Willis's Walkabouts Newsletter 129, July 2024 ― 6 places left
If you are viewing this on a mobile, the newsletter and many of the links should work better in a horizontal format.
This is the shortest newsletter I've ever done. The reason is a deadline.
Restricted content. Articles marked * or ** are on restricted websites Click for more info, including how you can sometimes avoid the paywalls.
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In this issue
WW 2024 ― 6 places left
There are only six places left on our trips before 20 October.
- Kakadu Highlights No. 6: Graveside Gorge: 21-28 July
Only one place left. Guide: Don Butcher
Special offer: $500 discount. New price: $2195. - Mitchell Plateau No. 2: 21 July - 4 August
Five places left. Guide: Paul Blattman
Two sections, either of which can be done on its own. Fly in and out with a helicopter food drop in the middle.
Special offer: $1000 discount. New price: $6595.
Do one section and take $500 off the list price for that section.
If you are interested in either of the above, email Paul at natureboywild@gmail.com
Only one other trip remains available this year.
- Kakadu Highlights No. 10: 20 October - 2 November
Three sections, any of which can be done on its own.
This is a relaxed and leisurely trip with long breaks during the middle of the day. It takes place during Kunumeleng ― The Build Up ― The Most Dramatic Season of All
Join guide: Russell Willis and see why he enjoys this time of year.
Special offer: $20% discount. New price: $3436. This offer will expire at the end of July.
Your Health
No particular order. I thought these were all itneresting.
- We're the 'allergy capital of the world'. But we don’t know why food allergies are so common in Australian children
One thing mentioned as a possible contributing factor is vitamin D deficiency. Exposure to sunlight helps your body make vitamin D. We've got the avoid sun message so ingrained that we need supplements. -
How measles can do long-lasting damage to children's immune systems
The damage to the immune system is worse than the disease itself.
.... worldwide, more deaths occur from secondary infections that happen after the initial measles illness than as a direct result of the measles virus itself. -
Chickens, ducks, seals and cows: a dangerous bird flu strain is knocking on Australia’s door
IF the virus were to evolve into a form that easily spreads between people while maintining it's lethality, covid would look like a non-event. -
Australia's health, visualised
Good picture of the country. Peoples' view of their health is more optimistic than justified.
while nearly nine out of ten Australians perceived their health as good, in 2022, 61% of people were living with a chronic condition, and 38% with two or more chronic conditions. -
What to Do About Erectile Dysfunction *
Sooner or later, most men will experience a problem achieving or maintaining an erection. But today, there are more treatments than ever. -
Ambulance ramping is getting worse in Australia. Here's why ― and what we can do about it
Ambulance ramping occurs when paramedics are made to wait at the hospital's entrance and are unable to transfer their patient into the emergency department within an appropriate time frame ― defined as 30 minutes in South Australia.
Your Money
Again, no particular order, all interesting.
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NASC impersonation scammers
Criminals are calling people and pretending to be from the National Anti-Scam Centre. They tell you that your phone number is being used in a scam in China and offer to help you 'clear your record". -
I Was Right About Everything
If you want to know how you will respond to financial stress, put yourself under some financial stress and find out.
The small things do not add up to big things. I would have to skip lunch out 10,000 times to make back when I am spending on the house. That's more lunch than I could possibly eat in a lifetime.
I was saving money like mad, without even really trying. The money was piled like snowdrifts in my bank account. - 'Cash doesn't crash': Coins and notes still 'essential' even as mobile wallets overtake ATMs
- 'Devastating' branch closures in dozens of towns across Australia, as bank profits rise
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Major bank raises alarm bell on cyber 'warfare': Claims 'entire community is at risk'
.... once a bank customer hits "send" on a scam payment, it's usually too late for the money to be recovered.
Story has some good links to other relevant info.
Artificial Intelligence
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Google scales back AI search answers after it told users to eat glue **
The tech giant put AI-generated answers at the top of search results for most people in the United States two weeks ago. -
OpenAI finds Russian and Chinese groups used its tech for propaganda campaigns **
Covert propagandists have already begun using generative artificial intelligence to boost their influence operations. -
The New Warfare: When AI Partners with Cybercrime
Cyberspace has become the primary medium for both spycraft and warfare among advanced nations.
Page has links to a video of the interview plus a link to the transcript.
99% of the population has no real idea of just how bad things can be.
WW 2025
On my recent trip to Limmen and Lorella, I had the chance to fly over an amazing area, land and do a short walk. The photo here gives you a tiny taste of the landscape. Click to see a larger version.
It appears to have the potential for a walk of at least a week, plenty of water, walk short distances from one camp to the next and spend hours exploring without full packs. A dream come true? We hope so but we can't give details until we've sorted out the appropriate permissions. Stay tuned to the newsletters, website and our Facebook page (link at the top right on our website).
News About This Newsletter
Restricted websites. The NY Times allows non-subscribers to look at ten free articles each month. I've got more links than that in this newsletter so I've marked them with a red asterisk (*) so that you can choose which are of most interest to you. Bloomberg allows three free articles. The Washington Post and The Economist both have limits but I'm not sure what the current limits are so I've marked their articles with a double red asterisk (**).
How to Get Past a Paywall to Read an Article for Free
Even if you regularly support journalism by paying, sometimes you need to get around it.
Coming Next
Not sure what or when. I got caught with having to replace a guide who became ill at the last minute so I'm running out of time for a lot of things. This newsletter was a last ditch attempt to drum up interest in our final trips for 2024, done the day before an unscheduled one week bush trip
As always, I welcome a bit of feedback about some of the things in this newsletter and suggestions for the next one.
Sending the newsletter
I'm now using a paid version of MailChimp to send all of the newsletters. I'm not sure what I'll do if the list goes over 2500.
walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au is the contact address on our website. If you would like to continue to receive these newsletters, please include this address in your "friends list" so that it isn't blocked.
Emails sent to walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au are currently automatically forwarded to rrwillis at internode.on.net. If you want to send an email to that address, replace the word "at" with the symbol @. I am trying not to put that address any place where it can be harvested by spam bots.
We don't want to add to the mass of email spam. If you don't want our newsletter, please send us an email and let us know. We'll then delete your name from our newsletter list.
Our email address is walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au.
Note. Both MailChimp and the other program we use to send some of these newsletters have an automatic delete at the bottom. Clicking that link will delete you from the mailing list on the server but it will not delete you from our main database. One of the programs will not allow the auto delete to send me an email notifying me that a deletion has been made. If you want to be sure that you are removed from all further mailings, please send an email to walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au
If you know someone you think would enjoy this newsletter, please forward it to them. The more people who get it, the more likely it is that I'll be able to run the trips which might interest you.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed preparing it.
Russell Willis