cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/41032636

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/32147941

No longer do South Africans depend entirely on giant coal-burning plants that have defined how people worldwide got their electricity for more than a century. That’s forcing the nation’s already beleaguered electric utility to rethink its business as revenues evaporate.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/40711717

Virtually no public access currently exists by land to the landscapes on this part of the coast, except for a federal wildlife refuge, although two major projects are planned here: a 2,300-acre Powderhorn Ranch State Park and a 6,400-acre Green Lake Park.

“There is a lot of focus on all kinds of different aspects of conserving those natural resources now, while we still can,” said James Dodson, founder of the San Antonio Bay Partnership. “There are a lot of proposed new industrial facilities and things.”

...

Most of this area was once grazed by cattle, Dodson said. Dredging of a ship channel offshore altered the coastline. Thirsty upstream cities have dried up the rivers that used to spill their regular freshwater floods over all of this region.

But in general, it retains its natural shape and many of its old trees, as it was never cleared and flattened for agriculture.

Flat-headed cats (Prionailurus planiceps), named after their flattened foreheads, live in fragmented pockets across Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, but they were feared extinct in Thailand.

Researchers rediscovered the cats using remote camera traps in Thailand’s Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary in 2024 and 2025 — the first detections in Thailand since 1995. Cat conservation organization Panthera announced the rediscovery on Friday (Dec. 26), which is also Thailand's annual Wildlife Protection Day.

Flat-headed cats have webbed feet to traverse wetland habitats, such as waterlogged peat-swamp forest, where the species is thought to primarily hunt fish. However, researchers know very little about their lives. The enigmatic cat is the smallest in Southeast Asia, weighing around 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) — less than a domestic cat — and is scarcely seen by humans.

It's so stinkin' cute!

And even if you're not a Christmas person, may the day bring you comfort and good spirits!

American student Cassidy Feeney will spend Christmas with the family of the Perth father she helped save.

The 21-year-old was the perfect donor match for Gennaro Rapinese, who had been battling acute myeloid leukaemia and was in a "dark place" mentally.