The last couple of days I have been out and about in the shops, well I had to giggle to myself looking at the new styles of fashion for Australian ladies, they seem to be in either  Tan, Russet, Wood Brown, Orange, Chocolate, Khaki, Raw Umber and the shades go on all in a rust type color.

I am thinking whoever made these styles up must have been limited to the rust colour in their dyes.

Or perhaps due to the limitations of colours they have mixed all the left over shades and bingo we have the browns!

What a totally boring selection of styles and colours, think I will save my money and keep my clothing in the colours I prefer even though they may be old fashioned!!

Who let this rubbish in?????????

Who let this rubbish in?????????

https://www.thelodge-scotland.com/the-treehouse

Guinness recalls its new alcohol-free stout as it warns of 'microbiological contamination' in some cans which makes it 'unsafe to consume' 

Guinness has announced a 'precautionary' recall of Guinness 0.0, its recently launched non-alcoholic stout, in Great Britain amid concerns of contamination in some cans making them unsafe to drink.

From a flat Earth to Australia's 'inland sea' and the 'island of California': Fascinating book reveals the myths, lies and blunders on maps throughout the ages

Welcome to the cartography of yesteryear, when maps were informed not just by mathematics and exploration, but also by huge dollops of folklore and imaginative speculation - as fascinating book The Phantom Atlas, the Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps by Edward Brooke-Hitching reveals. His fascinating tome gathers together the wildest misbeliefs ever drawn on maps, 'revealing the world as it existed purely in the imaginations of our ancestors'. Pictured are maps showing a flat Earth (top left), Australia's mythical inland sea (top right), California as an island (bottom left) and the world according to 16th-century cartography (bottom right)

'They have enough trouble reading normal addresses': Australia Post is slammed for asking customers to use Aboriginal place names - with frustrated Aussies saying they should try to be on time instead

Australia Post has been slammed online for encouraging people to use traditional Aboriginal place names when sending mail. The postal service updated its online address guidelines this week to include instructions (left) on how to incorporate one of the nation's 500 traditional place names (right) on parcels and letters. On its website, Australia Post asks customers to write the traditional place name underneath the recipient's name and above the street address to ensure the mail arrives at the correct address. However, not everyone was pleased by this initiative (inset).

BOM and CSIRO State of the Climate 2020 shows Australia is experiencing climate change now

Kate Doyle and Clint Jasper, Friday November 13, 2020 - 02:03 EDT

The Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO have teamed up for the latest biannual report on the climate, and the findings are clear: Australia is experiencing climate change now, and the warming trend is continuing. 



We are now up to 1.44 degrees Celsius of warming since 1910, plus or minus 0.24C, resulting in increased extreme heat days, heatwaves and raised fire danger.

Karl Braganza, manager of the climate environmental prediction service at the Bureau, said the science had been broadly consistent and largely accurate in the way that it had portrayed and projected the climate system for the last several decades. 

"What we are seeing now is a more tangible shift in the extremes, so we are starting to feel how that shift in the average is impacting on the extreme events," he said.



"We don't necessarily feel the 1.44 degree increase in Australia's average temperature but we feel those heatwaves and we feel that fire weather." 

In the two years since the last State of the Climate report we have lived through 2019, the hottest year on record, which produced one of the worst fire seasons we have ever seen. 

Dr Jaci Brown, research director at the CSIRO's climate science centre, says that in 10 to 20 years' time, 2019 will not be seen as unusual.

"In fact, we think of this decade being hot, but this decade will be one of the coolest in the next hundred years," according to Dr Brown.

Fire threat

This time last year 

It fits the trend of the fire season starting earlier and hitting with increasing intensity. 

"Absolutely we are saying that Australia should prepare for an increased fire risk," Dr Braganza said. 



He said the sort of fire events seen since the 2003 fires in Canberra were not one-offs.

"They are the sort of events we should treat as becoming more and more likely as warming continues." 

Dr Brown was emphatic: "The message is very clear here. The State of the Climate report shows warming, it shows conditions drying through parts of Australia, and the projections are for hotter and dryer conditions going forward."



Changes in rainfall 

Many parts of the country have seen a welcome change, with wetter conditions in recent months, but that does not mean we are out of the woods long-term. 

Southern cool season rainfall is expected to continue to decline. 



Three quarters of hydrologic reference stations across the country show a declining trend in streamflow. 

According to Dr Brown, a lot of climate change is locked in, and so adaptation is a big part of what we do from now.

"Australian farmers, for example, are very used to dealing with climate variability and coming up with clever ways to manage and adapt," she said. 

"New types of crops, new things to plant, new ways to work together to keep ourselves strong through these next few decades." 

In contrast, northern warm season monsoonal rainfall has been above average over the last two decades. 

But this rainfall remains inconsistent. Both the last two wet seasons recorded below-average rainfall. 



As the atmosphere and oceans continue to warm, heavy rainfall is expected to become more intense. 

Ocean sinks

As we have pumped CO2 into the atmosphere 

But that has not come without an impact upon our oceans. 

Surface waters around Australia are estimated to have had a 30 per cent increase in acidity since the 1880s, and sea levels have risen by 25cm globally since 1880 as a result of thermal expansion and ice melt. 



The rate of sea level rise is increasing. It is now up to an average of 3cm per decade globally, but this is dependent on location. 

Australia's northern and south-eastern coasts have been well above the global average, with the north-eastern and southern coastlines closer to average. 

Although the total number of tropical cyclones is expected to decrease in the future, warmer oceans, higher sea levels and more intense rainfall all increase the risk posed by tropical cyclones in the future. 

2020 slowdown not enough to stem the tide

Even 2020's global slowdown hasn't been enough to stop atmospheric concentrations of CO2 from increasing. 

Dr Brown said there was a drop in the rate of increase of CO2, but that the slowdown was indistinguishable from the background variability. 

"Another way to think about this is, if you have been eating junk food for 10 years and then you go on a diet for one day and you jump on the scales the next morning expecting to see some change, drop a dress size. 

"It is not that simple. This is about a very long-term change" 



CO2 concentrations in our atmosphere are now well above any level reached in the last 800,000 years.

"I think the big challenge for our children and our grandchildren will be how to flatten this curve," Dr Brown said. 

This year 

Australia is currently under the influence of the La Niña phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation.

La Niña events are typically associated with wetter-than-average conditions for all but the south-west. 

Currently this year's La Niña is not tracking to be as severe as the last major La Niña in 2010/2011, but the Bureau will continue to monitor how the oceans warm over spring. 



There is an increased risk of flooding for the east and north, with an above average risk of cyclones this summer.

The rise of chocolate PIZZAS: Indulgent foodie fad iced with all kinds of tasty treats is taking the country by storm

A range of chocolate pizzas has taken the internet by storm after being launched by a humble Australian whisky distillery.

https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/red-earth-australia?mediatype=photography&phrase=red%20earth%20australia&sort=mostpopular

Fears grow as alert triggered at New Zealand’s deadly Whakaari volcanoBen McKay and staff writersAAPNovember 13, 2020 2:04PMTOPICSDisaster and EmergencyNatural DisastersWorld News

Geologists have lifted the volcanic alert level on Whakaari, the New Zealand volcano which killed 21 people in an eruption last year.

GeoNet has placed White Island at level two after observing volcanic ash from the steam and gas plumes, which has landed on its webcams.

Scientists from New Zealand’s seismic monitoring agency, GNS Science, have lifted the alert level to two — the same level that it was during the deadly December eruption almost a year ago — after conducting aerial reconnaissance flights.

“Observations during the flight confirmed the presence of some fine material (ash) in the plume,” duty vulcanologist Yannik Behr said.

The island has also seen recent heavy rain and a small sequence of earthquakes, leading to “several episodes of slightly increased volcanic tremor”.

Such variances in activity have not been seen this year but are normal; there is no suggestion the volcano is set to erupt.

“While the gas output observed on Thursday is higher than recent observations, other monitoring parameters do not show significant changes.”

The volcanic island Whakaari or White Island in New Zealand’s northeastern Bay of Plenty region explosively erupted just after 2pm on December 9, 2019 sending a plume of ash almost 4km into the air

.

There were 47 people on the island at the time, including 24 Australians.

Twenty-three people were removed from the island via boats before it was declared unsafe.

A further 12 survivors were rescued via helicopter.

Twenty-one people were killed in the blast, including two who are missing and declared dead, and a further 26 were injured.

Of those, 14 Australians died.

The Australia Day Skyworks — Perth’s biggest annual event — has been cancelled because of COVID-19.

WA Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson recommended to Premier Mark McGowan that the fireworks display — which attracts 300,000 people to the Swan River foreshore — not proceed on public health grounds.

The City of Perth was told of the advice late yesterday.

Skyworks normally attaracts 300,000 people to the South Perth and CBD foreshore each year. Credit: Thom

Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas said while it was disappointing news for all Western Australians, the event was always subject to the State Government’s COVID-19 roadmap and restrictions.

Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas in the Council Chambers. Credit: Danella Bevis/The West Australian

“The advice from the Chief Health Officer is that proceeding with Skyworks in 2021 presents too great a risk to community safety. We have said all along public safety and wellbeing must come first,” Mr Zempilas said.

More detailed plans for an alternative January 26 celebrations will be unveiled ahead of the next council meeting later this month.

Event organisers were encouraged to consider seated and ticketed performances, reduced patron numbers and limited alcohol availability.

This week it was announced the Alinta Energy Christmas Pageant would go-ahead on December 12, with some changes.

The pageant has moved to Langley Park and, due to contact tracing and physical distancing requirements, people needed to register online for a ticket.

Registration for tickets opens next week. For more information, go to 7perthchristmaspageant.com