while not null

Written on 5th January 2025.

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Was 2024 a good year?

I'm still alive, so that's a plus. Other people I knew are not. My stepfather died when I was in Poland. Alone in his house, at night. He was in his 80s. He wasn't sick, so it was a surprise. My sister and her children took it hard. I talked with him a few days earlier and he seemed fine. Also, one of my nieces died. She was almost 18. I saw her last time a few years earlier. She has been sick for the past 2 years. Doctors didn't know what was causing her pain. They were prescribing her sleeping pills, so she could fall asleep despite the pain. One day she went to sleep and did not wake up.

Russia is still killing people in Ukraine, but is suffering huge military losses. Up to 2000 soldiers dead or wounded per day. Every day when Ukraine holds, is a day closer to Ukrainian victory. I hope Russia folds first. Despite having an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for stealing Ukrainian children, Putin visited Mongolia, a country that should enforce ICC rulings, and was not arrested.

Israel is still killing civilians in Gaza. More bombs fell on Gaza in 200 days than on London, Hamburg, and Dresden combined during the whole of WW2. Gaza's area is 4 times smaller than London. Israel is killing thousands of women and children with American supplied bombs. The US has spent over $22 billion on military aid to Israel. The current kill ratio is at least 40 Palestinians killed for 1 Israeli. It's incredible that the democratically elected government of the Jewish state chose genocide as a way of solving the Palestinian problem, but here we are. Despite having an arrest warrant issued by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Netanyahu visited the US and was not arrested. Biden's legacy will be a lukewarm support (delays and limitations) for Ukraine fighting for survival against a 4 times bigger opponent waging a genocidal war vs immediate and unlimited support for Israel exacting genocidal revenge on a 5 times smaller population of an occupied territory.

Cars are still the biggest killer of people other than diseases. Over a million killed every year worldwide. Between 20 and 50 million injured. Cars killed more people than Hitler and Stalin together.

The climate crisis is getting worse faster. The greenhouse gas emissions rose again. The global temperature in 2024 was 1.6 C above the pre-industrial level. The Earth energy imbalance (EEI) is increasing. Probably, the only realistic thing that can give us a chance to survive is Solar Radiation Management aka Sunlight Reflection Methods (SRM), specifically the Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI). We had 30 years of international climate conferences, and they achieved nothing. The fossil fuel lobby is so strong and the population is so not caring or even hostile, that we are not going stop burning oil, coal, methane until it is significantly cheaper and more convenient to use the alternatives. Fossil fuels are being subsidised heavily, ensuring that the demand for them exists even where the market forces would shut it down.

The 2024 brought us two firsts: the first time an army attacked on land using only drones, and the first time a computer scored 75.7% on a test designed to be easy for humans and hard for computers.

Humanoid and dog-like robots continue to improve.

Drones continue to improve, not only on the battlefield, but also in entertainment.

I went to Poland in 2024 for family reasons. It's bloody hard to be a recent immigrant to Australia and not fly. I wish the development of electric planes sped up. If CO2 emissions were priced properly, this would happen faster. Battery energy density per kg of weight must improve substantially for electric planes to be viable. New research shows that 711 Wh/kg is possible. Currently, the typical energy density is about 300 Wh/kg.

Could the long distance trip be a series of 800 km hops? Meanwhile, electric ships don't have the weight constraint of planes. Electric trains are even better: faster than ships, and don't require batteries. A high speed train / fast electric ferry combo could be the Orient Express of the XXI century: connecting Australia with Europe: 16,000 km in 4 days.

Photos from the trip:

Volcanos, probably on Bali

Other volcanos, also on Bali?

The ships waiting to enter the port of Singapore.

I stopped in Singapore for one night. Breaking up a long east-west trip helps with jet lag and general tiredness. Spending a night in a normal bed, taking a shower, getting out of the airport makes the trip from Australia to Europe more bearable.

Singapore airport waiting area: quiet, comfortable, with real trees.

Art and history of the Changi airfield.

Singapore:

Social advertising

Colour

Beautiful greenery

Obstacles on footpaths

Colour to the power of ten.

Probably the worst footpath design ever.

This is a bus stop. I almost got my ankle twisted here because of the step.

This is legal in Singapore. This tiny truck is allowed to transport up to 24 people in the back.

Ok, I will.

I love these.

This is the bike I rented. It's a bit too small for me. Don't bother trying to pick up the bike from a location that shows only one bicycle. I think I walked to 4 locations like that, and I found only one bicycle, without a seat. Maybe some people treat these AnyWheel bikes as their personal bikes, and hide them on their property when not in use. Also, I had a problem when returning the bike: the GPS did not match the return station. The QR code of the station was also not in an obvious location.

You promised me exciting ventures and now you say this?

Is this the Noah's ark?

Marina barrage

Singapore has some great bike paths

Singapore rooster, living free in a park

MTR station

And now let's jump to Warsaw. Below is a photo from the centre of Warsaw, from the listed, historic MDM district. I would like to show it to those who are outraged by the "vandalism" caused by the ecological protesters spraying washable chalk (Marmaid Statue in Warsaw) or cornflower based paint (Stonehenge). Many historic buildings, bridges and other structures in Warsaw are covered in graffiti by vandals, but the ecological protesters use washable paint, which causes no damage, and therefore is not even vandalism. The "outraged" don't understand the severity of the climate crisis. What is the most important thing? Life. Being alive. The climate crisis may kill hundreds of millions of people. There is no greater danger to us currently, other than a nuclear war. Biodiversity crisis is critical too. There is also microplastics pollution, which may be severely impacting our health... Even if the choice was one life of any child vs the most expensive artwork, the artwork be damned. Only a psychopath would choose an object over a human life.

It's a similar story with cars. Currently, drivers, city planners and traffic engineers, value drivers' time more than human life. Over a million people die in road crashes every year. Tens of millions get injured. Cars killed more people than Hitler and Stalin. Cars not only kill and maim people directly. They also kill animals: birds, koalas, etc. They spew CO2. One litre of petrol when burned creates about 2.3 kg of CO2 that will be warming the Earth for thousands of years. The real long term cost of that pollution is 100,000 USD per tonne of CO2, so $100 per kg according to the University of Chicago study by Archer, Kite and Lusk. A 5 km drive to the shops by car that burns 10 litres of petrol per 100 km, should cost the driver $115 in carbon tax. Maybe then we would rethink how we design our cities and which modes of transport are best.

Do I blame cars or drivers? Cars. I make a choice here similar to guns in the context of mass shootings and gun violence. I blame guns, not shooters. I blame those who allow proliferation of guns and cars. A car driven by paramedics to help somebody is beneficial to society. A bullet shot by a soldier defending their people is beneficial to the society. A car driven by an employee to get to work, or a parent to bring a child to school? Completely unnecessary. This is harm done to the society. A gun in the hands of most civilians or even police? Completely unnecessary. This is harm done to the society.

I walked to school alone from age 6. The places where we live should be designed such that nobody needs a car. Tokyo is one of such places. The biggest metropolis in the world, where 40 million people live in quiet neighbourhoods, with shops, schools, workshops, little parks, narrow 30 km/h streets safe for walking and biking, not far from a train station. Many European cities are like that too. Australian and American cities are not, for the most part.

Mass extraction of oil created cheap plastics. Plastic packaging replaced paper, cardboard, wood, glass, steel, aluminium packaging, all recyclable. Plastic packaging is completely unnecessary. In my youth it was almost non-existent. Milk was in glass bottles with aluminium caps. Shops gave you paper bags, or put produce in your bag. Boxes were made of paper, cardboard or wood. A lot of food sold was in metal cans and glass jars with metal lids. As a kid I made pocket money by returning glass bottles for money, and sometimes selling cardboard and metal.

Be outraged about this, and the climate crisis, not about the brave people who are trying to raise alarm.

Hyundai Rotem tram brings a bit of colour to the grey MDM district.

Praga

Praga roofs and walls.

National Stadium and a highway designed for high speeds along Vistula

Right, lower, eastern bank of Vistula

Left, western, higher bank of Vistula

Ochota train station

Near Ochota station - the owner of this shop should fix it up

Legia football club art.

Legia shield with Warsaw mermaid

Most of the time I stayed in Warsaw. I only went on one very short trip to visit my father-in-law in south-east Poland and to go with him on a trip to Rzeszów:

Rzeszów, population 200k:

The town square with the town hall in an old photo, probably beginning of the XX century.

The town hall under German occupation. Between 1939 and 1944, Rzeszów was called Reichshof, and was part of General Government, which was part of Greater Germany.

Town hall in 2024

Ulma family mural

My father-in-law near the stone marking the location of a XVI century Jewish cemetery, which is now a memorial park.

The plaque on the stone in the earlier photo. It informs about the cemetery, which was destroyed by Germans. This was also the location from which Ghetto inhabitants were transported to deaths camps, woods - to be shot, and work camps..

Monument to Józef Piłsudski

The New Town and Old Town Synagogues after the war.

The inside of the New Town Synagogue, sometime before September 1939.

The re-built New Town Synagogue, now an art gallery.

A monument to Red Army vandalised with red paint. The text says "PRECZ" - go away.

The bike racks in the shape of the flag and coat of arms of the city. The street sign "Square of the Ghetto Victims" also has the Rzeszów coat of arms.

Mural to Irena Sendler

Town hall

German tanks in 1939

German soldiers entering the city in 1939

Public announcement by the Cracow SS leader, in German and Polish: in addition to 38 people shot for the killing of 2 German security policemen, 1 Ukrainian driver and 1 Polish policeman, the listed 22 people were shot for the "assault on the German reconstruction effort". The 1 to 10 was the standard ratio for collective punishment: 10 Poles killed for 1 German. My father-in-law's father was shot in such a reprisal.