken teriyaki and shrimp and salad, definitely not from Bren’s list. But it hit the spot. Then a Grab taxi home. Given the chaos this was a minor miracle.
- first night of New Years 2025 Year of the Snake
- first night of New Years 2025 Year of the Snake
I had ‘the Banh Xeo’ as illustrated in the clip above, like a dosa (a thin, savoury crepe in Indian cuisine made from a fermented batter of ground black gram and rice) with prawns etc rolled into rice papers 89.000 ($3.60 USD) – Narda had ‘Cha Gio’ (spring rolls made by wrapping filling in clear rice paper wrappers (bánh tráng) and then frying them.) 79,000 ($3.20 USD).
Realizing we were not leaving today; after packing up everything and starting out the door I looked at something I posted and saw we had the wrong date and we are to leave tomorrow. Oops. So we are having another day in Saigon, decided to get a Grab into the centre of town again – about 45-minutes and about seven bucks to amend our error.
Took Grab to Notre Dame only to discover it was closed for renovations, for the year.
Walked across the street to the groovy old post office. Saigon Central Post Office is notable for its perfect combination of Neo-classical European architecture and Asian decorations.
2. The long-established Saigon Central Post Office history
The history of Saigon Central Post Office dates back to the late nineteenth century, when Vietnam was part of French Indochina. After successfully invading Saigon in 1863, the French started establishing a communication system by constructing Saigon Telegraph-wire Department, which was the precursor of Saigon Central Post Office. The designer of this building was Gustave Eiffel, who was the architect of some iconic constructions including the Eiffel Tower (Paris), Statue of Liberty (New York) and Long Bien Bridge (Hanoi). (the internet)
- Saigon Post Office
- Saigon Post Office
Because they like to dress for Tet coming up apparantly these women like to go to historic sites and strut their stuff.
- Ao Dai, the traditional Vietnamese long dress, is very popular during Tet. These gowns, in the graceful traditional style or more colorful and innovative styles, enhance the charm of Vietnamese women
- Ao Dai, the traditional Vietnamese long dress, is very popular during Tet. These gowns, in the graceful traditional style or more colorful and innovative styles, enhance the charm of Vietnamese women
Walked around Book Street had coffee –
Wandered over to The Independence Palace (Vietnamese: Dinh Độc Lập), also publicly known as the Reunification Convention Hall – It was the site of the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975 that ended the Vietnam War, when a North Vietnamese Army tank crashed through its gates.
Yanks land to surrender to Vietnam and admit they lost and it was a stupid thing to do to begin with- some stuff was signed here
- The Independence Palace signing space to end divisions making all one country
- Very interested toruist
- words
- Reunification Convention Hall & surrounds
- more words
- Reunification Convention Hall & surrounds
- Reunification Convention Hall & surrounds
walked all over looking for bus to train gave up got Grab for $2.10 which included tip – lunch at train station – Grab home $7.10 including tip – about 40 minutes
Nha Trang
We packed our bags, cleaned the apartment, and then discovered that we still had another day.
Scary
Oh well. The train ride was beautiful. Clean and easy. I could even manage the climb up to the top bunk.
Our next apartment was interesting. We have a bunch of young folk next door from Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
It’s a 3 floor hike upstairs, but the location is brilliant. Close to the ocean, the train and lots of eateries. Today we found the best one on the 7th floor of a shopping mall. A never closing restaurant with decent prices and a good selection of food. The only thing is that you have to share it with a bowling alley.
We took the pristine electric bus to the Marriott Hotel which marks the entrance to the overhead. We finished up being “used” in some sort of promotional endeavour.
- Nha Trang Bus 23 we are part of some promotion have no idea what
- Nha Trang Bus 23 we are part of some promotion have no idea what
- Nha Trang Bus 23 we are part of some promotion have no idea what
Today we took another bus ride in the opposite direction finishing up in a new construction out of town on a peninsula.
Bus 23 just started a few months ago and is the first all electric bus in Nha Trang. It is very expensive compared to Saigon where buses were about 30 cents USD. In Nha Trang we paid a whopping 62-cents each. Gosh. In Australia we pay nothing. Oh wait! That is because we are seniors and get free transportation. We also get free seniors coffee at McDonald’s. The actual rule is that we are supposed to buy something for $4 then get a free ‘senior’s coffee’ but most places give us the free coffee and we buy nothing else because, really, what is there to purchase? I am a vegetarian of sixty-years (not my age just the length of time I have not eaten animals). McDonald’s has nothing else to offer except sweets and then of course being a diabetic I don’t want that either. In Vietnam no one offers us senior coffee or anything for free.
- located in the Northeast of Nha Trang City, running along the pass road (commonly known as Vinh Luong pass road) overlooking Nha Trang Bay and Nha Phu Bay (Nha Phu lagoon). This area has Bai Tien and Bai Hau located under the cliff of Vinh Luong pass road, possessing a wild and unique beauty with colorful rocks. This is a place that has not been exploited much for tourism.
- the Libera Nha Trang project
- Terrell’s little friend
- discover 121 precious coral species, 81 marine plant species right in Nha Trang at Van San Dao Coral Park – the first artificial coral park in Vietnam
- oppo_1026
- oppo_1026
This is the other side of Nha Trang, the older part. The sea is more suitable for swimming and boating.
Legend of the Fairy and the Fisherman
At the heart of Nha Trang lies the beautiful Hon Chong Promontory, which is shrouded in a captivating legend. According to the tale, there once lived a lonely fisherman named Lang and a mesmerizingly beautiful fairy named Nang. Despite the mortal-immortal divide between them, Lang and Nang fell deeply in love, much to the disapproval of the other fairies.
As the story goes, Nang’s wings were cut off as punishment for her forbidden love, forcing her to remain on Earth with Lang. Their eternal love and bond have since become an enduring symbol of romance in Nha Trang. Today, the Hon Chong Promontory stands as a reminder of their love story, drawing countless visitors who come to witness the sunset and seek blessings for their own relationships. (I believe this is true as I read it on the internet)- life in the fast lane
- life in the fast lane
Because it is almost lunar New Year – the one of the snake – everything and everyone is in a festive mood.
Given that the 2025 Year of the Snake is identified as the Year of the Yisi, with Yi representing Wood and Si representing Fire, those born in 2025 should favour the East over the West. Heading East is thought to be more auspicious and supportive of personal growth for Wood Snake individualsThere are block after block of bonsai trees and flowers. A very colourful city.
- bonsai trees
- bonsai trees
- bonsai trees
- bonsai trees
- oppo_1026
- bonsai trees and flowers
And amazing sculptures
- wood and tree sculptures
- wood and tree sculptures
- wood and tree sculptures
- wood and tree sculptures
Po Nagar is a Cham temple tower founded sometime before 781. We visited this wonderful place for an afternoon. Walking there from our flat and taking a Grab taxi home.
- Po Nagar temple
- Po Nagar temple
- Po Nagar
- Po Nagar temple
- Po Nagar temple
- Po Nagar temple
Always a challenge to get food – without meat – Narda takes over…
We neglected to tell the story of the Bluey Crocs.
Arhan’s birthday was rapidly approaching. What to get? Being a Bluey Fan #1 before the age of #1 what else was there in the world of Bluey – which I refer to as ‘that cult’ but to purchase Bluey Crocs for a child who has yet to take his first step but who of course would go head over heels (probably the wrong expression) for such a gift. So off we went looking for them. We had seen other children with them on, and this being Vietnam, surely we could find a knock off copy of them for peanuts or some such substance. I thought hey! 120,000 dongs sounds like a lot, and yes, that does equal five dollars US, but five bucks goes along ways here.
We found there was only one place that had any left. These things sell out apparently worldwide. Vincom Mall behind Gold Coast Mall or perhaps it was Gold Coast Mall next to Vincom Mall, whatever, we found them. Yippie. What on sale too? Oh know, $55 USD or simply put, 1,323,085.61 dongs. Yes they did round it up to 1,323,085 dongs. Lucky us. Well that was a bit painful (for me) but now we had them.
We bought size 8 – he will be able to wear them long into the future. All the smaller sized were sold out. It’s a cult.
Ok. All we need to do is post them to Pakistan so Arhan could have them in time for his birthday in a week. The store said no. We left forDaNang the next day which is really what this blog will be about but I had to tell this last story from Nha Trang.
BTW, Bluey apparently is the #1 watched cartoon in the world. Americans complain that their children are speaking with an Australian accent. Perhaps I should watch it as I have been in Australia since 1981 (except for three years teaching in China and nine years teaching in New York during that time) and Narda says I still sound like a Yank. We met a girl who is in film school in Melbourne last night at her parent’s cafe, here in Ninh Binh, who spoke with a perfect American accent. She said she watched the Disney Channel as a child, and she too was a Bluey fan. See it’s a cult.
I will come back to this posting attempts later on.
Previously in Vietnam: 2002 Lao Chai and Ta Van Village, Sa Pa; 2021, Hanoi, Christmas Hanoi – YouTubeVideo 2021, Cat Cat, Sapa Trekking, 2012 Hoi An, Vietnam, 2011 HaLong Bay and Hanoi and 40 years ago, 2015 YouTube Hanoi Rain
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Saigon-NhaTrang
Previously in Vietnam: 2002 Lao Chai and Ta Van Village, Sa Pa; 2021, Hanoi, Christmas Hanoi – YouTubeVideo 2021, Cat Cat, Sapa Trekking, 2012 Hoi An, Vietnam, 2011 HaLong Bay and Hanoi and 40 years ago, 2015 YouTube Hanoi Rain
Yes, we are on the way: one month Vietnam, on month India, one month Penang – we will add to this every couple of times…
Leaving Australia 2025Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
My waste of a time of a clip of the flight screen – though I thought it was interesting
https://youtu.be/7XiXwavwsl8?si=hNwyxxjhAb-tcKT0
Vietnam 2025
Narda in italics – Terrell whatever…
January 09
Leaving for Guangzhou.
Dinner at Marcellina with Janie. and Leon. They picked us up because we were having a meltdown about our car insurances. Which we decided to check at the last possible moment.
Then came another near disaster
We took a walk seeking gelati which we did not find because Helena (gelati queen) was in Goolwa. So, I decided to practise losing a bag. Luckily, I was unsuccessful and found it on a quick and slightly panicked return to the restaurant.
Packed. Well, Narda had us packed a month ago – she likes to start early. I suppose that as she would say (did say), we would have a roller-coaster of a time before we left. She was correct. Brendan, Sofie, Arha in tow (11-months) down from Pakistan for two-weeks, leaving the day before us, having ourselves packed and ready was a rather good notion.
Now we are flying on China Southern and I’m practising saying thank you in Chinese. “Sheshe”.( E as in egg)
The hostie said, “very good”.
The China Southern flight turned out to be one of our best ever.
- We got 3 meals in a 9-hour flight. All yummy.
- Leg room generous. 4 inches to spare.
- I watched movies the whole way. Mainly lots of episodes of All creatures great and small.
- Plenty of wine. Had some for breakfast. No one minded.
We did a house-exchange with folks from Denver a few years back. Because of COVID they didn’t get to our house until now. They will arrive soon. So, we were flat out getting setup for them to live in our house for a month – followed by our regulars from Wales/UK. Along with it being Christmas and so much family coming and going and meals here and there and everyone flying off to some place or the other.
I told the story to the boredom of all those around again, I think I even told it in our Denver blog a few years ago; but here it is again. So, we were staying in this beautiful large home in Denver. They had a marvellous bathroom with light-coloured marble top sink (probably six feet). One evening, as I have been doing forever, I mixed some oils together for my hair (I forget the formula for then as I change it often). Somehow, perhaps, my container leaked or got knocked over in the night, the oil pooled on the light-coloured marble top. About a four-inch spill. I quickly soaked it up the best I could, but the stain was still there. We went to various kitchen shops and came home with some liquid that we were told would remove it – just put a cloth over it and twenty-four hours later it would be gone. It wasn’t. It had grown by a shocking disproportionate amount. We went to a hardware place, and they said ‘this will definitely remove your troubles – in twenty-four hours’. It didn’t. with only a few days left in our stay and me in total panic we decided to use something that changed the whole once-was-white marble into a lovely grayish colour. We rang the house owner’s maintenance person who we were to contact if we had any issues with anything and he told us not to worry as the owners were quite chilled people. And that is that story. They never complained – I said sorry many times and at least once to them. Now they are at our house, and I still feel I owe them something. Of course, if they want to change our old wood bathroom top to another colour to make us equal that is fine. And this is why I do not have AI write my blogs – how could it? Stupid AI. I asked how much carry-on luggage for China Southern, and it said five kilos which made me panic all the way to the airport when I thankfully discovered it is eight kilos, and my backpack weighs 7.7 kilos with computer and camera and lens and nothing else. So, piss off AI.
I like China Southern. It is the airlines we took often during the three years we lived in China and wandered back and forth to Australia. So much better than Singapore Airline which we made lots of complaints about sometime in the past. The food is probably the best for the airlines between Adelaide and Asia. I think we were the only westerners on this flight. Didn’t know there were so many Chinese people in Adelaide – of course, there are hundred less now. We are overnight in Guangzhou so we can be rested for our flight to Vietnam where we will scamper about as the elderly do for a month before hopping over to India for a month, we recently got a five-year visa for India so looks like we will be still going there when I am 82-83. Damn!
Ah. China sun. We know that one.
Terrell tackling his oyster omelette!
The second flight was a smaller aircraft, and my dickie knee got significantly dickier. Oh well.
I have been reading “The Dharma Bums” by Jack Kerouac, after reading all about the future of AI in “Nexus” by Yuval Harari I needed to get back to my roots and read something from the 1950’s beat generation – a bit before my time but I always have related to that time and even considered myself a beatnik in the 1960s before the hippie movement replaced it.
Just read where he hopped a freight train from outside of San Francisco down to LA. I did that once in about 1967. He used to hitchhike across the states. I did that heaps, San Francisco to NYC and back but that was the 1960s. Now we just fly all over.
You may know Kerouac from his famous book, “On the road” one of the leading beat poet/novel authors of the day. Oh, I ramble here – just saying after “Nexus” reading Kerouac on a flight to China and beyond is good. Perhaps I will only read books/poems from the 1950s- 1960s from now on as it is better for one’s peace of mind. Hello, 2025!
Just one night in Guangzhou. Not having a Chinese SIM card for just a 12-hour stay we asked at a service desk to ring our hotel for how to get there and that worked out fine. Gate 38 where the shuttle to the Marriott stopped every hour. We got there at 8 pm and aside of a too warm room with an air conditioner that didn’t cool the room down all night; we even got an hotel person to help but all night nothing happened and we were awake in our very warm room a lot.
We took the six am shuttle to terminal two, allegedly the largest in the world, it was big, found the closest to breakfast we could find which for me was an oyster omelette – it was deep fried, strange but excellent. Narda couldn’t eat such a concoction and ordered two eggs but due to a lack of English or Chinese on our part we got cups of warm tea with milk. I put in ‘toast’ in my translator and she offered me beer. I suppose ‘toast’ to the Chinese means to toast like cheers mate. Welcome to China.
Now on our flight to Saigon which Narda refuses to call Ho Chi Minh due to some political reasoning of hers. More translation fun. Apparently I am the only one who is a vegetarian on this flight which sent the servers into a fringy thrashing about looking for me and ended by giving me what all the meat-eating fanatics were digging in with upmost gusto and suggested I just separate the obvious roadkill of indistinguishable origins from the vegetables; potato and a string bean, and learn to accept my lot in life. Sometimes I wonder if the real reason I have been a vegetarian for sixty years, since about 17, is for all the attention it generates. I do love animals, but this is beyond love, I am sure.
Then comes the coffee. The Chinese seem to like to mix milk and heaps of sugar in their coffee. Being diabetic I don’t want sugar. So that puts them into a tizzy too and off they go to make my coffee without sugar. Damn I am needy. Needy but happy.
I had separated my roadkill from the potatoes and lonely single string bean and so did Narda who has no issues with eating sentient creatures, so we swapped and were happy in our individual consciousness-specific needs fulfillment and enlightenment. Now I am offered a serving of what she calls porridge but in reality, is creamed rice with at the most six kernels of corn and wait… there are little pieces of chicken. Do they never give up trying to force dead animals into me, talk about a world-wide conspiracy. So, I separate and conquer and eat. I didn’t have the heart to inform her or whatever pronouns people use these days that I am on a low carb diet. It gets more difficult being me all the time.
Saigon arrival
Arriving in VietnamSaigon (I refuse to call it Ho Chi Minh, this city is not just about one person. I spoke with a resident, and she fully agreed)
Here we are in our Airbnb on the 9th floor of a very tall building. One of a cluster. It’s a town all by itself with 2 supermarkets, a swimming pool, a couple of restaurants and many many coffee shops. The clientele is young Asian couples with preschool children. We are pretty much the only oldies and the only westerners.
It’s all very friendly
Not a tourist in sight!!! Bonus.
We arrived at the airport about ten am and as with any airport it was chaotic and crowded. We signed up for grab taxi last year and have been told it is one of the best services there is anywhere. So easy; we put in the location of where we wanted to go, the app had already listed exactly where we were and a few minutes our car was reported in front of us. Being a bit confused for our first shot at this we got someone to assist and soon we were on our way. The cost for the 45-minute journey, in USD, was for $9.67 and a $1.97 tip which was 20% to our flat arriving about 3 pm. Our place is on the ninth floor of a new 34-story building. Very flash. The first thing we did was take a nap. We walked around the complex, a city within itself, about six-towers with lots of shops on the ground level. Not finding a restaurant that we could figure out we bought groceries and made dinner at home. Our first day in Saigon was a success. We couldn’t figure out their TV, which was a large screen with a projector on the opposite wall. We found YouTube and saw the awful destruction of the fires in LA.
our flat in section seven- view from our balcony of the Saigon River
- view from our balcony of the Saigon River
- our building in section 7
- our building in section 7
A day out.
Started with a 15-minute walk to our neighbouring high rise village here in section 7. Quite a scruffy walk. They have their own “shits creek”. But when we got there it was a whole other world, with stately mansions and leafy streets
We kept on walking to a main road where we found a bus, bus #20 which took us all the way to district 1 for a princely sum of 24 cents each (or 13,000 Vietnamese dongs)
We found, by chance the new metro which has two lines going about 15 stops. There was a huge crowd. A Saturday and it’s all free. Off we went. Got off a few stops in and had a coffee and came back.
On the way out we took the wrong exit to avoid another queue. Terrell made it undetected and I tried to follow and got stuck. The bloody male staff member told Terrell to tell his wife to learn to follow instructions. 🤣😆 fat chance!!
https://youtu.be/5t6L4-cCEPI?si=6RqRG9E16xB4zZbE
Today we decided to take a ferry somewhere. Bus #20 took us pretty close, a bit of walking and dodgy road crossing…….there is a walk way but no traffic stops for you so you just have to step on to the very busy road and keep walking slowly… not watch any traffic. They just drive around you. It’s terrifying.
The ferry had tickets for us to a seaside town called Vung Tau.
https://youtu.be/-x37sdYrioQ?si=xysn_NbnNc7zNahh
The ferry was fast and furious. Quite impressive with more than 100 people on board. We enjoyed standing at the back outside watching the wake and the many other boats we passed.
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
- GreenlinesDP Ferry from Saigon to Vung Tau
Then came the quest for dinner. We had planned to try some of the impressive list of “must eat in Vietnam” supplied to us by Brendan a long term resident of Vietnam.
Well it was chaotic. So many people milling around. We finished up in a park (on walking street) full of kids listening to extremely loud hideous music. But there was food.
first night of New Years 2025 Year of the SnakeWe bought chicken teriyaki and shrimp and salad, definitely not from Bren’s list. But it hit the spot. Then a Grab taxi home. Given the chaos this was a minor miracle.
- first night of New Years 2025 Year of the Snake
- first night of New Years 2025 Year of the Snake
I had ‘the Banh Xeo’ as illustrated in the clip above, like a dosa (a thin, savoury crepe in Indian cuisine made from a fermented batter of ground black gram and rice) with prawns etc rolled into rice papers 89.000 ($3.60 USD) – Narda had ‘Cha Gio’ (spring rolls made by wrapping filling in clear rice paper wrappers (bánh tráng) and then frying them.) 79,000 ($3.20 USD).
Realizing we were not leaving today; after packing up everything and starting out the door I looked at something I posted and saw we had the wrong date and we are to leave tomorrow. Oops. So we are having another day in Saigon, decided to get a Grab into the centre of town again – about 45-minutes and about seven bucks to amend our error.
Took Grab to Notre Dame only to discover it was closed for renovations, for the year.
Walked across the street to the groovy old post office. Saigon Central Post Office is notable for its perfect combination of Neo-classical European architecture and Asian decorations.
2. The long-established Saigon Central Post Office history
The history of Saigon Central Post Office dates back to the late nineteenth century, when Vietnam was part of French Indochina. After successfully invading Saigon in 1863, the French started establishing a communication system by constructing Saigon Telegraph-wire Department, which was the precursor of Saigon Central Post Office. The designer of this building was Gustave Eiffel, who was the architect of some iconic constructions including the Eiffel Tower (Paris), Statue of Liberty (New York) and Long Bien Bridge (Hanoi). (the internet)
- Saigon Post Office
- Saigon Post Office
Because they like to dress for Tet coming up apparantly these women like to go to historic sites and strut their stuff.
- Ao Dai, the traditional Vietnamese long dress, is very popular during Tet. These gowns, in the graceful traditional style or more colorful and innovative styles, enhance the charm of Vietnamese women
- Ao Dai, the traditional Vietnamese long dress, is very popular during Tet. These gowns, in the graceful traditional style or more colorful and innovative styles, enhance the charm of Vietnamese women
Walked around Book Street had coffee –
Wandered over to The Independence Palace (Vietnamese: Dinh Độc Lập), also publicly known as the Reunification Convention Hall – It was the site of the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975 that ended the Vietnam War, when a North Vietnamese Army tank crashed through its gates.
Yanks land to surrender to Vietnam and admit they lost and it was a stupid thing to do to begin with- some stuff was signed here
- The Independence Palace signing space to end divisions making all one country
- Very interested toruist
- words
- Reunification Convention Hall & surrounds
- more words
- Reunification Convention Hall & surrounds
- Reunification Convention Hall & surrounds
walked all over looking for bus to train gave up got Grab for $2.10 which included tip – lunch at train station – Grab home $7.10 including tip – about 40 minutes
Nha Trang
We packed our bags, cleaned the apartment, and then discovered that we still had another day.
Scary
Oh well. The train ride was beautiful. Clean and easy. I could even manage the climb up to the top bunk.
Our next apartment was interesting. We have a bunch of young folk next door from Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
It’s a 3 floor hike upstairs, but the location is brilliant. Close to the ocean, the train and lots of eateries. Today we found the best one on the 7th floor of a shopping mall. A never closing restaurant with decent prices and a good selection of food. The only thing is that you have to share it with a bowling alley.
We took the pristine electric bus to the Marriott Hotel which marks the entrance to the overhead. We finished up being “used” in some sort of promotional endeavour.
- Nha Trang Bus 23 we are part of some promotion have no idea what
- Nha Trang Bus 23 we are part of some promotion have no idea what
- Nha Trang Bus 23 we are part of some promotion have no idea what
Today we took another bus ride in the opposite direction finishing up in a new construction out of town on a peninsula.
Bus 23 just started a few months ago and is the first all electric bus in Nha Trang. It is very expensive compared to Saigon where buses were about 30 cents USD. In Nha Trang we paid a whopping 62-cents each. Gosh. In Australia we pay nothing. Oh wait! That is because we are seniors and get free transportation. We also get free seniors coffee at McDonald’s. The actual rule is that we are supposed to buy something for $4 then get a free ‘senior’s coffee’ but most places give us the free coffee and we buy nothing else because, really, what is there to purchase? I am a vegetarian of sixty-years (not my age just the length of time I have not eaten animals). McDonald’s has nothing else to offer except sweets and then of course being a diabetic I don’t want that either. In Vietnam no one offers us senior coffee or anything for free.
- located in the Northeast of Nha Trang City, running along the pass road (commonly known as Vinh Luong pass road) overlooking Nha Trang Bay and Nha Phu Bay (Nha Phu lagoon). This area has Bai Tien and Bai Hau located under the cliff of Vinh Luong pass road, possessing a wild and unique beauty with colorful rocks. This is a place that has not been exploited much for tourism.
- the Libera Nha Trang project
- Terrell’s little friend
- discover 121 precious coral species, 81 marine plant species right in Nha Trang at Van San Dao Coral Park – the first artificial coral park in Vietnam
- oppo_1026
- oppo_1026
This is the other side of Nha Trang, the older part. The sea is more suitable for swimming and boating.
Legend of the Fairy and the Fisherman
At the heart of Nha Trang lies the beautiful Hon Chong Promontory, which is shrouded in a captivating legend. According to the tale, there once lived a lonely fisherman named Lang and a mesmerizingly beautiful fairy named Nang. Despite the mortal-immortal divide between them, Lang and Nang fell deeply in love, much to the disapproval of the other fairies.
As the story goes, Nang’s wings were cut off as punishment for her forbidden love, forcing her to remain on Earth with Lang. Their eternal love and bond have since become an enduring symbol of romance in Nha Trang. Today, the Hon Chong Promontory stands as a reminder of their love story, drawing countless visitors who come to witness the sunset and seek blessings for their own relationships. (I believe this is true as I read it on the internet)- life in the fast lane
- life in the fast lane
Because it is almost lunar New Year – the one of the snake – everything and everyone is in a festive mood.
Given that the 2025 Year of the Snake is identified as the Year of the Yisi, with Yi representing Wood and Si representing Fire, those born in 2025 should favour the East over the West. Heading East is thought to be more auspicious and supportive of personal growth for Wood Snake individualsThere are block after block of bonsai trees and flowers. A very colourful city.
- bonsai trees
- bonsai trees
- bonsai trees
- bonsai trees
- oppo_1026
- bonsai trees and flowers
And amazing sculptures
- wood and tree sculptures
- wood and tree sculptures
- wood and tree sculptures
- wood and tree sculptures
Po Nagar is a Cham temple tower founded sometime before 781. We visited this wonderful place for an afternoon. Walking there from our flat and taking a Grab taxi home.
- Po Nagar temple
- Po Nagar temple
- Po Nagar
- Po Nagar temple
- Po Nagar temple
- Po Nagar temple
Always a challenge to get food – without meat – Narda takes over…
We neglected to tell the story of the Bluey Crocs.
Arhan’s birthday was rapidly approaching. What to get? Being a Bluey Fan #1 before the age of #1 what else was there in the world of Bluey – which I refer to as ‘that cult’ but to purchase Bluey Crocs for a child who has yet to take his first step but who of course would go head over heels (probably the wrong expression) for such a gift. So off we went looking for them. We had seen other children with them on, and this being Vietnam, surely we could find a knock off copy of them for peanuts or some such substance. I thought hey! 120,000 dongs sounds like a lot, and yes, that does equal five dollars US, but five bucks goes along ways here.
We found there was only one place that had any left. These things sell out apparently worldwide. Vincom Mall behind Gold Coast Mall or perhaps it was Gold Coast Mall next to Vincom Mall, whatever, we found them. Yippie. What on sale too? Oh know, $55 USD or simply put, 1,323,085.61 dongs. Yes they did round it up to 1,323,085 dongs. Lucky us. Well that was a bit painful (for me) but now we had them.
We bought size 8 – he will be able to wear them long into the future. All the smaller sized were sold out. It’s a cult.
Ok. All we need to do is post them to Pakistan so Arhan could have them in time for his birthday in a week. The store said no. We left forDaNang the next day which is really what this blog will be about but I had to tell this last story from Nha Trang.
BTW, Bluey apparently is the #1 watched cartoon in the world. Americans complain that their children are speaking with an Australian accent. Perhaps I should watch it as I have been in Australia since 1981 (except for three years teaching in China and nine years teaching in New York during that time) and Narda says I still sound like a Yank. We met a girl who is in film school in Melbourne last night at her parent’s cafe, here in Ninh Binh, who spoke with a perfect American accent. She said she watched the Disney Channel as a child, and she too was a Bluey fan. See it’s a cult.
I will come back to this posting attempts later on.
Previously in Vietnam: 2002 Lao Chai and Ta Van Village, Sa Pa; 2021, Hanoi, Christmas Hanoi – YouTubeVideo 2021, Cat Cat, Sapa Trekking, 2012 Hoi An, Vietnam, 2011 HaLong Bay and Hanoi and 40 years ago, 2015 YouTube Hanoi Rain
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Here's #MyShakespeareWinter part 12 of 37:
#AllsWellThatEndsWell is intriguing, as medicine woman Helena defends her dignity by using trickery to claim the vain deceitful Count Bertram who spurns her. She wins her man, but her man is a bad cad, so is all well with this ending?