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The ancient Mexican lake home to Earth's oldest lifeforms

The ancient Mexican lake home to Earth's oldest lifeforms

BBC News22-07-2025
Travel Journalist Qasa Alom visits Lake Bacalar in Mexico, famous for its brilliant seven shades of blue water. But that's not the only thing it's known for. The lake is home to Stromatolites or living fossils that may look like any old rock, but are one of the oldest life forms on Earth. Going back over three billion years, they play a crucial role in oxygenating the atmosphere.
This video is from The Travel Show, the BBC's flagship travel programme.
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Picturesque Scots ‘jewel' named among UK's best ‘chocolate box' villages
Picturesque Scots ‘jewel' named among UK's best ‘chocolate box' villages

Scottish Sun

timean hour ago

  • Scottish Sun

Picturesque Scots ‘jewel' named among UK's best ‘chocolate box' villages

It's been featured in numerous films and TV productions Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A SCOTS seaside town has been named among the UK's best chocolate box villages. Plockton, in the Scottish Highlands, is reportedly picturesque enough to appear on a confectionery tin, according to data collected by accommodation provider Snaptrip. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 Idyllic view of Plockton in the Highlands of Scotland Credit: Alamy The stunning spot was branded the "jewel of the Highlands" and is best known as the filming location for BBC mystery drama Hamish Macbeth - starring Robert Carlyle. It also boasts several charming pubs and restaurants and is known for its boat trips. The Snaptrip review reads: "Known as 'the jewel of the highlands', Plockton sits on a sheltered bay with stunning views of Loch Carron. "It's been featured in numerous films and TV productions, the most well-known being the BBC's series. "The sea is an integral part of Plockton's history and to this day yachts and other boats can be seen moored up in the bay. "There are also plenty of opportunities for you to get out on the water, from seal tours and kayaking to paddleboarding and sailing. Thousands of visitors flock to the spot every year and enjoy gorgeous views over Loch Duich. Meanwhile, Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire, bagged first place and was followed by Hope Cove, Devon and Mousehole, Cornwall. Elsewhere a hidden gem visitor attraction has been named among the best tourist destinations in the world. The Great Tapestry of Scotland is located in Galashiels, in the Borders, and is home to one of the biggest community arts projects across the globe. And it has recently won a prestigious TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Award for the second year running. It earned a spot in the 2025 awards for the second year running after impressing with its "inspiring" showcase of Scottish history. The accolade places it in the top 10 per cent of listings globally that consistently earn positive reviews. Alexander McCall Smith first had the idea for The Great Tapestry of Scotland, which is a 143m-long work of art.

Let's scrap football's post-match interviews
Let's scrap football's post-match interviews

Spectator

time13 hours ago

  • Spectator

Let's scrap football's post-match interviews

'The view was stunning.' 'The hotel room was well appointed.' 'It's a city of contrasts.' Such numbing clichés in travel commentary are considered, by anyone remotely au fait with Eric Newby or Patrick Leigh Fermor, to be unacceptable. But if you watch Match of the Day, you'll know the footballing equivalents of these kinds of asinine blandishments have long been deemed worthy of the kind of critical scrutiny usually reserved for Jonathan Franzen novels. After following the game for 40 years, I've finally reached breaking point with the abysmal drivel that comes out of the mouths of players, pundits and managers alike. Of course, they aren't being paid to be articulate and witty to the cameras – they're paid to win games of football. But the insistence from the media on making them talk, regardless of whether they have any communication skills whatsoever, is perhaps why I feel an unusual sense of dread about the domestic season that's beginning. I'm convinced that we'd all enjoy football a lot more if, just for one season to begin with, players and managers weren't required to talk to the media at all immediately after matches. There was a time when at least a few football managers had something interesting to say. Everyone knows the 'more important than life or death' quote from Bill Shankly. But I prefer another of his waspish snipes at the linguistic constipation that bungs up intelligent analysis. 'Instead of me saying someone was 'avaricious', I'd say he was bloody greedy,' declared Bill, extolling the values of direct, incisive communication without frill or fanfare. The key ingredient Bill possessed in his own communications with the press was wit. And that's something that has long vanished from the endless stream of post-match interviews and analysis. Huge culpability must lie with the interviewers who, in the main, have given up on asking questions at all. Instead, when faced with the cameras outside the dressing room after a narrow defeat, the BBC journalist working for Match of the Day will simply utter a statement such as 'a difficult afternoon Pep'. This is not a question. And it's no wonder that Pep Guardiola has made no bones about his dislike of dealing with the media. This isn't diva-ish behaviour – it's entirely understandable. If you had to spend a chunk of your working week forced to find responses to this kind of water-thin gruel then you'd probably start questioning your sanity too. Nothing of consequence is ever said and the interviews at times are so excruciating as to make Matlis vs Andrew seem relaxed. It doesn't matter how quickly the vision mixer passes back to the studio – in almost every post-match interview these days, the manager or player will dart away from the camera after the last appalling non-question is answered, in a manner that suggests they have acute gastroenteritis and need to find a bathroom post-haste. We could also do without the subsequent analysis of the manager's anodyne utterances by a panel of ex-players whose shirts are too tight and vocabularies are too small. I have some sympathy. If I was asked to pontificate for five minutes with Stephen Warnock over the true meaning of the statement 'We go again on Tuesday', it wouldn't be long before I began having an existential crisis which would involve my questioning the possible malicious intent and latent conspiracy behind the 'Mind the gap' announcements on the Tube. Sometimes you can read too much into things. And sometimes, there's just nothing there to read in the first place. I wrote a play two years ago about a traumatised football manager which played at the Underbelly on Bristo Square as part of the Edinburgh Fringe. The most enjoyable part of writing it was to give my 'gaffer' (for that was the name of the play) room to vent against the clichés that dominate the football lexicon. It was pure wish fulfilment. I once heard that Roy Hodgson is a fan of Saul Bellow's novels but, if true, this is a quite bizarre outlier. Most professionals, from Man City to Morecambe, behave as if they'd struggle with E.L. James. Football has become so PR-clogged, so terrified of its own shadow, so utterly afraid of individual personality, that the few managers capable of holding a conversation (most notably Ian Holloway and Jurgen Klopp) have either left the country or, in Ian's case, are marooned in the footballing Siberia of Swindon. If a player has anything interesting or catty to say, they use social media. If a manager has anything stimulating to say, they do it in the print-press-only news conferences which aren't televised. So can we just bypass the whole thing for one season? Let the players take a shower. Let the gaffer administer his dressing down. And let us poor Sky and MotD viewers take a break from yet another nine months of hearing a balding man in a badly tailored suit tell the world: 'We'll work on it in training.'

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