Interesting Bits and Pieces
From recent happenings or stories around Australia and the world.
At 100 years old, John Russell is the last surviving member of Australia's first Antarctic station team.
In a quiet suburban street north of Brisbane is a hidden treasure trove of Australia's Antarctic history, in the form of 100-year-old John Russell. A former engineer, John is the last surviving member of a 10-man team who first established Mawson Station in 1954, huddled on exposed rock, surrounded by ice — the longest permanently operating station south of the Antarctic Circle.
The 10-man team that established Australia's Mawson Station in 1954, pictured at the station, Australian Antarctic Division.
Underwater Photographer of the Year 2021
Mark Kirkland has been named British Underwater Photographer of the Year 2021 - and the British waters wide angle category winner - for this picture, which he took close to his home in Glasgow. Mr Kirkland said: 'This small muddy pond is an unlikely haven for wildlife, squeezed between a housing estate, supermarket and factory. But for a few nights each year, while the city sleeps, it comes alive with frogs. This frame was the culmination of 25 hours over four winter nights of lying stationary in darkness.
Ice "volcano" forms in Kazakhstan.
Standing tall, the frozen structure formed over an underground spring that is still spouting water that almost instantly freezes and builds upon the cone design.
2021 Sony World Photography Awards ... National Awards revealed.
This image of a lightning-filled storm cloud was snapped by Raphael Barbar from a mountain called Salève near Geneva. He scoops the national award title for Switzerland.
The winner of the national award for the USA is this striking image of a 'snaking dune' in Death Valley meeting the surrounding mountains snapped by Patrick Mueller.
A bee lands on a pink flannel flower near the Golden Stairs lookout in the Blue Mountains National Park, Katoomba, Australia.
Photograph: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images
Pink flannel flowers (Actinotus forsythii) are extremely rare and only grow in scattered parts of eastern Australia, from the Blue Mountains to north-eastern Victoria. The seeds can lay dormant for years, only sprouting following a special series of events to create the right conditions for their emergence, and have appeared a year on after the Blue Mountains bushfires were followed by rainfall.
Strange new hi-tech boats.
Italy Vs UK in the America's Cup run-offs in Auckland New Zealand. Just back from watching at my son's place. How strange the new boats look these days... they're so hi-tech their hulls don't even stay in the water ... nothing like the racing yachts of old. Not sure what I make of them.
Bird Family on Lilies.
Birds on Victoria cruzianas, a species of the Nymphaeaceae family of water lilies (Yacare Yrupe in Guarani), which appear every three to four years in great numbers and size in the Paraguay River, Piquete Cue, north of Asunción the largest city of Paraguay in South America.
Photograph: Norberto Duarte/AFP/Getty Images.
Another swimmer drowns on the Gold Coast on Saturday morning, the third death in treacherous surf in 36 hours.
A swimmer has drowned this morning at Mermaid Beach. This morning's death follows the double drowning on Thursday night, just a few kilometres up the road at Broadbeach on Thursday night. Gym manager Jake Jacobs and his female companion died after a late-night swim. The woman's body was pulled from the surf about an hour later, but but Mr Jacobs was not found until nearly 24 hours later.
A hazardous surf warning has been issued for the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Fraser Island, with swells up to 3 metres.
Full ABC story.