Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Quilty, Senior Staff Specialist, Alice Springs Hospital. Purple House Medical Advisor. Honorary ANU., Australian National University

Over 3.4 million Australian houses now have rooftop solar, often subsidised by government incentives.

But in remote First Nations communities in the Northern Territory, you don’t see solar on any rooftops. That’s a real problem. This part of Australia is dangerously hot in summer. And many people don’t have enough power to run vital appliances like the fridge and air conditioner.

Solar would be an ideal solution. Tennant Creek has over 300 days per year of sunshine with some of the clearest skies in the world, for instance.

Only recently, co-author and Warumungu elder Frank Jupurrurla took part in the first NT rooftop solar trial, supported by Original Power and installed rooftop solar on his house.

As our new research found, this pilot worked well, supplying a third of the house’s power and ending the problem of power disconnecting. Previously, the power would go out once a month on average. After solar, it never went off.

So why isn’t this widely available? The main problems are red tape, such as getting approval for work on public housing, securing feed in tariffs and metering requirements. As Mr Jupurrurla’s experience demonstrates, they can all be overcome – but not easily.

As Frank Jupurrurla says:

We call the sun Kilyirr […] Right now he’s shining on my panels, he’s giving me power, and he looks after us. So that Kilyirr, he gonna be there forever.

How do remote communities get power at present?

Prepaid electricity is used in many remote First Nations households across Australia, and in almost all town camps. In this model, people “top up” the meter with credit. When credit runs out, the electricity disconnects until more credit is purchased. The electricity here is often produced by diesel generators.

Despite the risk of sudden disconnection, this model is often preferred by many communities as it gives residents fewer surprise bills. The downside is it often leads to an unenviable choice – power or food.

For residents of Tennant Creek’s town camps, it is not uncommon to run out of credit on a hot day. The hotter the day, the higher the chance people will lose power. That’s because hotter weather forces air conditioners and fridges to work harder.

When the power goes off, food inside fridges starts to spoil. Essential medical devices such as oxygen concentrators stop operating. Medications can become inactive or even toxic.

Air conditioners stop working and temperatures rise. On very hot days, the inside of a house gets well over 40℃. Children and adults can’t sleep. Going to school gets harder. Not only are these conditions unsafe, they can drive social disharmony.

As Frank Jupurrurla says:

We struggle every day. Our people, they’re not healthy. Lots of people in this town are on renal [dialysis]. Solar should be talked about in parliament and put on the table.

Did the trial help?

A 6.6 kilowatt solar array was installed on Mr Jupurrurla’s house and switched on in November 2021. The house kept its grid connection and no battery was installed. Household residents received a crash course from the installers, First Nations organisation Original Power, on making the most of the solar for example by running the washing machine during daylight hours.

The result? Solar generates a third of the total power use in any given month. But more importantly, through reducing energy costs, disconnections stopped entirely. This removed a huge source of stress and made the home safer and more enjoyable, according to the family.

As Mr Jupurrurla says: “We used to put a lot of power cards in nearly every day, second day. Now we got money all the time since we’ve got solar.”

Solar is a great solution – but only if it’s made easy

It sounds simple: install a 6.6kW array and see what difference it made. After all, people in the cities can do this routinely.

But it’s harder far from the cities, and harder still when different government departments have to sign off. As Mr Jupurrurla describes:

The barriers was from the day we started. Before that, we’d argue with [Department of] Housing, and they said we have to check inside and check if the house is strong enough. Once we had the panels on, then it took us a while to [turn] it on. It was pretty frustrating. It took Power and Water more than three months just to switch the switch on. It was so hard. I rang the housing minister but nothing happened. So one day I just went out there to the box and switched it on myself

Installing solar here meant overcoming regulatory barriers such as securing feed-in tariffs for excess power produced, ensuring the public housing is high-quality enough to host solar, and the question of ownership of the panels.

The NT housing department required an engineer’s sign off on the roof’s structural integrity, as this can’t be assumed for remote public housing.

As Mr Jupurrurla’s experience demonstrates, these barriers can be overcome – but not easily.

What’s stopping a wider rollout?

Our trial shows solar can work well for remote communities. The timing is good, as the ongoing roll-out of smart prepay meters means most remote First Nations houses in the NT are able to handle solar.

For this to gain momentum, the NT government must find ways to overcome these barriers. The Territory government has responsibilities as both the landlord for housing and as the monopoly energy provider.

A key first step would be to smooth the path with clear paperwork and incentives for prepay households to install solar.

Just as in the cities, encouraging solar will require financial incentives to offset the upfront cost, with culturally appropriate resources available in First Nations languages to explain the process.

Feed-in tariffs have long driven demand for solar for many homeowners. Ensuring remote communities are eligible will be vital.

Australian households are world leaders in taking up solar. But for too long, the ability to generate your own power from the sun has been off limits to many of the people who would benefit the most.

This year is an excellent time to correct this, as the federal government works towards a co-designed First Nations Clean Energy Strategy and the NT government’s plans for better power solutions in remote communities.

As Frank Jupurrurla says:

I’d like to see government fund […] panels on homes. Especially in the Community Living Areas [Town Camps] in places like Alice Springs, Tenant Creek, and Katherine.

Read more:
How climate change is turning remote Indigenous houses into dangerous hot boxes

Simon Quilty is affiliated with a community project, Wilya Janta, that is progressing better housing design with greater Indigenous agency in Tennant Creek.

Brad Riley is a Research Fellow at the ANU Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research working on the ANU Zero-Carbon Energy for the Asia-Pacific Grand Challenge.

Some of the data referenced in this article (specifically mapping locations where prepayment is not prohibited) was collected as part of a project funded under grant ARFEB22001 by Energy Consumers Australia Limited (www.energyconsumersaustralia.com.au) as part of its grants process for consumer advocacy projects and research projects for the benefit of consumers of electricity and natural gas. The views expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the views of Energy Consumers Australia.

Norman Frank Jupurrurla does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Many First Nations communities swelter without power. Why isn’t there solar on every rooftop? – https://theconversation.com/many-first-nations-communities-swelter-without-power-why-isnt-there-solar-on-every-rooftop-204032

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charlotte Ganderton, Senior Lecturer (Physiotherapy), RMIT University

One in three Australians has a musculoskeletal condition involving joint pain, and the most common cause is arthritis. Around 3.6 million Australians have arthritis and this is projected to rise to 5.4 million by 2030.

For some people with joint pain, cold weather seems to make it worse. But temperature is just one factor impacting perceptions of greater pain during winter. Other factors include those we have some level of influence over, including sleep, behavioural patterns, mood and physical activity. Emerging research suggests greater pain levels in winter may also be related to a person’s perception of the weather, lack of vitamin D and fluctuations in their disease.

Physical activity is one of the best treatments to increase function, strength and mobility – and improve quality of life. It also promotes mental and physical health and reduces the risk of other chronic diseases.

But pain can be a barrier to exercise and activities you’d usually do. So what can you do about it?

Our brain tries to protect us

When it comes to pain, our brain is very protective: it’s like an inbuilt alarm system and can warn us about impending danger or harm that has occurred so we can respond.

But it’s not always a reliable indicator of actual damage or trauma to the skin, muscle or bone, even when it feels like it is. In some instances, this warning system can become unhelpful by setting off “false alarms”.

Leer más:
Turning down the volume of pain – how to retrain your brain when you get sensitised

Joint pain and stiffness can also appear to worsen during colder weather, prompting fears we could make it worse if we undertake or overdo movement. This can result in people avoiding physical activity – even when it would be beneficial – which can worsen the pain.

We tend to exercise less when it’s cold

Seasons affect how much physical activity we get. Summer months bring warmer weather, longer daylight hours and people get outdoors more. Warmer weather also tends to elicit a positive outlook, a lift in mood and burst of physical activity to fulfil New Year’s resolutions.

Cooler months can mean a decline in physical activity and more time being cosy indoors. A reduction in movement and less exposure to light may evoke higher levels of joint pain and can be associated with a reduction in our overall sense of well-being and mood.

This can create a cycle where symptoms worsen over time.

But with the right knowledge and support, people can remain engaged in an active lifestyle especially when it’s aligned to personal values and goals. Health professionals such as physiotherapists and GPs can assess any concerns and provide strategies that are right for you.

How to motivate yourself to stay active in winter

When looking for an approach to help you stay active during the cooler months and beyond, it can be helpful to become aware of the many interconnected factors that impact you. They include:

• biological (your genes, other illnesses you have)
• psychological (how you think, feel and behave)
• social (your relationships and social support).

Starting with the end goal in mind can be beneficial, but this can feel overwhelming. Try creating smaller, achievable steps to help get you there, like climbing a ladder. For example, park a short distance from the shops and increase this incrementally to increase your exercise tolerance.

A little bit each day can often be less tolling on your body than a big effort once a week.

Leer más:
How do I improve my motivation to exercise when I really hate it? 10 science-backed tips

Create goals that are personally meaningful and encourage you to celebrate success along the way (for example, catching up with friends or a healthy snack). Then, as you climb your “ladder”, one rung at a time, you will likely feel more motivated to continue.

If you’re not sure where to start, talk to a friend or health provider to help you determine what is realistic and right for your situation. That way you can work towards your goals in a safe, non-threatening environment and avoid developing fear and avoidance. They can also help you establish goals that align with your aspirations and pain experience.

Charlotte Ganderton receives funding from Arthritis Australia, Physiotherapy Research Foundation, Swinburne University of Technology, National Institute of Circus Arts and La Trobe University. Charlotte Ganderton is a member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association and Sports Medicine Australia.

Inge Gnatt has received funding from Swinburne University’s DVCR Writing Award, and is the recipient of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.

Matthew King receives funding from the Physiotherapy Research Foundation, Australian Physiotherapy Association, La Trobe University and the Transport Accident Commission. He is affiliated with the Australian Physiotherapy Association, Sports Medicine Australia and the International Hip-related Pain Research Network.

– ref. Sore joints now it’s getting cold? It’s tempting to be less active – but doing more could help you feel better – https://theconversation.com/sore-joints-now-its-getting-cold-its-tempting-to-be-less-active-but-doing-more-could-help-you-feel-better-200911

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Collyer, Research Associate, Caring Futures Institute, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University

Getting more people to ride bikes has been flagged as a simple and effective way to improve public health while tackling climate change. However, research has repeatedly found safety concerns deter people from cycling.

Australia’s limited cycling infrastructure often forces cyclists to share the road with motor vehicles. This puts them in a vulnerable position as, unlike motorists, they have little to protect their flesh and bones from the road or the vehicles on it.

To reduce their vulnerability, cyclists wear safety gear such as helmets to protect their heads and high-vis safety vests to make them more visible to other road users. However, our study found cyclists wearing helmets or safety vests are more likely to be perceived as “less human” than those not wearing safety gear. Around 30% of respondents also perceived cyclists to be less than fully human.

This finding is consistent with previous research showing that perceiving cyclists as “less human” (known as dehumanisation) was associated with more aggression towards cyclists. Dehumanisation is the denial of attributes, such as complex emotions, intelligence, rationality and individuality, that differentiate humans from other animals and inanimate objects. To dehumanise is to perceive a person or group as having lesser value and worth, which can lead to their mistreatment.

Read more:
Cycling and walking are short-changed when it comes to transport funding in Australia

What did our study find?

In our study, 563 participants were shown a series of photographs of models holding a bicycle. The models wore different attire in each photo, including: no headwear, a cap, a helmet, and a bright orange safety vest. Participants were asked to select the person in each pair who looked “less human”.

The results showed a clear difference between attire types. People were more likely to select images where the model wore “overt” safety gear as “less human”.

The photos of bicycle riders with helmets were 2.5 times more likely to be selected as “less human” than those with no helmets. Those wearing safety vests were 3.7 times more likely to be selected.

The study participants also provided anecdotes about their experiences cycling on Australian roads. Some reported other road users treated them differently depending on what they wore. Full lycra cycling gear attracted more abuse than casual wear.

Female bicycle riders reported receiving less abuse from motorists than their male counterparts. This observation led some to accentuate their femininity to increase their perceived safety when riding on roads. One said:

As a female I don’t get treated as badly as my male friends (who have had things thrown at them). I actually purposely have my long hair showing to help.

Our finding that riders in safety vests are seen as “less human” than those without adds to the debate on the actual versus perceived benefit of safety vests. Safety vests do not necessarily make a rider safer or more visible. Instead, they reinforce the idea that bicycle riding is a dangerous activity – further deterring its uptake.

Read more:
Minimum space for passing cyclists is now law Australia-wide. It increases safety – but possibly road rage too

So how can we keep riders safe?

With cyclists dehumanised and unwelcome on Australian roads, and also not welcome on footpaths, it seems the best solution is to “keep them separated” as US rock band The Offspring sang back in ’94. Australia needs separate infrastructure for bicycle riding, especially if we want more people to take up this active, carbon-neutral form of transport.

It’s time for Australia to follow the lead of countries like the Netherlands and provide safe facilities for people to ride on. When the Dutch promote cycling culture, they show people dressed for the destination, not the ride. They highlight everyday folks, in everyday clothing, unhindered by special equipment, enjoying a safe and social experience.

Read more:
3 in 4 people want to ride a bike but are put off by lack of safe lanes

A city that has active transport is safer, healthier, quieter and more environmentally friendly. The lesson is clear: we need to prioritise people over cars.

Blaming cyclists for not being “visible enough” is an ill-considered response. Most cyclists would prefer not to travel on the same roads as motor vehicles. But, until we can achieve complete separation, efforts to counteract the dehumanisation of those who ride bicycles are needed.

While investigations are informing campaigns to “humanise” bicycle riders, change can begin at an individual level. We can ask ourselves: what goes through our minds when we see a cyclist when we are driving? Do we think of them as someone like us who is just trying to get to work or home, or do we see them differently? Are we dehumanising them?

Read more:
Ride to work? You’ll need a bike barrier for that

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Safety vests and helmets make cyclists look ‘less human’ to other road users – https://theconversation.com/safety-vests-and-helmets-make-cyclists-look-less-human-to-other-road-users-207413

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emmanuelle Botté, Research Officer, UNSW Sydney

Marine sponges have started dying in vast numbers in coastal areas around the globe. Just this year, thousands of sponges turned white and died in New Zealand and in the Mediterranean Sea. This has been happening when the water gets too warm, but the underlying cause has remained a mystery. Until now.

We know these sponges play a crucial role in recycling key elements such as carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus. In doing so, they keep nutrient cycles ticking over, to the benefit of all life on Earth.

This happens mainly through their very close association, or “symbiosis”, with diverse and abundant microbes. These microbes live in the sponge tissue as “life partners”. Sponges benefit from these tight relationships, as the microbes produce energy, recycle nutrients and provide beneficial molecules for the host.

In our new research, we found the cause of death is likely to be the sudden loss of a key microbe at high temperatures. This might rapidly poison the sponge, because this specific microbe is usually required to remove ammonia, a toxic metabolic waste product, from the sponge’s tissues. Without this crucial process, the sponge dies.

Read more:
Loss, decay and bleaching: why sponges may be the ‘canary in the coal mine’ for impacts of marine heatwaves

Experimenting with temperature

Marine sponges are animals of many shapes, colours and sizes found in every ocean, where they serve as food and provide shelter to many other organisms.

They spend their lives attached to the seafloor, where they feed by filtering thousands of litres of seawater every day, capturing, and later digesting, microscopic food.

Our study examined the tropical sponge Stylissa flabelliformis, exposed to either today’s average summer temperature (28.5℃) or the average temperature predicted for 2100 (31.5℃).

After eight weeks in the warmer water, the sponges were dying. There was no trace of the microbe that usually removes toxic ammonia in the sponge tissue. The microbial gene carrying the detoxifying function was completely absent from the sponge tissue, too. This confirmed no other microbe was fulfilling this role, and the detoxification of the tissue was simply not possible.

In contrast, the sponges kept at 28.5℃ were healthy. And the microbes in the sponge tissue were the ones we usually find when all is well.

Are we spoiling an evolutionary success story?

Sponges are some of the most ancient animals on the planet. They are found from the tropics to the poles in shallow and deep waters.

The sponge-microbe symbiosis has long been credited for this ecological success story. Depending on the sponge species, thousands of different microbial species reside in the sponge tissue.

In addition to supplying energy to the host, these microbes provide the sponge host with vital molecules the sponge itself cannot produce, such as essential vitamins, or compounds that deter predators. They also act as recyclers, transforming certain chemicals to reduce their toxicity or to make them digestible by the sponge. And they even produce molecules that can potentially benefit humans, such as anti-cancer drugs and antimicrobial agents.

The symbiosis between sponges and their microbial partners has allowed sponges to conquer large portions of the oceans’ seafloor. But human activities might put a serious dent in this epic success story. Last year, a marine heatwave induced tissue damage and bleaching in several sponge species in New Zealand. In the Mediterranean, all the sponges off the coast of Marseille died as a result of temperature extremes during Europe’s last summer.

While the underlying cause of these mass die-offs in warmer waters is not yet known, researchers have suggested the answer might lie in the breakdown of the symbiosis between the host and its microbes. Our research supports this hypothesis. These sponges may actually face a problem similar to bleached corals: increased temperature destroys the symbiosis, potentially causing a chemical imbalance within the sponge, with deadly consequences.

Read more:
Into the ocean twilight zone: how new technology is revealing the secrets of an under-researched undersea world

No strings attached? No way!

Most of the time, a strong symbiosis has an overwhelmingly positive effect on the host, but the risk of having such deep ties is dependency. With S. flabelliformis, it seems the sponge could not survive the loss of the only microbe that detoxifies ammonia and the “breakup” caused by increased temperatures.

Notably, this abundant species on the Great Barrier Reef and the West Indo-Pacific is not the only tropical sponge to experience changes in its microbes when it is unhealthy. This also happens in sponges living in temperate waters.

Sponges and their microbial partners are in trouble

Importantly, the 3℃ temperature rise to which we subjected our sponges does not represent a science-fiction scenario, but today’s extremes, already seen in nature. It is consistent with the marine heatwave that hit the Australian East coast between November 2015 and February 2016.

These extreme events are predicted to become more frequent and more severe as our climate continues to change. And such high temperatures could become averages by 2100 if we do not become carbon neutral globally as soon as possible.

This is worrying news for sponges, for the ecosystems they support and, by extension, for us. Sponges are extremely diverse with about 8,500 species currently described around the globe, host to microbes that could help humanity fight diseases and antibiotic resistance.

It is not intuitive to think highly of unassuming animals and their microbial partners when contemplating big issues such as climate change and the collapse of Earth’s biodiversity. But for the sake of our oceans, and ultimately, ourselves, we need to quickly make this collective effort and protect them accordingly.

Read more:
The Great Southern Reef is in more trouble than the Great Barrier Reef

Emmanuelle Botté receives funding from the University of New South Wales.

Heidi M. Luter receives funding from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

James Bell receives funding from The Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden fund and Victoria University of Wellington

– ref. Bad break-up in warm waters: why marine sponges suffer with rising temperatures – https://theconversation.com/bad-break-up-in-warm-waters-why-marine-sponges-suffer-with-rising-temperatures-205285

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caroline Fisher, Associate Professor of Communication, University of Canberra

Over the past 12 months, the news has been full of serious and negative news such as the war in the Ukraine, the surge in the cost of living, interest rate rises, and the climate crisis.

It’s not surprising, then, that more than two-thirds of Australians say they are actively avoiding news some of the time. What is surprising is that Australians avoid news more than consumers in many other countries.

The findings are contained in the latest Digital News Report: Australia 2023 released by the University of Canberra.

The online survey of 2,025 Australians finds 69% say they avoid the news, occasionally, sometimes or often. This is higher than the global average of 63%, which is slightly declining. It also marks a 12 percentage point increase in news avoidance among Australians since 2017.

Not only do we avoid news more in Australia than other countries, we also avoid different news topics. In the majority of countries surveyed, news avoiders are more likely to steer clear of news about the war in the Ukraine, especially people in European countries. In Australia, we are most likely to eschew news about social justice issues such as race and gender inequality and LGBTQ+ rights.

When it comes to avoiding social justice issues, there are strong differences based on people’s political orientation. Australian news avoiders who identify as right-wing are more than twice as likely to say they evade news about social justice issues (56%) than those who say they are left-wing (22%). This highlights the big challenge facing government and advocacy organisations seeking to promote the “yes” and “no” campaigns for the Voice referendum to a news audience that is polarised around particular issues.

There are also big differences in news topics they avoid between Australian men and women. Women are much more likely to avoid news about sport and politics, whereas men will more readily keep away from stories about social justice issues, climate change and culture.

Because women are more likely to get their news from social media platforms than men, they are also more likely to scroll past the news to avoid it; men are more likely to consciously cut news out at particular times of the day.

Women are turning their backs on news

These differences in avoidance behaviour point to a growing gender division in news consumption in Australia. Women are increasingly losing interest in news and consuming less of it, particularly Gen Z women. Over the past six years, the proportion of Australian women in our annual study who say they are very or highly interested in news has fallen 16 percentage points to 43%, compared to a much smaller drop – only 6 percentage points – among men.

Australian women are also among the lightest news consumers globally. Only 41% of Australian women say they access news more than once a day, compared to 59% of men. There are other indicators that point to the widening gender gap. Thirty-nine per cent of women say they trust the news most of the time, compared to 48% of men. The proportion of women paying for news is also declining.

The gendered decline in news interest and consumption this year can be partly explained by the types of stories that have dominated the news cycle, such as the war and federal politics, which women are less interested in than men.

Overall, the longitudinal decline among women points to be a much bigger issue facing the news industry that needs to be addressed if they want to stem the exodus of the female news audience.

But it’s not all bad news

Our Digital News Report for 2023 also finds:

• The proportion of Australians who pay for online news has increased to 22% (+4pp from 2022).
• More than half of Australians (56%) say they are interested in positive news stories, and 50% say they are interested in news that suggests solutions, report on the latest development, and investigates wrong-doing.
• 60% of Australians surveyed say public service media, such as the ABC and SBS is important to society, and 52% say it is important to their lives.
• More than one third of Australian’s surveyed said they were highly interested in politics (35%), a 3 percentage point increase from 2022.
• Trust in news has risen slightly to 43%, higher than the global average.

Digital News Report: Australia is produced by the News & Media Research Centre (N&MRC) at the University of Canberra and is part of a global annual survey of digital news consumption in 46 countries, commissioned by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. The survey was conducted by YouGov at the end of January/beginning of February 2023. The data are weighted for age, gender, and region. Education and political quotas were applied.
In Australia, this is the ninth annual survey of its kind produced by the N&MRC.

Caroline Fisher receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Kieran McGuinness has received funding from Google News Initiative and the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Sora Park receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Australian Community Media and Australian Council for the Arts.

– ref. Why more than two-thirds of Australians think no news is good news (at least some of the time) – https://theconversation.com/why-more-than-two-thirds-of-australians-think-no-news-is-good-news-at-least-some-of-the-time-207214

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mike Lee, Professor in Evolutionary Biology (jointly appointed with South Australian Museum), Flinders University

Many of the giant marsupials and birds that roamed ancient Australia had vanished by 40,000 years ago. While the duration and drivers of these extinctions remain debated, fossils clearly show the continent lost a host of creatures which would have dwarfed humans, such as short-faced kangaroos, diprotodons, “thunder birds” and giant goannas.

Our study published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests these end-Pleistocene extinctions also affected smaller creatures such as lizards. These animals comprise most of biodiversity and biomass.

A bizarre giant among tiny lizards

The most diverse land vertebrates in modern Australia are skinks, which are typically the tiny, nondescript brown lizards that scurry among leaf litter.

There are some larger and more charismatic forms, such as blue-tongues and shinglebacks (also known as sleepy lizards or bobtails). However, even these are dwarfed by our new fossil skink, Tiliqua frangens (or Frangens), which was more than 60cm long and weighed more than 2kg. This 1,000 times heavier than your typical garden skink.

Frangens was bizarre in many ways: it was covered in very thick, spiky armour and had an extremely wide but blunt skull. Frangens was an enlarged and exaggerated version of its closest living relative, the shingleback, which has these traits but to a much lesser degree.

While our large mammalian and avian megafauna are well studied, smaller fossil lizards and snakes are often overlooked. Most of the fossils used to piece together this extinct critter have been sitting in museum collections for decades – some for more than a century.

Read more:
Humans coexisted with three-tonne marsupials and lizards as long as cars in ancient Australia

A jigsaw puzzle with pieces scattered all over Australia

The first two pieces of this creature, a partial lower jaw and skull-roof bone, were found separately in spoil heaps at Wellington Caves, about 200km west of Sydney in 1995 and 2008. These fragments were scientifically described as different species in 2009 and 2012.

Then in 2016, palaeontologists from Flinders University began finding more fossils of a large skink in Cathedral Cave at Wellington Caves. Frangens immediately stood out not just for its unusual size, but for its spikey body armour, abundant in the dig site yet oddly never reported before.

A study tour of the palaeontology sections of the Australian, South Australian and Melbourne museums brought to light the importance of their collections. Sitting in drawers of unidentified reptiles were near-complete jaws, perfectly preserved braincases, and chunks of fused armour plating from the head of Frangens.

The Queensland Museum had put aside a specimen representing most of a single individual, waiting for someone with the patience and expertise to piece it together.

It became clear the original lower jaw and skull roof, plus all the subsequent material, belonged to a single species.

This wealth of fossils also broadened our understanding of the spatial and temporal range of this highly distinct lizard. Frangens fossils have been recovered from southeastern Queensland through to the northern banks of the Murray River in New South Wales. The fossils range in age from at least 2 million years to 47,000 years old. So Frangens was part of the fauna when the First Peoples arrived.

A lost lizard that functioned more like a tortoise?

Australia has never had small land tortoises. Tortoises are completely absent in modern Australia, while the famously large meiolaniid turtles are extinct.

It is possible that in Australia, the heavily armoured, slow-moving Frangens filled the ecological niche that small tortoises occupy on other continents.

Intriguingly, in none of the fossil sites we have explored, do Frangens and the modern shingleback co-occur. Instead, only after Frangens went extinct did shinglebacks expand northward and increase in size: those ranging from the Murray to southeastern Queensland are among Australia’s largest living skinks (reaching up to 1kg).

Nature abhors a vacuum, so these shinglebacks might be growing big to fill the gap left by Frangens, which in turn previously filled the gap caused by the absence of small tortoises.

Furthermore, Frangens was not alone, but was part of a cohort of giant skinks, none of which survived past the end-Pleistocene extinctions.

These fossils show that the extinctions were not confined to “megafauna” – the largest examples of the largest groups. Rather, even some smaller animals such as skinks once had (relatively) large forms, which perished in the late Pleistocene along with giant marsupials and flightless birds.

Mike Lee receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Flinders University and the Royal Society of South Australia

Diana Fusco received funding from the Maxim Foundation and the Royal Society of South Australia, and was supported by an Australian Research Training Program stipend for this project. The Cathedral Cave project was initially funded by the Australian Research Council.

Kailah Thorn received funding from the Royal Society of South Australia, and was supported by an Australian Research Training Program stipend for this project.

– ref. Meet the biggest and most bizarre skink ever found in Australia. It became extinct 47,000 years ago – https://theconversation.com/meet-the-biggest-and-most-bizarre-skink-ever-found-in-australia-it-became-extinct-47-000-years-ago-206764

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kira Westaway, Associate Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University

In 2009, when our team first found a human skull and jaw bone in Tam Pà Ling Cave in northern Laos, some were sceptical of its origin and true age.

When we published a timeline in 2012 for the arrival of modern humans in mainland Asia around 46,000 years ago based on the Tam Pà Ling evidence, the sceptics remained.

In short, the site was given a bad rap. One of the most interesting caves in mainland Southeast Asia was frequently overlooked as a possible route on the accepted path of human dispersal in the region.

However, in new research published today in Nature Communications, we report more human remains found in Tam Pà Ling – and a more detailed and robust timeline for the site. This shows humans reached the region at least 68,000 years ago, and possibly as long as 86,000 years ago.

Plenty of evidence, but hard to date

Our team of Laotian, French, US and Australian researchers has been excavating at Tam Pà Ling for many years. You can see a detailed, interactive 3D scan of the site here.

As we dug, we found more and more evidence of Homo sapiens at earlier and earlier times.

First there was a finger bone, then roughly 2.5 metres deeper, a chin bone, then part of a rib. In total, eight pieces were found in only 4.5 metres of sediment – which may not sound like a lot, but is huge in archaeological terms.

Surely, we thought, this would be enough for Tam Pà Ling to take its place among the early human arrival sites in Southeast Asia.

But a hurdle remained: the cave is hard to date. This has prevented its significance being recognised, and without a convincing timeline the cave’s evidence will not be included in the debate over early human movements.

Many common dating methods can’t be used

There are a few difficulties with dating Tam Pà Ling.

First, the human fossils cannot be directly dated as the site is a world heritage area and the fossils are protected by Laotian laws.

Second, there are very few animal bones and no suitable cave decorations, either of which might be used for dating.

And third, the entrance of the site is wide and steep. This means any charcoal found in the cave, which is useful for dating, may well have come from outside – so it has little relation to the age of the sediment inside.

This means the backbone of the timeline must be established by the dating of the sediment itself, using techniques such as luminescence dating.

Signals in buried minerals

Luminescence dating relies on a light-sensitive signal that builds up in buried sediment, resetting to zero when it is exposed to light.

This technique mainly uses two minerals: quartz and feldspar.

Quartz can only be used in the younger levels as it is limited by how much signal it can hold. In the deeper layers it can often underestimate the age, so in Tam Pà Ling we only used quartz to date the top three metres of the sediment.

For the lower levels (four to seven metres), we had to switch to dating using feldspar to fill in the gap in the age profile. Below six metres the feldspar grains started to weather and we had to resort to fine-grain dating, using tiny mineral grains all mixed together.

Dating teeth

Tam Pà Ling is relatively poor in animal evidence. Yet, eventually two teeth from a cow-like animal were unearthed at 6.5 metres deep that could be dated using two distinct techniques.

Uranium series dating works by measuring uranium, and the elements into which it transforms via radioactive decay, within the tooth. Electron spin resonance dating relies on measuring the number of electrons in tooth enamel.

Read more:
Old teeth from a rediscovered cave show humans were in Indonesia more than 63,000 years ago

Each technique offers an individual numerical age for the fossil. By combining the two, we obtained robust direct dates, which can complement the luminescence chronology.

A closer look at sediment

To make the dating as strong as possible, we used every technique we could, such as applying uranium series dating to a stalactite tip that had been buried in sediment.

We also began to support all our dating evidence with a very detailed analysis of the sediments to assess the origin of the fossils.

Micromorphology is a technique that examines sediments under a microscope to establish the integrity of the layers that buried the fossils.

This is a key component of the new chronology, as it helped establish that there was a fairly consistent accumulation of sediment layers over a long period.

By 2022, we had amassed an array of dating evidence that could be modelled to determine the exact age of each layer and the fossils they buried.

A stop on the route of human dispersal

Our updated chronology revealed humans were present in the vicinity of Tam Pà Ling Cave for roughly 56,000 years. It also confirmed that, far from reflecting a rapid dump of sediments, the site contains sediments that accumulated steadily over some 86,000 years.

The age of the lowest fossil, a fragment of a leg bone found seven metres deep, suggests modern humans arrived in this region between 86,000 and 68,000 years ago.

The evidence from Tam Pà Ling has pushed back the timing of Homo sapiens arrival in Southeast Asia. This suggests the mainland, along with the coastal and island locations, may have also been a viable dispersal route.

Read more:
A fossil tooth places enigmatic ancient humans in Southeast Asia

Tam Pà Ling is just a stone’s throw from Cobra Cave, where we found a tooth some 150,000 years old belonging to a Denisovan, the now-extinct human relatives otherwise known only from remains found in Siberia and Tibet. This suggests the site may lie on a previously used dispersal route among hominins.

Tam Pà Ling continues to reveal pieces of the puzzle of the ancient human journey across the world. Only time will tell how many more it has in store.

Kira Westaway receives funding from Australian Research Council

Meghan McAllister-Hayward receives funding from Flinders University College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and the ARC Future Fellowship awarded to Associate Professor Mike Morley.

Mike W Morley receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Renaud Joannes-Boyau receives funding from the Australian Research Council

Vito C. Hernandez receives funding from the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences of Flinders University, and the ARC Future Fellowship grant of Associate Professor Mike Morley.

– ref. Bones, the ‘Cave of the Monkeys’ and 86,000 years of history: new evidence pushes back the timing of human arrival in Southeast Asia – https://theconversation.com/bones-the-cave-of-the-monkeys-and-86-000-years-of-history-new-evidence-pushes-back-the-timing-of-human-arrival-in-southeast-asia-206232

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cameron Webb, Clinical Associate Professor and Principal Hospital Scientist, University of Sydney

Wrangling head lice, and the children they infest, must be up there with the most challenging duties a parent or carer has to face.

Primary school-aged children, who seem to always be in close proximity to one another, are the most susceptible to lice.

But by exploiting the screen-sharing and selfie-taking habits of tweens and teens, these little parasites are finding more ways to spread.

And they’re no easier to kill off.

What are head lice and nits?

Head lice, known by their scientific name Pediculus humanus capitis, are tiny insects that are only found among the hair on a human’s head. They’re not found anywhere else on the planet.

They scuttle up and down shafts of hair. They have perfectly designed claws, that look a little like carabiners, allowing them to move about how a rock climber uses guide ropes. They’re agile on our hair, but clumsy once they’re off.

They don’t jump or fly. They move from head to head through direct physical contact.

Our hair is their home but our blood is their food. Head lice feed on the scalp and have specially designed mouth-parts to suck out blood up to a half dozen times a day. It means child with an average sized infestation of head lice may give up less than 0.01 ml of blood per day.

When it comes time to lay eggs, that we affectionately refer to as “nits”, the lice don’t want the more than 100 or so eggs they can produce in a lifespan just rolling off our heads. They “cement” their eggs to the shafts of hair. It’s some of the best “superglue” you can find!

Once laid, the eggs will hatch within a few days. Within a week, the lice are ready to lay more eggs. The adult lice can live for up to a month if conditions are right.

My child has head lice, should I be worried?

While closely related lice have been implicated in the spread of some of the most dangerous and deadly pathogens to human health, head lice are much more benign. They’re annoying but won’t make us sick.

Their bites may cause an itchy irritation to our skin. Our bodies react to the saliva they inject when they bite. In the same way we all vary in our reaction to mosquito bites, the same differences result from lice bites. Some people will hardly notice them, others will be driven wild with itchiness.

Health authorities in Australia do not consider head lice a risk of transmitting pathogens that are harmful to humans.

There is no doubt they’re annoying but perhaps the greatest health threat of head lice is to the health and well-being of parents responsible for their eradication.

Read more:
Here’s how you beat ‘indestructible’ head lice

Do we really need chemicals?

“Just kill them all, whatever it takes” is a common refrain among those trying to rid their children of the latest round of infestation.

There is a wide range of products available at your local pharmacy to treat head lice. These products should be registered with the Therapeutic Goods Administration and be assessed as both safe and effective to use. Most of these products are insecticides that kill the lice on contact.

However, evidence seems to be mounting that some of these insecticides aren’t working as well as they once did. Resistance in head lice to commonly used products may be the result of their excessive or incorrect use. The more lice that escape a treatment, the greater the chances of them developing resistance in much the same way bacteria are developing tolerance and resistance to commonly used antibiotics.

Head lice are still susceptible to alternative approaches. Products derived from Australian plants, such as tea tree or eucalyptus, may be better than insecticides. But these are still chemicals.

All these products should be used in accordance with the directions for safe use.

A range of products are marketed as “repelling” head lice. But there is little evidence these are a reliable way to avoid picking up head lice from your friends or family.

Is there a chemical-free approach?

A strong recommendation by health authorities in Australia is to skip the sprays, creams, and lotions and embrace the “conditioner and comb” or “wet comb” method and physically remove the lice.

This is not just good advice for those not wanting to avoid chemicals, it overcomes having to deal with insecticide-resistant lice.

The steps in this process are relatively straight forward.

To immobilise the lice, apply hair conditioner to the child’s damp hair. Then use a fine toothed “lice comb” to systematically work through the hair and remove adult lice. Regularly wiping the comb on tissues or paper towel will reveal the dispatched lice.

This approach works but must be repeated twice, about a week apart, to break the life cycle of the head lice.

Head lice eggs are less susceptible to treatment, no matter what treatment you choose. As all the eggs will hatch within a week or so, repeating treatments again and targeting the adult lice before a new batch of eggs is laid will provide the best results.

The secret to effective eradication of the infestations is patience and persistence. Perhaps a new practice in mindfulness?

Read more:
Curious Kids: what’s the point of nits?!

Will our household ever be free of them?

Head lice are a normal part of life for young children. It doesn’t matter how clean and tidy your house is, you’ll inevitably have to deal with an infestation.

Frequent washing of bed sheets, towels, and vacuuming floors won’t keep them away. Head lice don’t survive long out of our hair so you’re unlikely to pick them up from carpet, furniture, or even sharing hats. They don’t float around in swimming pools either.

If a child has persistent infestations and has an adverse reaction to the head lice, consult your local health professional. There are some alternative options, including some medications, that may also assist in reducing the bite reactions as well as the infestation itself.

Cameron Webb and the Department of Medical Entomology, NSW Health Pathology, have been engaged by a wide range of insect repellent and insecticide manufacturers to provide testing of products and provide expert advice on mosquito biology. Cameron has also received funding from local, state and federal agencies to undertake research into mosquito-borne disease surveillance and management.

– ref. ‘Help, my kids keep getting head lice!’ Here’s how to break the cycle of nits – https://theconversation.com/help-my-kids-keep-getting-head-lice-heres-how-to-break-the-cycle-of-nits-207024

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lynda Goldsworthy, Research Associate, University of Tasmania

Amid the challenges of climate change, resource extraction and pollution, the survival of species and ecosystems depends on setting aside protected areas. But plans to establish marine protected areas in East Antarctica have stalled.

Next week, the 27-member Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources will gather at a special meeting in Santiago, Chile, to try to break the deadlock. There’s much at stake, given the seemingly implacable opposition from China and Russia. China appears more concerned about fishing for krill than conservation, while Russia’s objections are less clear.

The need for Antarctic marine protected areas was first discussed in response to the 2002 United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development. The formal plan was adopted three years later, in 2005. While China had not yet joined the commission at that time, it was a member when the commission reaffirmed this commitment in 2011.

These areas were meant to protect a representative suite of Antarctic marine environments, such as unique seafloor communities, deepwater canyons, and highly productive coastal and oceanic food webs. They were to be developed, assessed and agreed on the basis of the best available science.

Read more:
A krill aquarium, climate research, and geopolitics: how Australia’s $800 million Antarctic funding will be spent

Slow progress on Antarctica’s marine parks

So far, two marine protected areas have been agreed by the commission: South Orkney Islands Southern Shelf in 2009; and the Ross Sea Region in 2016. Since then, the commission has been unable to agree on any further proposals, including the East Antarctic Region marine protected area. This was first proposed by Australia in 2011. It’s the oldest of those proposed but not yet agreed. The commission has also been unable to adopt the research and monitoring plans or the reviews of the existing marine protected areas.

This year, the United Nations agreed to a treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. This treaty will be up for adoption at a final conference session on June 19-20, 2023.

This treaty sets a global target of 30% of the global oceans to be in marine protected areas by 2030. This will be the likely yardstick against which the Commission’s future performance will be measured. So far, the commission’s marine protected area achievement is just 4.7% of the area of Southern Ocean that it is responsible for.

Of the 27 member countries of the commission, 21 have formally committed their support for the East Antarctic Region marine protected area. Only China and Russia have repeatedly opposed this and other proposals. They are now challenging the commission’s consensus agreement to establish the marine protected area network in Antarctica.

The shrinking East Antarctic Region Marine Protected Area

The proposed East Antarctic Region marine protected area initially consisted of seven distinct areas designed to protect the diversity of environments in the region. Since then, Australia and its partners, now numbering 17, have granted many compromises in the quest for consensus. The number of distinct areas has been reduced to three and fishing is allowed unless explicitly excluded.

To specifically accommodate China’s concerns about future krill fishing, Australia sacrificed the unique and special Prydz Bay region. That’s despite the fact China’s krill fishing aspirations could be more than adequately met from the rest of the region. Nonetheless, Russia and China continue to withhold consensus on this proposal.

Increasingly, the rhetoric opposing marine protected areas is centred around an argument that invokes a “balance” between “conservation” (in this case, the establishment of marine protected areas), and “rational use” (in this case the right to fish). On both legal and practical grounds, the conservation versus rational use argument centres on the very core of the international agreement that covers the oceans of the region, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.

The convention was agreed in 1980 to protect all Antarctic species from potential over exploitation. Its objective was – and remains – clearly centred on conservation in the region. Fishing is allowed, as long as the species and ecosystems of the region are conserved. The convention states that its objective “is the conservation of Antarctic marine living resources”. It identifies those resources as “populations of fin fish, molluscs, crustaceans and all other species of living organisms, including birds” and clarifies that “conservation” includes “rational use”, if such rational use can be conducted with minimal impact on the ecosystem.

In recent years, Russia and China have both argued that there is too much emphasis on conservation. They state that there needs to be a re-balancing between fishing and conservation. In constructing this argument, they are engaging in a wilful reinterpretation of the convention – and ignoring the significant time dedicated by the commission to fisheries management.

A reliance on consensus

The commission, like the rest of the Antarctic Treaty System, makes decisions on the basis of consensus. This means that some decisions take may take quite some time to be agreed, but the strength of consensus is that all parties are then committed to the final result.

Consensus is built on trust and good faith. But consensus will be undermined when agreement is withheld in bad faith, or used as a means to achieve other objectives. The actions of one or a few that withhold consensus, or who negotiate in bad faith, could, if not confronted, undermine all decision-making in the commission, including decisions on sustainable fisheries.

Now is not the time for endless compromise

We must not continue compromising for an apparent “quick win”. The East Antarctic Region marine protected area has been evaluated by the commission’s scientific committee, and the commission has repeatedly reached the point where only Russia and China withhold agreement. It is this behaviour that needs to be explicitly challenged, not the marine protected area proposal itself.

These nations need to explain their specific concerns, and in the spirit of consensus, provide workable alternatives that meet their obligations under the conventions and accommodate the aspirations of all members.

Australia has held many discussions with China and Russia over the years to help resolve their issues. With China, these discussions have been thorough and cordial, and it is clear this nation has a deep and comprehensive understanding of the marine protected area proposal. Several bilateral meetings have also been held with Russia; however, it remains unclear what their specific objections are, particularly as they are no longer fishing.

There are no obstacles to China agreeing to the East Antarctic Region marine protected area proposal now. They have agreed to two large Antarctic marine protected areas in the past. The East Antarctic marine protected area poses no substantive obstacle to China’s aspirations in the region, including their stated desire to harvest krill.

There is much at stake at this upcoming special meeting, including the reputation of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. The protection of the Antarctic requires that a way forward on marine protected areas be found.

Read more:
Australia wants to install military technology in Antarctica – here’s why that’s allowed

Marcus Haward receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre.

Lynda Goldsworthy and Tony Press do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Can next week’s special meeting in Chile break the deadlock over East Antarctica’s marine park proposal? – https://theconversation.com/can-next-weeks-special-meeting-in-chile-break-the-deadlock-over-east-antarcticas-marine-park-proposal-206531

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simone Driessen, Assistant Professor in Media & Popular Culture, Erasmus University Rotterdam

“It must be exhausting, always rooting for the anti-hero”, sings Taylor Swift on her latest album Midnights. Yet, the stadiums of her Eras super tour are filled with a crowd that feels anything but exhausted: social media overflows with footage of both Swift and her fans having a great time.

Until the Nashville shows. When the 1975’s lead singer, Matty Healy, attended all three concerts of the newly single Swift, her fans started to vocally worry that the two were dating.

Problematic Matty Healy

A romance between Swift and Healy felt unpalatable to many of her fans. Healy’s messy, amoral rock stardom, and frequent instances of public controversy, collided with Swift’s carefully crafted good girl image.

Swift’s fans took offence at what they believed was Healy’s sexist, racist and antisemitic behaviour. In an episode of The Adam Friedland Show podcast, for instance, Healy was recorded laughing along with racist jokes ridiculing rapper Ice Spice. On stage, he was seen doing what looked like an offhand Nazi salute while giving Kanye West a shout-out.

Healy perhaps assumes his fans understand him to be joking, but also does not seem to care much. If politics have become a joke – so Healy seems to think – you might as well joke about them. In the New Yorker, Jia Tolentino describes Healy as a post-woke celebrity, a persona switching between tenderness and trollishness.

His attitude irked Swift’s fans. Their rumoured relationship felt like a political oxymoron to them: how could a progressive, feminist celebrity like Swift fall for someone so problematic? Some fans accused Swift of performative activism: perhaps she, herself, had really not cared all along.

Social media filled with tweets from fans urging Swift to break up with Healy, followed by articles in Forbes, Rolling Stone, Buzzfeed and the Guardian, in which journalists, too, argued about Swift’s relationship with Healy.

In every iteration, their relationship was decidedly framed in political terms: by dating Healy, Swift condoned his hurtful statements and actions.

Breaking her silence

American celebrity has become an increasingly politicised institution in the last decade. When Donald Trump announced his run for the presidency in 2015, many celebrities opposed him. Swift stayed quiet at the time, which led to confusion about her political viewpoints. It facilitated the hijacking of Swift’s persona by the alt-right, who believed she had an “Aryan spirit”.

In 2018, Swift broke her silence and spoke out in support of progressive values. Swift’s statements were more explicit than the political flirtations of other celebrities: she named specific conservative politicians she opposed in a 2018 Instagram post, urging her audiences to not vote for them.

In an interview with Vogue from 2019, she said “rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male.”

The song You Need To Calm Down added a catchy sound to Swift’s newfound political voice. Through her politicisation, Swift gained new fans. Although not everybody believed her sudden change of heart, most applauded her for it.

Swift emphasised the importance of developing a political and social consciousness, potentially offering white women a blueprint out of political passivity and into action.

The politics of cultural consumption

When Swift’s audiences fight over the meaning of her stardom, and in extension debate the political values of her fandom, they are confronting the question of what a “good” pop star really looks like.

To those critical of Swift’s associations with Healy, this has to be a socially engaged, politically responsible celebrity who leads by example. The anti-Healy sentiment signals a craving for a star who legitimises rather than forecloses our desire for a better, more just and fair world.

Though celebrities can form an important source of joy, there are dangers in outsourcing our politics onto their individual, albeit, charming shoulders.

A framework in which Healy symbolises all things bad, with Swift personifying all things good, obstructs a more structural engagement with the issues at stake here. It falls into a trap of individualisation: presenting sexism, racism and antisemitism as individual character traits rather than historically anchored structures of violence.

In this narrative, getting rid of Healy would somehow allow Swift’s audiences to see Swift as whole again – as morally and politically pure, somehow not implicated in these structures of oppression Healy so carelessly embeds in his persona.

To focus solely on political evaluations of individual celebrities like Swift and Healy paves the way for a situation shaped by anti-politics, in which policymakers and political institutions get a free pass.

If individual celebrities are framed as the rotten apples causing moral and political chaos, it would mean that inequality and oppression could be solved by simply tossing those individuals out rather than focusing on the crucial need to fight misogyny, racism and antisemitism in structural, sustainable manners.

A month after the concerts in Nashville, Swift released a song with Ice Spice. On her Instagram and Twitter, she expressed her love for the young, talented rapper.

Not long after, Healy was seen kissing a security guard at his own concert. The internet let out a collective sigh of relief. Some fans celebrated the break-up as a victory; the fruit of their digital labor. Entertainment Weekly reported the two had come to realise they are not compatible. A day later, The Daily Mail wrote the two had actually never really dated.

But none of this seemed to matter much to those who had been arguing about the two for weeks now. Their relief and happiness about Swift being politically virtuous remained. Now that this issue had been resolved, the internet could finally go back to being a gathering place for uplifting concert videos from Swift’s Eras tour.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Rooting for the anti-hero: how fans turned Taylor Swift’s short relationship with Matty Healy into a political statement – https://theconversation.com/rooting-for-the-anti-hero-how-fans-turned-taylor-swifts-short-relationship-with-matty-healy-into-a-political-statement-207108

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Naish, Professor in Earth Sciences, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

The slow-down of the Southern Ocean circulation, a dramatic drop in the extent of sea ice and unprecedented heatwaves are all raising concerns that Antarctica may be approaching tipping points.

The world has now warmed by 1.2℃ above pre-industrial levels (defined as the average temperature between 1805 and 1900) and has experienced 20cm of global sea-level rise.

Significantly higher sea-level rise and more frequent extreme climate events will happen if we overshoot the Paris Agreement target to keep warming well below 2℃. Currently, we are on track to average global warming of 3-4℃ by 2100.

While the recent Antarctic extremes are not necessarily tipping points, ongoing warming will accelerate ice loss and ocean warming, pushing Antarctica towards thresholds which, once crossed, would lead to irreversible changes – with global long-term, multi-generational repercussions and major consequences for people and the environment.

The Earth system is designed to reach equilibrium (come into balance) in response to climate heating, but the last time atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) were as high as they are today (423ppm) was three million years ago.

Read more:
Antarctic alarm bells: observations reveal deep ocean currents are slowing earlier than predicted

It took a millennium for the world’s climate to adjust to this. When it did, Earth’s surface was 2℃ warmer and global sea-levels were 20m higher due to Antarctic ice-sheet melting. Back then, even our earliest human ancestors were yet to evolve.

The evolution of humankind could only begin after CO₂ levels dropped below 300ppm, about 2.7 million years ago. Since then, Earth’s average temperature has fluctuated between 10℃ during ice ages and 14℃ during warmer inter-glacial periods.

During the past 10,000 years of our present inter-glacial period, Earth’s greenhouse gas thermostat has been set at 300ppm of CO₂, maintaining a pleasant average temperature of 14℃. A goldilocks climate – not too hot, not too cold – but just right for human civilisation to flourish.

The Earth system is interconnected

Current global heating is taking the Earth system across a threshold humans have never experienced, into a climate where Antarctica’s ice shelves and marine ice sheets can no longer exist and one billion people, currently living near the coast, will be drowned by rising seas.

This will be a world where wildfires, heatwaves, atmospheric rivers, extreme rainfalls and droughts – such as those we have seen globally last summer – become commonplace.

The Earth system (oceans, atmosphere, cryosphere, ecosystems etc) is interconnected. This allows energy flow, enabling physical and ecological systems to remain in balance, or to regain balance. But connections can also mean dependencies, leading to reactions, amplifying feedbacks and consequences. Changes have roll-on effects, much like toppling dominoes.

Read more:
Antarctica’s heart of ice has skipped a beat. Time to take our medicine

Feedback loops – cyclical chain reactions that repeat again and again – can make the effects of climate change stronger or weaker, sometimes stabilising the system, but more often amplifying a response with adverse impacts.

Change is also not always linear. It can be abrupt and irreversible on human timescales if a threshold or tipping point is crossed.

Here, we outline one sequence of changes and consequences, including feedback loops and thresholds, using the example of global heating melting Antarctica’s ice sheets and the resulting sea-level rise.

We take a 50-year view into the future, as this is relevant for today’s policy makers but also sets in place much longer multi-generational consequences. While we focus on this example, there are many other Antarctic tipping points, including the effects of freshwater from ice-sheet melt on marine ecosystems and the effects of Antarctic change on Aotearoa’s temperature and rainfall patterns.

Antarctica in a warming world

Unless we change our current emissions trajectory, this is what to expect.

By 2070, the climate over Antarctica (Te Tiri o te Moana) will warm by more than 3℃ above pre-industrial temperatures. The Southern Ocean (Te Moana-tāpokopoko-a-Tāwhaki) will be 2℃ warmer.

As a consequence, more than 45% of summer sea ice will be lost, causing the surface ocean and atmosphere over Antarctica to warm even faster as dark ocean replaces white sea ice, absorbing more solar radiation and re-emitting it as heat. This allows warm, moist air in atmospheric rivers from the tropics to penetrate further south.

This accelerated warming of the Antarctic climate is a phenomenon known as polar amplification. This is already happening in the Arctic, which is warming two to three times faster than the global average of 1.2℃, with dramatic consequences for the permanent loss of sea ice and melting of Greenland’s ice sheet.

Antarctic tipping points

The warmed waters melt the ice shelves, which are floating tongues of ice that stabilise the Antarctic ice sheet, slowing down the flow of ice into the ocean.

Ice shelves can pass a tipping point when local ocean temperature thresholds are crossed, causing them to thin and float in places where they were once held in place by contact with the seabed. Melting at the surface also weakens ice shelves. In some cases, water on the surface fills up cracks in the ice and can then cause large areas to disintegrate catastrophically.

By 2070, heat in the ocean and atmosphere will have caused many ice shelves to break up into icebergs that will melt and release a quarter of their volume into the ocean as freshwater. By 2100, 50% of ice shelves will be gone. By 2150, all will have melted.

Without ice shelves holding back the ice sheet, glaciers will discharge at an even faster rate under gravity into the ocean. Large parts of the East Antarctic ice sheet and almost the entire West Antarctic ice sheet sit on rock in deep depressions below sea level.

They are vulnerable to an irreversible process called marine ice sheet instability (MISI). As the edges of the ice retreat into the deep basins, driven by the ongoing encroachment of warm ocean waters, the loss of ice becomes self-sustaining at an accelerating rate until it is all gone.

Another positive feedback, called marine ice cliff instability (MICI), means cliffs at the margins of the retreating ice sheet become unstable and topple over, exposing even taller cliffs that collapse under their own weight continuously like dominoes.

If global heating is not held below 2℃, ice-sheet models show global sea-levels will rise at at an accelerating rate up to 3m per century. Future generations will be committed to unstoppable retreat of the Greenland and marine sections of the Antarctic ice sheets, causing as much as 24m of global sea-level rise.

These changes highlight the urgency for immediate and deep cuts to emissions. Antarctica has to remain a stable ice-covered continent to avoid the worst impacts of rising seas.

Programmes around the world, including the Antarctic Science Platform, are prioritising research about future changes to the Antarctic ice sheet. Even if the news is not great, there is still time to act.

Timothy Naish receives funding from MBIE. He is a member of Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and co-leads an international research programme investigating Instabilities and Thresholds in Antarctica (INSTANT) for the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). He has also been a lead author on IPCC assessment reports.

– ref. Antarctic tipping points: the irreversible changes to come if we fail to keep warming below 2℃ – https://theconversation.com/antarctic-tipping-points-the-irreversible-changes-to-come-if-we-fail-to-keep-warming-below-2-207410

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has categorically denied misleading the Senate over her prior knowledge of the Brittany Higgins’ interview, but refused to be drawn on what discussion she might have had with Higgins or her partner David Sharaz at the time.

Gallagher has, however, said she did not communicate anything about the interview, which was to be aired on The Project, to Anthony Albanese, Labor Senate leader Penny Wong, their staffs, or her own staff.

“I was provided with information in the days before the allegations were first reported, and I did nothing with that information,” she said in a statement to the Senate. “Absolutely nothing. I was asked to keep it to myself, and I did.”

Later, under concerted opposition interrogation, she declined – on the grounds of confidentiality – to say whether she had been supplied with the yet-to-be broadcast Project interview, as has been reported. She also warded off questioning about whether she had given feedback.

In a Senate estimates committee meeting in 2021, Gallagher said she’d had no knowledge. She was replying to Liberal then-minister Linda Reynolds’ claim a Labor senator had warned her two weeks before Higgins made her rape allegation of the then-opposition’s plan to use it politically.

Higgins alleged she was raped in Reynolds’ office by fellow staffer Bruce Lehrmann, which he denied. (Lehrmann was not named in The Project interview.)

Gallagher said in her statement: “I was shocked at the assertion made by Senator Reynolds with the clear implication that I was responsible or had some involvement with making that story public.

“That was not true. It was never true, and I responded to that allegation by saying no one had any knowledge.”

She said she explained to Reynolds the same night that she’d been given “a heads up about the allegations in the days before they became public, an explanation she accepted at the time”.

Gallagher also said she’d had no role in the payout the Commonwealth has made to Higgins.

Earlier, at the Labor caucus meeting, Anthony Albanese declared the caucus was “1000%” behind her.

Albanese heaped praise on Gallagher, who is also Minister for Women, telling her “we thank you, we honour you, we’re with you”.

He told caucus that “no government has done more to put women at the centre of policy making than what has happened under Katy Gallagher”.

He described her as “a person of extraordinary integrity”, saying the attack on her was unfair, unjustified, and unscrupulous. No backward step would be taken, he said.

À lire aussi :
View from The Hill: Brittany Higgins story continues its damaging trail, with no end in sight

Opposition leader Peter Dutton told the Coalition party meeting it was “an open and shut case” that Gallagher had misled the Senate

“It is increasingly clear that a group of Labor operatives conspired to maximise the damage. It was absolutely brazen. Labor used an alleged rape victim for political purposes.”

He said it was entirely appropriate for the opposition to put pressure on Labor to answer the questions.

Labor is attacking the Coalition for taking up this issue, arguing this will deter young women coming forward when they have been sexually assaulted. Albanese said “the real tragedy is the impact this will have on any woman contemplating coming forward”.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus condemned the leaking of private text messages between Sharaz and Higgins, in which they discussed Gallagher being altered before the Project interview went to air.

Answering a question from crossbencher Zali Steggall he said “I am deeply concerned about the apparent unauthorised publication of material produced as a result of a subpoena in the criminal trial of Mr Bruce Lehrmann.

“Material produced to a court in response to a subpoena is subject to an implied undertaking from the parties who receive it, that it won’t be used for purposes other than for those court proceedings.”

He said the police were examining a complaint about this. The Ten Network has taken the leak to the police.

Steggall said in a statement: “The media should not have a leave pass on people’s right to privacy.

“Media publication of leaked private material produced for a police investigation undermines trust and confidence in the criminal justice system for victims. This is not in the public interest.”

Reynolds on Tuesday began legal action against the Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, alleging Plibersek had defamed her in comments this week about her handling of the Higgins matter.

Meanwhile former prime minister Scott Morrison told parliament he and Fiona Brown, a staffer in then-minister Reynolds office who dealt with the Higgins case, had different recollections about whether they had spoken about the matter

Morrison had told the House in 2021 that he had spoken with Brown, who by then was working in his office, but Brown told the Weekend Australian that he had not.

In a Tuesday statement, Morrison said: “While I believed my response to be accurate at the time, I cannot, obviously, fully discount that her recollection of those events now is the more accurate. However, I reject absolutely any suggestion of deliberate intent in any such possible inaccuracy in my response.”

Morrison at the weekend spoke to Brown – who had said in the interview that she had felt unsupported by Morrison and his office.

He told parliament, “It was and remains my strong view that Ms Brown did all she could to provide support to Ms Higgins at that time.”

Michelle Grattan ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. Katy Gallagher says she didn’t alert Albanese or Wong to the pending Brittany Higgins’ interview – https://theconversation.com/katy-gallagher-says-she-didnt-alert-albanese-or-wong-to-the-pending-brittany-higgins-interview-207627

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tessa Copp, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, University of Sydney

Many women who want to have children and are getting older worry about their fertility. The “egg timer” blood test is marketed as an empowering way to give women insights to help them plan when to have children.

Online companies are now also selling the test directly to consumers to do at home, promoting the test as a way for women to decide when to have a baby, even if they aren’t thinking of having one any time soon.

But it can’t reliably predict the likelihood of pregnancy or how long it would take to get pregnant.

Despite this, egg timer testing is promoted to women not undergoing IVF as a way to assess their current and future fertility.

Our analysis of Australian and New Zealand fertility clinic websites found some claimed the test could predict a woman’s chance of conceiving or identify women at risk of early menopause.

What can and can’t the test do?

The test measures the level of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) in the blood and is known clinically as an AMH test.

AMH is produced by follicles in the ovaries (little fluid-filled sacs that contain immature eggs) and helps follicles and eggs grow during the menstrual cycle. Because the number of follicles in the ovaries drops with increasing age, the level of AMH also falls.

The AMH level indicates the number of eggs in the ovaries, or ovarian reserve.

It is often used in IVF treatment, as it can suggest how many eggs a woman may get when her ovaries are stimulated with fertility drugs.

But it can’t tell you anything about egg quality. Women with low AMH levels have the same chance of conceiving as women with normal AMH levels.

It also can’t reliably predict menopause timing for individual women.

Because of this, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists strongly discourages AMH testing in women who are not seeking fertility treatment. It states the test:

should not be ordered or used to counsel women who are not infertile about their reproductive status and future fertility potential.

No similar guidance has been published by the relevant colleges in Australia.

Read more:
Women’s fertility: does ‘egg timer’ testing work, and what are the other options?

Who gets AMH tests and why?

The test isn’t Medicare-subsidised. Most AMH tests are paid for privately by consumers, costing around A$80-$120. Because of this, data on current test usage is not publicly available.

To find out how many women in Australia are accessing AMH testing and why, we conducted the first investigation into its use in Australia.

We surveyed a representative sample of 1,773 women aged 18 to 55, recruited through the Life in Australia national study.

We asked them if and how they had heard about AMH testing, whether they had ever had an AMH test, their main reason for testing and how they accessed the test.

Our results, published today, show 13% of the women had heard about AMH testing and 7% had had an AMH test.

The majority had the test for medically indicated reasons, such as during infertility investigations (51%), or to find out if a medical condition had affected their fertility (11%). This included having had chemotherapy or radiotherapy, endometriosis, thyroid issues, and others.

Read more:
Young people with cancer should have affordable options to preserve their fertility

Concerningly, one-third reported having had the test for other reasons. This included gaining insights into their fertility or inform their reproductive life planning (30%).

Most women who had an AMH test first heard about it from their GP or fertility specialist, suggesting doctors are currently the main drivers of test uptake.

However this may change with the recent emergence of direct-to-consumer AMH testing in Australia, as online companies increase their marketing.

What are the downsides of having an AMH test?

Getting the test to inform you about your fertility may lead you to make choices based on a false premise.

If you get a normal or high AMH result, it may give a false sense of security about delaying pregnancy, when age is the most important factor of female fertility.

If you receive a low result, it may cause unwarranted anxiety about not being able to conceive. This may cause pressure to conceive earlier than desired, or create a sense of urgency and haste towards fertility treatment, such as egg freezing.

To make informed decisions about AMH testing, women need clear, evidence-based information. We have developed and are currently testing an evidence-based information guide to assist with this.

Can other tests tell me about my fertility?

Unfortunately, there is no reliable test of a woman’s fertility.

But it’s important to know a woman’s age is the greatest predictor of her chance of pregnancy. The only real way to know your fertility is by trying to get pregnant when you are ready.

Read more:
Women are often told their fertility ‘falls off a cliff’ at 35, but is that right?

Tessa Copp is supported by an NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellowship (2009419). She is on the Scientific Committee of the Preventing Overdiagnosis Conference.

Jenny Doust receives funding from Centre of Research Excellence on Women and Non-communicable Diseases (CRE-WaND) NHMRC APP1153420.

Karin Hammarberg works part-time for the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority.

– ref. Don’t believe the hype. ‘Egg timer’ tests can’t reliably predict your chance of conceiving or menopause timing – https://theconversation.com/dont-believe-the-hype-egg-timer-tests-cant-reliably-predict-your-chance-of-conceiving-or-menopause-timing-207008

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asmita Manchha, Research fellow, The University of Queensland

Aged care workers will see their award wages increase by 15% at the end of this month. It’s recognition that their work has been undervalued, and that something needs to be done to solve the looming critical shortage of aged care workers as the population ages.

Higher wages was a key recommendation of the aged care royal commission. But how much money is enough to compensate for the stigma associated with aged care work?

Our research shows that aged care work is burdened by three types of stigma – physical, social and moral.

Physical stigma refers to work performed under particularly dangerous conditions, or being exposed to dirt, bodily fluids and death. Examples of jobs with high physical stigma include firefighting, working with sewage and being an undertaker.

Social stigma is associated with work seen as low-status, because it involves being in a servile relationship and working people belonging to marginalised group – in this case, older people.

Moral stigma involves work that is viewed as deceptive or unethical. Examples include used car salespeople and loan sharks. Our findings point to a moral stigma around aged care work, which is reinforced by media coverage of elder abuse and neglect.

All three stigmas put aged care work in a select group of maligned occupations. Higher wages may ameliorate some of these stigmas, but more will be needed to address them all.

Read more:
Overseas recruitment won’t solve Australia’s aged care worker crisis

Physical, social and moral stigmas

Our research is based on surveying 159 health professionals who do not currently work in aged care about their perceptions of the sector and the work.

Many occupations are stigmatised. For example, being a miner carries a high physical stigma, a welfare worker a social stigma, and a real estate agent a moral stigma.

Some occupations have two strong stigmas, such as being a prison guard (physical and social stigma), being in the military (physical and moral stigma), or being a debt collector (social and moral stigma). The following graph shows how US researchers Blake Ashforth and Glen Kreiner categorised different occupations in their 2014 study, “Dirty work and dirtier work: Differences in countering physical, social and moral stigma”.

Our research shows that aged care work carries the burden of all three stigmas.

How can higher wages help?

Attracting more people to aged care work requires challenging all three of these stigmas. The question is to what extent higher wages can do this.

It’s generally the case that higher pay means higher occupational prestige.

Higher pay can’t reduce physical stigma, but it can compensate for it – just as high salaries compensate people willing to do mining work.

It can certainly help to diminish the social stigma, by signalling that society values this work more than it has done in the past. But the relatively small wage increase will not overcome the fact that society puts greater value on occupations that focus on “curing” rather than “caring”.

Higher pay may reduce the moral stigma, but only if other royal commission recommendations regarding better training and management are also implemented. The cases of abuse and neglect highlighted in media stories aren’t just about “bad apples”, but broader systemic issues such as staffing ratios and time allocated to direct care.

More fundamentally, the stigmatisation of aged care work reflects a structural deficiency of the economy, which fails to celebrate and remunerate caring work.

The federal government has taken a number of steps to address this, including giving the Fair Work Commission greater powers to address systemic low payment of female-dominated work, and expanding the potential for multi-enterprise enterprise bargaining.

But much more will need be done before all care work is valued the way it needs to be.

Read more:
Wages and women top Albanese’s IR agenda: the big question is how Labor keeps its promises

Asmita Manchha is employed as a Research Fellow in the Bolton Clarke Research Institute. Her views are her own as a researcher and do not represent the views of the aged care provider she is affiliated with.

– ref. We need more than a 15% pay rise to beat the 3 stigmas turning people off aged care jobs – https://theconversation.com/we-need-more-than-a-15-pay-rise-to-beat-the-3stigmas-turning-people-off-aged-care-jobs-206670

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Shortis, Lecturer in HIstory, RMIT University

In September last year, US President Joe Biden spoke to Americans from the “sacred ground” of Independence Hall in Philadelphia – the birthplace of the Constitution of the United States. In that landmark speech, Biden warned Americans, and indeed the world, that:

Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.

Less than a year later, American democracy is being subjected to yet another stress test – one to add to an already exhaustingly long list.

As former President Donald Trump has been indicted for the second time in months – this time on federal charges – Biden must navigate uncharted territory. He could soon be faced with trying to win an election against an opponent being prosecuted by the government he leads.

At the same time, as he said in September, Biden is attempting to unite Americans “behind the single purpose of defending our democracy”.

Is it possible for a president to do both at once?

Defending the rule of law

Biden came into office under the shadow of a violent attack on American democracy. The near-success of the January 6 insurrection on the US Capitol felt like it could have been a test run – one that might be repeated, given the chance.

Biden insisted the integrity of American democracy thus requires accountability. As he put it,

American democracy only works only if we choose to respect the rule of law.

To Biden, ensuring this respect for the rule of law meant restoring the reputation and the integrity of the Department of Justice after the Trump administration. As part of this, Biden nominated Merrick Garland for the position of attorney general.

Garland had previously been nominated for a seat on the US Supreme Court by then-President Barack Obama in 2016. Republicans, however, refused to schedule nomination hearings until after the presidential election, thwarting Garland’s bid to join the court. Garland’s conduct then – and throughout his career – assured many that as attorney general he would act with integrity and, perhaps most importantly, political impartiality.

Read more:
Could Joe Biden be the most consequential American president of our times?

Garland has been nothing but consistent in this position. After his appointment, Garland said he would avoid “any partisan element of our decision-making about cases”. Garland is also, like Biden, staunch in his insistence that “no person is above the law in this country” – not even former or aspiring presidents.

In a functioning democracy, both things must hold at once.

When it comes to investigating Trump’s alleged activities, Garland has sought to ensure his department can do both – remain above the political fray, while ensuring the rule of law.

Appointing Jack Smith as special counsel was key. Not only does Smith’s appointment ensure a level of distance between Garland and the investigations, it also,
according to Garland, “underscores the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability”. Smith is politically unaffiliated and has an impeccable background in the law, including as a former war crimes prosecutor at The Hague.

Biden, too, is maintaining distance as best he can. He wasn’t in Washington when the indictment went public. He told reporters in North Carolina that he had not, and would not, speak to Garland about the case.

The Biden administration and Department of Justice see that distance as a critical part of the task of keeping American democracy functioning.

Reacting with resentment and fury

Biden’s political strategy is important, too – he wants to win an election, after all. Part of his own campaign messaging is that he is serious about the survival of the republic, and about protecting Americans from what he has called the “semi-fascists” in the Republican Party who are leading the charge against him.

Biden is all too aware, however, this is about a lot more than a game of political strategy. When, as Biden observed not so long ago, “too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal”, prosecuting a political strategy along these lines is incredibly difficult.

Republicans’ own strategy in the face of these latest charges against their presumptive leader should surprise no one. The rhetoric of the dominant, Trump-supporting faction of the party is designed to reinforce a longstanding politics of resentment and fury, which they are aiming squarely at Biden.

Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy, for example, incorrectly claimed that Biden himself had indicted “the leading candidate opposing him”, presumably in an effort to defeat him. Senator J.D. Vance similarly claimed Biden is “using the justice system to pre-emptively steal the 2024 election”. Senator Josh Hawley – who famously raised his fist in salute of insurrectionists during the January 6 riots – mooted the end of the American republic on Twitter.

To these Republicans, the clear distance between Biden, the Department of Justice and the attorney general – and the attorney general and special counsel leading the investigations – doesn’t matter. Nor does the substantial evidence against Trump.

Going beyond the more coded language of some of their more senior colleagues, some Trump-supporting representatives have opted for naked incitement. In Arizona, for example, one Republican congressman said “we have now reached a war phase”. In Louisiana, a colleague described the indictment as “a perimeter probe from the oppressors”.

Read more:
Yes, federal charges against a former president are unprecedented – but so is Trump’s political power

These Trump supporters know exactly what they are doing. They are actively testing the strength of American democracy, probing for weak points. They support, after all, a man who has called for nothing less than the “termination” of the Constitution. The difference between that and Hawley’s fear-mongering over the end of the US republic is only who gets to be in charge.

As he attempts in his re-election campaign to appeal to Americans who do not subscribe to Trump’s dangerous and distorted view of the world, Biden must prosecute a message of political integrity and the importance of the rule of law, while at the same time resisting continued assaults against them.

Whether Biden is up to these dual tasks remains to be seen. But the continued survival of the institutions of American democracy requires that he is.

Emma Shortis is a member of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN).

– ref. For Joe Biden, the indictment of Donald Trump carries a heavy responsibility – and a risk – https://theconversation.com/for-joe-biden-the-indictment-of-donald-trump-carries-a-heavy-responsibility-and-a-risk-207603

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Suddenly Australians are being told we need to produce more if we want our wages to merely keep up with inflation.

Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe has begun referring to “productivity” in each of the statements he makes after each Reserve Bank board meeting.

Whereas in the past he has only said we needed to boost productivity to lift real wages (to lift wages growth above price growth), he has begun saying we need to boost productivity to justify wage increases well below inflation.

The Governor is right to say that labour productivity (output per hour worked) is falling. He’s also right to say that’s unusual. But it would be wrong to conclude that the solution is for workers to simply work harder.

A tougher line for workers than for business

Lowe has been suggesting he will only tolerate the wages growth we’ve got “provided that trend productivity growth picks up”.

Inflation is officially 7%. The Reserve Bank’s best guess is that the update, due in six weeks, will show it has fallen to 6.3%.

Wages growth is only 3.7%, and the bank’s best guess is the update, due in nine weeks, will show it little changed at 3.8%.

This means wages growth is below inflation and set to stay that way. But Lowe is concerned enough about wage increases that aren’t backed by productivity growth that he prepared to push up interest rates further to bring them down.

Read more:
Why RBA Governor Philip Lowe wants to damage the economy further

As it happens, this isn’t something he has said about businesses. Last month, Telstra said it would lift its mobile and data charges “in line with the consumer price index, rounded to the nearest dollar”.

That’s an increase of 7%, allowing Telstra to boost its charges in line with inflation in a way Lowe doesn’t want workers to. And Telstra won’t need to show it is more productive. It won’t need to offer anything extra.

Productivity is slipping

The official figures show labour productivity (output per hour worked) falling. Although it usually increases, and increased very fast in the 1990s, GDP per hour worked has been falling since March 2022. Since then, it’s down 4.6%.

But it’s the sort of thing that would be expected when there’s a surge in employment. All other things being equal, the more hours that are worked, the less GDP per hour should be.

In the past year, hours worked have surged an extraordinary 5% to an all-time high. When a cafe puts on an extra staff member it doesn’t immediately mean it’ll sell more food. When a childcare centre or a school puts on extra staff it mightn’t produce more at all.

Short-term, more jobs means lower productivity growth

In the short term, the quickest way to boost measured productivity is to bring on recession and throw people out to work.

In 2009, productivity jumped in the United States after what people there called “The Great Recession”. In Australia, we know that period better as “the global financial crisis” – because there was no local recession. Employment stayed strong, while productivity growth slumped.

As a rule, getting people into paid work is something to be welcomed, and as a rule there’s not much anyone can do to stop it. This means that a key driver of measured productivity is beyond anyone’s direct control.

And there’s another driver that’s hard to control.

When mining booms, non-mining productivity slumps

One of the biggest direct drivers of measured productivity is automation. The more that employers put in machines to increase output per worker, the greater the output per worker.

One of the reasons it’s hard to increase output per worker these days might be that the industries that are growing are those such as aged care, which are hard to automate. The Productivity Commission says after growing 2.2% per year through the 1990s, labour productivity grew by just 1.1% per year in the decade to 2020.

And there’s something else. When the price of Australia’s mineral exports booms, which it does from time to time for reasons beyond Australia’s control, other non-mining businesses tend to spend less installing machines. To use the approved terminology, there’s less “non-mining business investment”.

Former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry believes the two are connected. He says high prices for mineral exports push up the value of the Australian dollar, which makes Australian non-mining businesses less able to compete with imports and less able to see the sense in installing machines.

Henry says that’s what’s happening at the moment. Australians and foreigners are finding better opportunities overseas.

Australia has become a net exporter, rather than a net importer, of investment funds – a change Henry says isn’t only because superannuation has boosted household savings.

There are all sorts of things we can do to boost labour productivity. Earlier this year, the Productivity Commission published a nine-volume report outlining them.

But they won’t pay quick dividends, and it’ll be hard going while employment remains robust (which is something we want) and minerals prices remain high (which is something we probably want).

In what has to be his most re-quoted observation ever, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman famously said

productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything. A country’s ability to improve its standard of living over time depends almost entirely on its ability to raise its output per worker.

There are all sorts of things we can do to boost productivity. But to the extent that productivity is in anyone’s hands, it is in the hands of employers, and broader economic forces beyond anyone’s ability to easily control.

Telling us to work harder is unlikely to make much difference.

Peter Martin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Don’t blame workers for falling productivity – we’re not the ones holding it back – https://theconversation.com/dont-blame-workers-for-falling-productivity-were-not-the-ones-holding-it-back-207594

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sophie Loy-Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Australian History, University of Sydney

Review: The Poison of Polygamy, directed by Courtney Stewart, La Boite and Sydney Theatre Company.

Early Chinese migrants to Australia believed in ghosts.

Hailing mostly from a handful of villages in China’s southern Guangdong province, these migrants were Cantonese peoples. For them, the undead had immense power – given the right circumstances.

It was beholden upon the living to manage the dead: bury them appropriately, return their bones to China, arrange for ancestor worship.

Archives tell us Chinese migrants in Australia feared the consequences if such rituals were neglected, even in the chaotic environmental mess of the Australian goldfields.

I’ve read court records from this period in which Chinese witnesses recount “angry ghosts coming to strike them at night”.

The Poison of Polygamy begins with a ghost. The play directly addresses Australia’s Chinese ancestors, conjuring up the past while speaking directly to the present.

Issues of tyranny and servitude, oppression and resistance, violence and its afterlife are marshalled to speak to our modern souls.

What is the link between colonialism and environmental destruction? How do we tell the story of a group of people – themselves victims of European racism – who in turn were invaders of Indigenous land?

What do we do with a 19th-century Chinese-Australian morality tale which insists that Christian values, with all their concurrent conservative gender politics, will save us from moral dissolution?

À lire aussi :
New Gold Mountain review: a compelling murder mystery shines light on early Australian multiculturalism

Chinese migration

An evangelical Chinese Christian, The Preacher (an excellent Shan-Ree Tan), walks towards the audience through a sea of mist, his throat cut and clutching a Bible. He is righteous and here to save our souls.

The Preacher is especially forthright on the questions of polygamy, a common practice in 19th-century China, which took on a new life among overseas Chinese migrant communities. Many first wives were “left behind” in the village while their men took a second or third wife overseas.

The play’s hero (“and there is nothing heroic about him”, The Preacher dryly informs us) is Sleep-Sick (also played by Tan): an opium-addicted scrounger who mistreats his wife (Merlynn Tong) and is bundled off to the Australian goldfields by her cousin (Silvan Rus) due to his debt and social malignancy.

There, he befriends other Chinese migrants, eventually settling in Melbourne’s Chinatown. Their banter and debate encompass all the issues of the day: democracy, racial equality, capitalism, mateship, feminism and, of course, the scurvy of polygamy.

The Preacher will use Sleep-Sick’s misadventures as a warning to us all, until another equally righteous narrator – the servant girl or bond maiden Tsiu Hei (Kimie Tsukakoshi) – questions his right to tell her story.

A lost classic

The Poison of Polygamy was likely the first Chinese Australian novel. It was serialised in the Australian Chinese-language press, Charles Dickens-style, from 1909-1910 in 53 instalments.

The author was a Chinese Christian, Wong Shee Ping. The son of gold-rush migrants, he drew on his own experience to write a book about life on the goldfields and in Melbourne.

Australia is lucky in two regards when it comes to the recovery of our Chinese past. We have one of the best-preserved Chinese-language presses in the West, and we have a leading bilingual historian in Mei-fen Kuo, who has been working her way through this massive archive over the past 15 years.

Australia’s booming Chinatowns serviced several newspapers from the 1890s to the 1940s, read by Chinese Australians throughout Australia and beyond.

Prior to digitisation, much of this newsprint sat mildewed in Melbourne and Sydney’s Chinatowns. It took Mei-fen’s tenacity in 2006 to discover The Poison of Polygamy in the pages of the Chinese Times, which was published in Melbourne for a national readership.

The novel was translated by Ely Finch and published by Sydney University Press in 2019.

Playwright Anchuli Felicia King read the novel and rightly saw it as an “Australian classic” and a “lost piece of our cultural heritage”. She wanted to stage a production “which spoke directly to our ancestors”.

A brilliant success

The result is a gothic, brilliant success, darkly funny and subversively political.

“We made your unions, we built your democracy,” Tsiu Hei tells the audience at the end. “We are in your limestone, in your clay.”

Under the direction of Courtney Stewart, clever staging using rolling red columns, muscular choreography and a startlingly effective lighting design (Ben Hughes) allow for transitions across space and time, creating a world where Europeans are on the margins of historical action in this country.

Australia’s Chinese heritage is wrestled from the grip of our Euro-centric past and – finally – told from the perspective of Chinese migrants themselves.

This is a triumphant reclamation of an Australia denied to us in monolingual readings of our history.

The Poison of Polygamy is at the Sydney Theatre Company until July 15.

À lire aussi :
From lurid orange sauces to refined, regional flavours: how politics helped shape Chinese food in Australia

Sophie Loy-Wilson receives funding from the Australian Research Council

– ref. A gothic, brilliant success: The Poison of Polygamy brings the first Chinese-Australian novel to the stage after 113 years – https://theconversation.com/a-gothic-brilliant-success-the-poison-of-polygamy-brings-the-first-chinese-australian-novel-to-the-stage-after-113-years-206929

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne

A federal Resolve poll for Nine newspapers, conducted last week from a sample of 1,606, had “no” ahead by 51-49 in a forced choice question on the Indigenous Voice to parliament referendum to be held later this year.

This is the first “no” lead in any national Voice poll. In the past two months, there has been a rapid movement to “no” in Resolve polls. “Yes” was ahead by 58-42 in April, but this dropped to a 53-47 lead in May, and now “no” has taken the lead.

Party breakdowns suggest a large drop in support since April from Labor voters, with their support down 12 points to a 63-37 split in favour of “yes”.

State breakdowns were based on aggregate data from May and June with an overall sample of 3,216. As May and June results were averaged, “yes” led overall by 51-49. But these breakdowns suggest the Voice would not get the required majority in four of six states, as it was trailing narrowly in South Australia and Western Australia, and much further behind in Queensland.

Only 30% of voters said they could confidently explain the Voice to someone else. Not understanding the detail is likely a key driver of the swing to “no”. Initial preferences were 42% “yes” (down two since May), 40% “no” (up one) and 18% undecided (steady).

Essential poll: ‘yes’ leads by 60-40

An Essential poll, conducted last week from a sample of 1,123, gave “yes” to the Voice a 60-40 lead, a one-point gain for “yes” since May. In April, Essential and Resolve were only two points apart, with Resolve at 58-42 “yes” and Essential 60-40. Now there is an 11-point gap.

I believe Resolve and Newspoll are more credible as they have been tested and performed well at the federal 2022, Victorian 2022 and New South Wales 2023 elections. In my opinion, Resolve had the best final poll at the federal election, while Newspoll performed best at both the Victorian and NSW elections.

Read more:
How did the polls perform in the 2022 election? Better, but not great; also a Senate update

In contrast, Essential greatly overstated both major parties’ support at the federal election, and did not produce a voting intentions poll close to either the Victorian or NSW elections.

It’s possible that Essential’s skew to “yes” is caused by a bias in their samples towards better educated respondents. Seats with a higher educational attainment are where the Greens and teal independents performed best at the last federal election.

Relative to other polls, Essential has had much higher Greens votes, with their latest poll putting the Greens on 16% (up one since last fortnight), compared to 12% in Resolve and 12% in last week’s Newspoll. For this parliamentary term, the Greens support has usually been about 14% in Essential compared to 10-11% in other polls.

Last week’s Newspoll gave “yes” an overall 46-43 lead with 11% undecided. Education breakdowns had university-educated people favouring “yes” 56-35, but “no” was leading with both TAFE/college (by 48-43) and no tertiary education (by 45-41).

The skew to “yes” in Essential may be explained by having too many university educated people in their samples. Better-educated people are more likely to have decided how to vote on the Voice a long time ago, explaining the stable referendum vote in Essential.

A struggle ahead for the ‘yes’ campaign

In early May, I wrote that just one of 25 Labor-initiated referendums had succeeded, and that early poll leads for proposals often collapse by the referendum date. Furthermore, Labor-initated referendums have lost much more heavily when held as a midterm referendum than when held with general elections.

Read more:
While the Voice has a large poll lead now, history of past referendums indicates it may struggle

The Resolve poll and last week’s Newspoll (46-43 to “yes”) implied that support for the Voice is slumping. Given the history of Labor-initiated referendums, if these polls are correct, it is likely that the Voice will be defeated. Supporters of the Voice will hope that Essential is right, but Essential’s track record is worse than either Resolve or Newspoll.

Fadden byelection: July 15

A byelection for the federal Queensland seat of Fadden will occur on July 15 after the resignation of former Liberal minister Stuart Robert. The LNP won Fadden by a 60.6-39.4 margin against Labor at the 2022 federal election.

Fadden has only been won by Labor once, in 1983 on the election of the Hawke government, and has been more pro-LNP than Queensland overall since 1984 according to the ABC guide.

In my first look at this byelection, I thought Labor might not contest given how unlikely it is they would win. However, Labor will contest with their 2022 candidate. Nominations for the byelection close on June 22 and will be declared the next day. The LNP should retain easily.

Read more:
Easy Liberal wins likely in byelections in Robert’s and Morrison’s seats; support for rise in JobSeeker

WA state poll: 61-39 to Labor

The Poll Bludger reported on June 3 that an Utting research poll for The West Australian, conducted May 31 from a sample of 800, gave Labor a 61-39 lead from primary votes of 52% Labor, 28% Liberals, 5% Nationals and 8% Greens. This poll was taken two days after WA Premier Mark McGowan announced his resignation.

While Labor is well down from the record landslide margin of 69.7-30.3 at the March 2021 WA election, this would still be a massive win for Labor if repeated at an election.

New Labor Premier Roger Cook had ratings of 42% approve, 26% disapprove, while Liberal leader Libby Mettram was at 31% approve, 33% disapprove. Cook had a 50-24 lead as preferred premier over Mettram. McGowan’s ratings were 68% approve, 19% disapprove.

There will be a byelection in McGowan’s former seat of Rockingham on July 29. At the 2021 WA election, McGowan won Rockingham by an 87.7-12.3 margin over the Liberals, from a primary vote of 82.7%. There is likely to be a big swing against Labor at the byelection, but they should still hold Rockingham easily.

Adrian Beaumont does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Resolve first national poll to have ‘no’ ahead in Voice referendum, but Essential has ‘yes’ far ahead – https://theconversation.com/resolve-first-national-poll-to-have-no-ahead-in-voice-referendum-but-essential-has-yes-far-ahead-207015

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ariane Moore, PhD Candidate in Philosophy, University of Tasmania

Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company founded in 2004 by Richard Branson, promotes its flights as offering:

A Brand New Perspective: Deepen your connection to Earth and to humanity with the transformational experience known as the Overview Effect.

First discussed in 1987 by space philosopher Frank White, the Overview Effect is a result of viewing Earth from space.

Expressions of the effect range broadly. Astronauts might experience profound awe and wonder at the perception of Earth as a fragile living being. Some suffer crushing grief when considering the harm humans inflict on nature.

While Virgin Galactic promotes access to the Overview Effect as a major drawcard, it is a terrible irony that space tourism is enormously damaging for the environment.

Read more:
Seeing Earth from space changes you – and you don’t even have to leave the planet

The Overview Effect

The Overview Effect is not limited to astronauts from the West. Their Chinese and Russian counterparts have described the same profound connection to Earth when witnessing the planet from space.

As Soviet Russian cosmonaut Yuri Artyushkin reported:

The feeling of unity is not simply an observation. With it comes a strong sense of compassion and concern for the state of our planet and the effect humans are having on it. It isn’t important in which sea or lake you observe a slick of pollution, or in the forests of which country a fire breaks out, or on which continent a hurricane arises. You are standing guard over the whole of our Earth.

Until recently, researching the Overview Effect has required interviews with professional astronauts. Today, commercial space tourism is increasing awareness of the phenomenon, particularly when experienced by celebrities with large platforms.

In 2021, Star Trek actor William Shatner completed a suborbital flight with Jeff Bezos’ space tourism company Blue Origin. Shatner had anticipated emotions of celebration and joy when viewing “mother and Earth and comfort” from space. Instead, he later wrote, he struggled with “the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered”.

Shatner attributed his experience to the Overview Effect.

Read more:
The wonders and terrors of modern technology evoke the ancient concept of the sublime, and present us with a choice

Space flight has a huge environmental impact

Virgin Galactic promotes the Overview Effect on its homepage as an experience exclusive to space flight.

However, access is extremely costly. While an eager space tourist consents to parting with US$450,000 to experience a profound connection with Earth, the planet itself has no say in receiving the massive pollution a single trip produces.

Rocket emissions impact Earth’s atmosphere, temperatures and the ozone layer at an unprecedented level. A 2022 study found space tourism produces black carbon particles that are almost 500 times more efficient at warming the atmosphere than all surface and airline sources of soot combined.

After being released into the upper atmosphere, the black carbon particles circulate for four to five years in a fine layer. This acts as a thin black umbrella absorbing solar radiation while blocking it from reaching Earth’s surface.

A 1.5-hour Virgin Galactic flight generates emissions equivalent to a ten-hour trans-Atlantic commercial air flight. However, the latter carries hundreds of passengers. With a passenger limit of six, a Virgin Galactic launch emits 4.5 tonnes of carbon per person. That’s more than twice the Paris Agreement’s recommended annual individual carbon budget.

Space tourism rocket launches don’t currently compare to commercial airline flights in number. But the suborbital transportation and space tourism market is expected to be worth US$2.58 billion by 2031. It’s growing at an annual rate of 17.15%.

Virgin Galactic is aiming to launch 400 space tourism flights every year.

Read more:
Space tourism: rockets emit 100 times more CO₂ per passenger than flights – imagine a whole industry

Caring for Earth doesn’t depend on space flight

The desirability of the Overview Effect is not the overwhelming emotions experienced when witnessing Earth from space. As was evident in Shatner’s feelings of immense grief, these emotions are not always pleasant.

Instead, researchers, astronauts and space philosophers are interested in the spontaneous and powerful awareness that occurs. Astronauts’ accounts of the moment vary, but a consistent theme emerges: a connection to planet Earth that inspires environmental care.

Importantly, such clarity can be achieved without a suborbital space flight.

Frank White argues that, while viewing Earth from space produces the “ultimate” Overview Effect, it might also be had while looking at landscapes from a great height – such as a mountain range. Commercial pilots flying at high altitudes have experienced similar phenomena.

And for those considering a Virgin Galactic flight, there are no guarantees. Many astronauts with long careers report never experiencing the Overview Effect.

Read more:
Keen to sign up for space tourism? Here are 6 things to consider (besides the price tag)

Environmental epiphanies happen on Earth

Spontaneous clarity about the importance of nature can occur while standing on solid ground. “Environmental epiphanies” are well documented and have no connection to specific religious or cultural beliefs.

Involving profound emotions and sudden awareness similar to the Overview Effect, environmental epiphanies can be accessed for free in mundane locations – such as reading a book at home.

And, like the Overview Effect, environmental epiphanies can lead to lasting change.

As space tourism continues to “take off”, misaligned marketing tactics like Virgin Galactic’s promotion of the Overview Effect must be scrutinised.

Being launched into space – and the massive pollution the process creates – isn’t necessary for us to want to sustain our Earth.

Ariane Moore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Virgin Galactic’s use of the ‘Overview Effect’ to promote space tourism is a terrible irony – https://theconversation.com/virgin-galactics-use-of-the-overview-effect-to-promote-space-tourism-is-a-terrible-irony-206868

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Abdulghani Mohamed, Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Engineering, RMIT University

The basic configuration of traditional propellers has not fundamentally changed since the first powered flight by the Wright brothers in 1903.

However, as engineers learn more about aerodynamics and attempt new experiments, propellers are evolving to more complex shapes. These feature multiple blades, high sweep angles, blade tip devices and other features to optimise performance in different conditions.

A recent advancement in propeller technology are “toroidal” propellers. These devices are ring-shaped, with the blades looping around each other. A few recent articles and videos have been hyping these – but how “revolutionary” are they, really?

Refining the shape

In 2017, researchers at MIT filed a patent for toroidal propellers. Their patent claims the invention is more efficient than traditional propellers and is less noisy.

Coincidentally, already in 2012, US engineering company Sharrow Marine also developed a toroidal propeller for boats; they have demonstrated it to be more efficient and quieter than traditional marine propellers.

The reason toroidal propellers may be quieter is because of their complex shape – it minimises the strength of the vortex (a spiralling movement of air, water, or another fluid) that naturally happens over propeller blade tips.

This happens because there’s a high-pressure region under the blade, and low pressure above it. As high-pressure air from under the blade moves towards the low-pressure region above it, it travels in a spiral – a vortex.

This phenomenon is not unique to propeller blades, which are essentially rotating wings. The wing of a plane also experiences this phenomenon. Engineers have done much research on wingtip devices that can minimise this.

The use of closed-loop structures – like in a toroidal propeller – is one way of reducing tip vortices.

Even though the basic propeller shape has remained the same since its invention, many propeller blade designs have been put forward. To test these, engineers need to perform design trade-off studies. Some of these approaches have been tested to try and make helicopter blades and drones more efficient and less noisy.

No magic propeller

It’s important to understand propeller geometry must be optimised for a specific “operational envelope”. This means the properties of the fluid or air it operates in, rotation speed, forward speed, and other details. Outside that envelope, the propeller will perform poorly.

So far, nobody has achieved the magical propeller geometry that will achieve low noise and high efficiency for all operating conditions and scales. Toroidal propellers are no exception – from the sparse results available so far, their advantages are not yet fully quantified.

Comparing a well-designed toroidal propeller to a poorly designed traditional propeller will show a significant improvement, but is not a fair comparison.

Well-designed toroidal propellers may have advantages in specific operating conditions, such as dense fluids or a specific range of speeds. However, the question remains as to how a toroidal propeller compares to a well-designed traditional propeller for the same conditions.

This is a challenge, since improvements are always relative to a benchmark – which may not be the most efficient design to start with.

Another aspect of a fair comparison that doesn’t seem to have been published for toroidal propellers is comparing different propellers at the same thrust force. Only then you can see the true advantages regarding noise reduction and energy required to spin the propeller.

Read more:
Drones to deliver incessant buzzing noise, and packages

Home experiments are not representative

An MIT announcement earlier this year about toroidal propellers winning one of MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s 2022 R&D 100 Awards generated significant excitement. There’s been widespread experimentation with 3D-printed toroidal propellers, but not all of these have delivered positive results.

This may be due to un-optimised geometry and poor scientific rigour by the general public conducting some of these experiments. This gives the scientific community a research opportunity – to truly assess and optimise toroidal and traditional propellers to enhance their performance.

Previous optimisation studies have been conducted, some of which even use machine-learning techniques to identify suitable geometries. Engineers are also trying to make propellers that sound less annoying, by considering how humans perceive sound.

Expensive and hard to scale

Toroidal propellers also have clear disadvantages. The main one is the difficulty to scale them to mass production due to their complex geometry, which leads to high production costs.

The complex structure also requires special care to avoid unwanted vibrations – a significant issue when rotating at high speeds. This also adds to higher manufacturing costs.

When it comes to using toroidal propellers for drones, their heavier weight will also have implications on the responsiveness and stability of the drone. This is critical when operating in windy and turbulent conditions such as windy weather.

Overall, toroidal propellers are an exciting recent development in propeller design, at least in some cases. While they can be more quiet, they won’t completely replace traditional props just yet – there’s no single propeller design that will suit all situations.

Read more:
Got a drone for Christmas? Know the law before taking to the skies

Abdulghani Mohamed is a researcher at RMIT university who receives funding from a few companies for undertaking aerodynamic optimisation.

– ref. What is a ‘toroidal propeller’ and could it change the future of drones? An expert explains – https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-toroidal-propeller-and-could-it-change-the-future-of-drones-an-expert-explains-206498

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Laird, Honorary Principal Fellow, University of Wollongong

Australia’s new High Speed Rail Authority comes into being today. Created by the Albanese government, the authority and its newly named board have been set a challenging task: “bring high-speed rail to reality”.

Nearly four decades after it was first proposed, Australia must surely hold the world record for high-speed rail studies with no construction. I estimate the cost of all these studies to date to be about A$150 million (both public and private money, in 2023 dollars). Yet not one kilometre of a land corridor for a high-speed rail track has been reserved.

The challenge for the Albanese government is to go further than yet more studies and start construction.

Read more:
More than ever, it’s time to upgrade the Sydney–Melbourne railway

How many countries have high-speed rail?

The International Union of Railways (UIC) defines high-speed rail as including “infrastructure for new lines designed for speeds of 250km/h and above; upgraded existing lines for speeds of up to […] 220 km/h”.

Starting in 1964 with the Tokaido Shinkansen in Japan linking Tokyo to Shin-Osaka, high-speed rail now operates in 20 countries. Another 14 countries are building or planning high-speed rail links.

In Indonesia, a high-speed rail service from the capital Jakarta to Bandung is due to begin this August. Construction of high-speed rail in India and Thailand is advanced.

And Australia? It only rates a mention by the UIC of long-term planning for high-speed rail.

Read more:
Don’t abandon plans for high-speed rail in Australia – just look at all the benefits

A history of projects that came to nothing

In 1984, CSIRO proposed the Very Fast Train connecting Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. A consortium undertook many studies. A Senate committee inquiry was held. However, the proposal failed to win government support and did not proceed.

Next was the pragmatic Speedrail proposal. This was to link Sydney to Canberra using existing track from Sydney to Macarthur and new track to Canberra. Prime Minister John Howard enthusiastically endorsed the project before the 1998 election, saying:

The very fast train will rival airline flight as the preferred means of travel for countless millions of Australians for decades to come.

The Howard government gave approval to the Speedrail consortium to “prove up” their proposal. The cost was to be about $4.5 billion. About $1 billion would have been required from government, but this was denied. It was a lost opportunity for Australia.

Instead, the Howard government funded yet another study, which effectively found high-speed rail to be too expensive. So also did a two-stage study by the Gillard government, in which Anthony Albanese was the minister overseeing the planning process until Labor lost office in 2013. It costed a high-speed rail network for the east coast at $114 billion (in 2012 dollars).

More parliamentary inquiries have since followed. And the National Faster Rail Agency formed in 2019 has expended further funds. This agency now falls under the High Speed Rail Authority.

The NSW factor

In 2018, the New South Wales government began its own investigations into faster rail. Launched by the then premier, Gladys Berejiklian, the resulting report by UK rail expert Andrew McNaughton has not been released. It was reported last year to have recommended new tracks between Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong, along with a Sydney-Canberra upgrade and better services to the state’s central west.

Other NSW reports also remain under wraps. In late 2022, the former NSW government stopped investigating high-speed rail or the upgrading of existing lines. These studies were reported to have cost about a further $100 million (my estimate of $150 million doesn’t include this figure, as it was for studies of both high-speed and faster rail).

Read more:
NSW on a slow track to fast trains: promised regional rail upgrades are long overdue

NSW now lags far behind Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. All these states have trains moving at 160km/h over upgraded tracks. This includes the Queensland electric tilt train, which has been running between Brisbane and Rockhampton since 1998.

There are also questions about the supply of new intercity trains for NSW. These and other questions are the subject of a review set up by the recently elected state Labor government.

So, what happens next?

There is some opposition to high-speed rail in Australia. In 2020, the Grattan Institute said:

The east-coast bullet train advocated by the federal ALP would be an expensive folly.

Last December, the shadow minister for infrastructure, Bridget McKenzie,
said:

While very fast trains has great appeal, the reality is that it is decades away from being built – even if governments were to get serious about it.

McKenzie favours upgrades of existing lines.

The minister for infrastructure and transport, Catherine King, said last week the first priority of the High Speed Rail Authority is planning and corridor works for the Sydney-to-Newcastle section of the network. The government is providing $500 million for this. In addition, this project will require a much-improved, in-house, rail engineering capability.

Read more:
Vital Signs: Sydney to Newcastle fast rail makes sense. Making trains locally does not

The project will also need to be delivered without the problems that the Inland Rail freight line project has encountered. The Albanese government ordered an independent review of Inland Rail, which found serious shortcomings. It will now only proceed this decade on a rail link between Melbourne and Parkes. Questions remain over the section from Parkes to Brisbane.

The government is also reviewing other major infrastructure projects.

One project that would produce many benefits is to build a new track between Macarthur and near Mittagong. This would be close to the reconstructed section of the Hume Motorway that opened in 1980. The benefits include faster, more energy-efficient train travel between Sydney and each of Melbourne and Canberra. It would also lower emissions.

A Macarthur-Mittagong deviation could be the start of a staged process to construct high-speed rail between Sydney and Melbourne. High-speed rail advocacy group Fastrack and others have proposed this approach. It would give regional Australia “more trains, and faster trains, to get us on our way”.

A growing population is waiting for Australia to join the 34 countries that have or are about to get high-speed rail.

Read more:
Transport is letting Australia down in the race to cut emissions

Philip Laird owns shares in some transport companies and has received funding from the two rail-related CRCs as well as the ARC. He is affiliated, inter alia, with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, the Railway Technical Society of Australasia and the Rail Futures Institute. The opinions expressed are those of the author.

– ref. Can the new High Speed Rail Authority deliver after 4 decades of costly studies? – https://theconversation.com/can-the-new-high-speed-rail-authority-deliver-after-4-decades-of-costly-studies-206287

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine McCarthy, Senior Lecturer in Interior Architecture, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

It is hard to find much joy in the Prison Inspectorate’s report on segregation and cell confinement released today. It finds many prisoners in New Zealand are kept in solitary confinement and suffer negative psychological and physical effects.

The report follows the 2021 finding that female prisoners were segregated without due process, and the Ombudsman’s statement last year that legal reform is needed “to ensure that New Zealand meets its international human rights obligations with respect to solitary confinement and PSC [prolonged solitary confinement]”.

Two things in particular stood out for me in the report: the Inspectorate’s willingness to call segregation “solitary confinement”, and the inadequate record keeping by the Department of Corrections that is highlighted.

“Segregation” can mean different things in the prison context, making it easy to get bogged down in definitional complexities. Unlike cell confinement, segregation is not a punishment. Instead, it is intended to manage a complex group of people, including supporting those with significant mental health needs, difficult behaviour, or even managing gang affiliations.

It can simply involve separating one group of prisoners from another. Or it can be solitary confinement, isolating a prisoner in their cell for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact.

The report finds that for all intents and purposes “segregation” means “solitary confinement” in New Zealand prisons. And some prisoners experience solitary confinement for months or years.

‘A dangerous place’

So what does this look like in practice? Imagine being alone in a bleak version of your bedroom – without a phone or clock, with concrete walls, a television (only free channels) and an open toilet.

You’ll get an hour in a concrete yard to exercise, and at least five minutes a week on the phone with friends and family. In some prisons, dinner arrives at 3.30pm. As one prisoner quoted in the report says:

When things get too hard, I wanted to kill myself. I’ve cut myself so many times [… there’s] no-one to talk to.

Read more:
Prison turns life upside down – giving low-risk prisoners longer to prepare for their sentences would benefit everyone

Segregation includes isolating vulnerable prisoners in “intervention and support units” (ISUs). The picture painted here also lacks hope: stark environments, inaccurate record keeping, sensory deprivation and insufficient social interaction. One ISU prisoner described being “quite lonely”, adding:

Mentally it reminds me of being forced into a cupboard when I was in foster care. I didn’t have any mental health support when I was there – just in my own mind, which can be a dangerous place.

Telling details haunt the report: the removing of cardboard tubes from toilet rolls, coldness due to too few blankets, prohibition of wearing shoes, no books in an ISU dayroom for fear prisoners might eat the pages, and lack of exposure to sunlight requiring prescriptions for vitamin D.

One prisoner describes injuring himself at his first opportunity to run in an open space:

I just couldn’t help myself, fresh air, the wind on my face, and the grass under my feet, you can’t imagine what that feels like after so many years of being locked in a concrete box.

Impacts on prison staff

Research has demonstrated the psychological trauma, harm to mental health and problems with physical health that solitary confinement can cause. One prisoner put it this way in the report:

Alone in my cell for days, used to often lead me to be frustrated, which led to anger and in turn led to violence. [I] caused a lot of violence in the cells.

Read more:
Solitary confinement by any other name is still torture

These conditions undermine normal socialisation. Twinned with the lack of access to rehabilitation that the Inspectorate also identifies, segregation cannot be good preparation for release into the community.

The harm caused by such treatment may become permanent after 15 days. This is the threshold defined by the United Nations between “solitary confinement” and “prolonged solitary confinement”, as set out in its “Mandela Rules”.

This is not just a problem for the prisoners. It also has an enormous impact on an already fatigued workforce. As the report states, employees “felt like they had been trained as custodial staff but were being asked to manage prisoners with mental health issues”.

Read more:
Why are there prisons? An expert explains the history of using ‘correctional’ facilities to punish people

A watershed moment

The report estimates about 29% of prisoners were segregated during the year of the review (October 1 2020 to September 30 2021). This is within a system where only 16% of prisoners have maximum or high-security classifications. Of all those segregated prisoners, 63% were Māori.

But the report gives only a glimpse into solitary confinement, due to what it identifies as unreliable paperwork and inaccurate data.

Nonetheless, it represents a watershed moment. Important recommendations are made to address key areas of concern. The Department of Corrections can no longer say solitary confinement is not used in New Zealand. Nor can it deny that, for a significant number of prisoners, this confinement is prolonged.

The fact that the department has accepted the Inspectorate’s recommendations should materially improve prisoner experience of segregation, and mean transparent reporting of demographic data and incidents of self-harm.

This is long overdue. As one prisoner noted, describing solitary confinement’s profound isolation: “There is only so much colouring in you can do.”

Christine McCarthy was formerly the president of the Wellington Howard League for Penal Reform (2018-2020). In 2021 a petition she initiated to ban prolonged solitary confinement in New Zealand was presented to parliament.

– ref. A watershed report on solitary confinement in NZ prisons must now trigger real reform – https://theconversation.com/a-watershed-report-on-solitary-confinement-in-nz-prisons-must-now-trigger-real-reform-207597

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin Trenberth, Distinguished Scholar, NCAR; Affiliate Faculty, University of Auckland

El Niño is officially here, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and with it comes a change from the La Niña weather patterns New Zealand has experienced for the past three years.

In particular, a switch from prevailing northeasterlies to southwesterlies means New Zealand is one of the few countries where cooler conditions are felt during El Niño. But what “flavour” will this El Niño be?

Time will tell, but El Niño has been looming for some time. Evidence of its imminent arrival could be seen last year in subsurface ocean temperatures, with a buildup of warm water in the Coral Sea and western tropical Pacific.

Moreover, it was overdue. When La Niña finally gave up the ghost in March this year, global sea surface temperatures were suddenly the highest on record (Figure 1 below), as the tropical Pacific abruptly began to warm.

Meanwhile, record high sea surface temperatures in the extratropical North and South Pacific were partly a signature from La Niña and partly a sign of global warming. The resulting “atmospheric rivers” delivered torrential rains to California in the north and New Zealand in the south.

These sea surface temperature changes can be readily seen by comparing variations from mean temperatures for December 2022 versus May 2023 (Figure 2 below). We can see a startling transformation throughout the central tropical Pacific, with a coastal El Niño off Peru and Ecuador strongly evident.

Modest cooling in the eastern North Pacific is associated with the train of storms that barrelled into the West Coast of the US and in northwest Australia from Cyclone Ilsa.

El Niño and New Zealand

The weather in the tropics is seldom average, however. It tends to fluctuate more like a roller coaster. In the atmosphere, this is referred to as the Southern Oscillation. The combined atmosphere and ocean phenomenon is often referred to as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

The bottom of the roller coaster is the cold phase: a basin-wide cooling of the tropical Pacific, named La Niña, while the top of the roller coaster is El Niño, which occurs every three to seven years or so. The most intense phase of each event typically lasts half a year.

But El Niños can be very strong, and hence highly anomalous. La Niñas, by comparison, are usually moderate in strength and occur more often.

El Niños tend to peak in December, although their biggest atmospheric impacts may not be until February. The last major El Niño was in 2016-17, while a weak El Niño occurred in 2019-20.

Read more:
El Niño is back – that’s good news or bad news, depending on where you live

Coupled oceans and atmosphere

In the tropical Pacific Ocean, the atmosphere and ocean are strongly coupled. Surface winds drive surface ocean currents, and largely determine the sea surface temperature distribution, the differential sea levels, and the heat content of the upper ocean. In turn, the sea surface temperatures determine the winds.

Cool waters limit atmospheric convection and storm activity, while high sea surface temperatures attract convection, clusters of thunderstorms, and tropical cyclones (off the equator, where Earth’s rotation comes into play).

Heat that was stored up in the tropical western Pacific during La Niña is moved around and into the atmosphere during El Niño, mainly through evaporation. This cools the ocean and moistens the atmosphere.

Read more:
2023 hurricane forecast: Get ready for a busy Pacific storm season, quieter Atlantic than recent years thanks to El Niño

This alters where the main rainfall occurs. In turn, it changes the latent heating of the atmosphere that sets up “teleconnections” (links between weather phenomena in different parts of the globe) and major changes in the jet streams and extratropical storm tracks in both hemispheres – including across New Zealand, especially in winter.

Because most action occurs over the tropical Pacific Ocean, more settled weather and dry spells often occur over land.

The warmest years in terms of global mean surface temperature are the latter stages of El Niño events. 2016 is the world’s warmest year on record, in part because of the very strong El Niño event. But 2023 could beat that record – and odds are that 2024 will beat it by a lot.

So far, there is little evidence that climate change has altered ENSO events themselves. But all impacts of El Niño are exacerbated by global warming, including extremes of the hydrological cycle involving floods and droughts, which are already common with ENSO.

Impacts of El Niño

Of course, major events related to El Niño have serious social and economic impacts, too. Droughts, floods, heatwaves and other changes can severely disrupt agriculture, fisheries, health, energy demand and air quality (mainly from wildfires).

Research shows El Niño “persistently reduces country-level economic growth”, with damage now estimated in the trillions of US dollars.

Globally, El Niño is the largest cause of droughts; they are more intense, set in quicker and increase the risk of wildfires, especially in Australia, Indonesia and Brazil. In the weak 2019-20 El Niño, smoke from fires in eastern Australia affected the southern hemisphere to the extent that it blocked the sun and may have exacerbated the subsequent La Niña conditions.

Meanwhile, torrential rains are heavier, with greater risk of flooding, especially in Peru and Ecuador. Very wet conditions can also (though not always) occur in California and the southeast US.

Read more:
New study helps solve a 30-year-old puzzle: how is climate change affecting El Niño and La Niña?

Another ‘super’ El Niño?

New Zealand had its highest annual mean surface temperature on record in 2022. In the past year the preponderance of northeasterlies due to La Niña has seen an unprecedented number of tropical and subtropical storms bombarding the country.

The record rain event in Auckland on January 27, and Cyclone Gabrielle just three weeks later, were just two among many such events.

By contrast, New Zealand tends to experience stronger and more frequent winds from the southwest in winter and from the west in summer during El Niño. This can encourage dryness in eastern areas and more rain on the West Coast, with generally cooler conditions overall.

But El Niño varies, and there have been three “super” El Niños: 1982-83, 1997-98 and 2015-16. It remains to be seen whether the latest will join them. But together with the augmenting effects of global warming, any El Niño can be very disruptive. We need to be vigilant.

Kevin Trenberth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. El Niño combined with global warming means big changes for New Zealand’s weather – https://theconversation.com/el-nino-combined-with-global-warming-means-big-changes-for-new-zealands-weather-207493

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Evangeline Mantzioris, Program Director of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Accredited Practising Dietitian, University of South Australia

Rice is a staple food for billions of people in Asia and Africa. It’s also a versatile ingredient for many iconic dishes from around the world, including dolmades from Greece, risottos from Italy, paella from Spain and rice puddings from the United Kingdom.

Despite its universal appeal, the question asked in every kitchen, be it a professional one or your own home, is whether you should pre-wash (or rinse) your rice before cooking.

What do chefs and cooks say?

Culinary experts claim pre-washing rice reduces the amount of starch coming from the rice grains. You can see this in the cloudy rinse water, which studies have shown to be the free starch (amylose) on the surface of the rice grain produced by the milling process.

In culinary circles, washing is advocated for some dishes when a separated grain is sought after. Yet for other dishes such as risottos, paella and rice puddings (where you need a sticky, creamy effect), washing is avoided.

Other factors, such as the type of rice, family tradition, local health warnings and even the perceived time and effort required will influence whether people pre-wash their rice.

Is there evidence that washing rice makes it less sticky?

A recent study compared the effect of washing on the stickiness and hardness of three different types of rice from the same supplier. The three types were glutinous rice, medium grain rice and jasmine rice. These different rices were either not washed at all, washed three times with water, or washed ten times with water.

Contrary to what chefs will tell you, this study showed the washing process had no effect on the stickiness (or hardness) of the rice.

Instead, the researchers demonstrated the stickiness was not due to the surface starch (amylose), but rather a different starch called amylopectin that is leached out of the rice grain during the cooking process. The amount leached differed between the types of rice grains.

So, it’s the variety of rice – rather than washing – that’s critical to the stickiness. In this study, glutinous rice was the stickiest, while medium grain rice and jasmine rice were less sticky, and also harder as tested in the laboratory. (Hardness is representative of the textures associated with biting and chewing.)

You may still want to wash your rice, though

Traditionally rice was washed to rinse off dust, insects, little stones and bits of husk left from the rice hulling process. This may still be important for some regions of the world where the processing is not as meticulous, and may provide peace of mind for others.

More recently, with the heavy use of plastics in the food supply chain, microplastics have been found in our foods, including rice. The washing process has been shown to rinse up to 20% of the plastics from uncooked rice.

This same study found that irrespective of the packaging (plastic or paper bags) you buy rice in, it contains the same level of microplastics. The researchers also showed plastics in (pre-cooked) instant rice have been found to be fourfold higher than in uncooked rice. If you pre-rinse instant rice, you could reduce plastics by 40%.

Read more:
You’re eating microplastics in ways you don’t even realise

Rice is also known to contain relatively high levels of arsenic, due to the crop absorbing more arsenic as it grows. Washing rice has been shown to remove about 90% of bio-accessible arsenic, but it also rinses out a large amount of other nutrients important for our health, including copper, iron, zinc and vanadium.

For some people, rice offers a small percentage of their daily intake of these nutrients and hence will have a small impact on their health. But for populations that consume large amounts of heavily washed rice daily, it could impact their overall nutrition.

Another study looked at other heavy metals, lead and cadmium, in addition to arsenic; it found that pre-washing decreased levels of all these from between 7–20%. The World Health Organization has warned of the risk of arsenic exposure from water and food.

Arsenic levels in rice vary depending on where it’s grown, the cultivars of rice and the ways it is cooked. The best advice remains to pre-wash your rice and ensure you consume a variety of grains. The most recent study in 2005 found that the highest level of arsenic was in the United States. However it is important to keep in mind that arsenic is present in other foods including products made from rice (cakes, crackers, biscuits and cereals), seaweed, seafood and vegetables.

Read more:
High levels of cancer-causing arsenic in rice – so why isn’t it regulated in our food?

Can washing rice prevent bacteria?

In short, no. Washing rice will have no effect on the bacterial content of the cooked rice, as high cooking temperatures will kill all bacteria present.

What is more concerning is how long you store cooked rice or washed rice at room temperature. Cooking rice does not kill the bacterial spores from a pathogen called Bacillus cereus.

If wet rice or cooked rice is kept at room temperature, this can activate the bacterial spores and they begin to grow. These bacteria then produce toxins which can not be deactivated by cooking or re-heating; these toxins can cause severe gastrointestinal disease. So, make sure you avoid keeping washed or cooked rice at room temperature for too long.

Evangeline Mantzioris is affiliated with Alliance for Research in Nutrition, Exercise and Activity (ARENA) at the University of South Australia. Evangeline Mantzioris has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and has been appointed to the National Health and Medical Research Council Dietary Guideline Expert Committee.

– ref. Do you need to wash rice before cooking? Here’s the science – https://theconversation.com/do-you-need-to-wash-rice-before-cooking-heres-the-science-204692

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liquan Liu, Senior lecturer, Western Sydney University

None of us is a stranger to the downsides of the pandemic. For families with kids, kindergartens and schools closed during the lockdown, and parents had to manage schooling and working from home.

Yet there is a silver lining: our research shows that, in families where a parent’s mother tongue is not the language spoken in wider society, children learned more about that language during lockdowns.

Let’s call the language these parents speak the “home language” and the language society uses the “societal language”. Take me as an example: at home I speak Shanghainese with my mum, Mandarin with dad, and Telepath with my cat. But in the community and at work, I speak English, the societal language.

To many multilingual families, our kids’ home language often comes second to the societal language, which dominates their language development as they grow up. When parents witness this transition, they fear their children will gradually lose the ability to use the language they speak. They fear that, as a consequence, their children will lose touch with their roots.

Along with my colleagues, Elisabet García González and Elizabeth Lanza, we conducted a survey of around 200 multilingual families in Norway (to be published in the journal Multilingua). Parents expressed their concerns about their children’s development of home and societal languages. For example, one said:

Since our daughter mostly speaks [home language] with her father and [societal language] with me and at kindergarten (although her father and I exclusively speak [home language] to each other), her [home language] is generally less advanced than her [societal language] […]

Multilingual children rarely use all their languages in the same contexts or with the same frequency. This is often perceived as being more or less “advanced” in one language than the other, but in reality multilingual speakers use their languages as best fits their needs.

Despite these concerns, there was a silver lining. Our study found children’s home language literacy improved during the pandemic. The parents who reported the concern above later said:

We’ve clearly noticed that her spoken [home language] has developed during the lockdown.

Another family told us:

With the two-year-old, I noticed an improvement in her [home language] vocabulary while kindergarten was closed.

What is the reason for this improvement in the home language? As one family shared:

My children started to be interested and speak more [home language] during the lockdown. Assume this is a result of (us) working from home for an international company and them hearing mum use this (home) language.

Another said:

My kids have started using more [home language] in their [societal language] speech with parents and each other during the lockdown, because they are watching more YouTube and playing Minecraft, Animal Crossing and Zelda. Words from the games are difficult to translate into [societal language].

Our statistical analyses had something even more interesting to say: the improvement of a child’s home language made their parents feel more positive about their children being multilingual. Parents see it as a source of wellbeing, especially when they notice their child is picking up their mother tongue. Overall, family relationships, resilience, cultural connection and hope are boosted even in the darkest days of the pandemic.

Is this at the expense of the societal language, one may ask? Indeed, some parents were worried about the development of kids’ societal language, especially when it was not spoken at home. Others said the societal language was still being used during the lockdown, such as in online media. One parent said:

My son is a bit behind the level of the class. He really improved his [societal language] reading during the lockdown, since we had more time to individually support him in a positive way. Before, he was much more negative.

Another family told us:

The difference (in language use) was noticeable when the kindergarten reopened. [Societal language] came back for the kids as easily as restarting to ride a bike.

The societal language is often strong in young children – sometimes so strong that it can bully the home language into a corner. The key task for many multilingual families is not so much to find a balance between the two languages, but to make sure the home language is being actively used and not being overshadowed by the societal language.

Unity is important in society. Being able to speak a common language is important, but equity and diversity are important too. The ability to speak one’s mother tongue can become a source of belonging and wellbeing.

In addition, children growing up in a culturally and linguistically diverse environment tend to be more flexible. Their neurocognitive plasticity shines across developmental domains, from language learning to music perception.

So the pandemic lockdowns were bad, but not all bad. Our kids adapt and adjust to the new environment, and can surprise us with stronger skills that make mum and dad proud.

Liquan Liu receives funding from uropean Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 798658 hosted by Center for Multilingualism across the Lifespan at the University of Oslo, financed by Research Council of Norway through its Centers of Excellence funding scheme grant agreement No. 223265; and from Western Sydney University School of Psychology 20820 83181.

The corresponding academic publication will be published on journal Multilingua. DOI details to be added. Co-authors are Elisabet Garcia Gonzalez and Elizabeth Lanza.

– ref. A silver lining from the pandemic: how lockdowns helped kids learn the languages their parents speak – https://theconversation.com/a-silver-lining-from-the-pandemic-how-lockdowns-helped-kids-learn-the-languages-their-parents-speak-205012

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Wood, Professor, epidemiological modelling of infectious diseases, UNSW Sydney

Each Omicron wave so far in Australia has had distinguishing features – the sharp rise and fall of BA.1, the widespread transmission among children and families in BA.2, a shift to more infections in older people with BA.5, then the confusing variant mix in the summer wave of 2022-23.

Now Australia is in its fifth Omicron wave, which has been brewing since February. But it has grown so slowly that many people may have not realised it until recent months.

Why has this most recent wave been so drawn out? And what has its real impact been on our health and health systems?

Slower spread, less testing

With most people in Australia now having been vaccinated against COVID, infected or both, we expect the virus to spread more slowly through the population.

This means the overall number of infections in the current wave should be fewer than in previous ones. Infections should also occur over a longer period of time.

But we also know people are mixing and socialising more than in previous waves. So it is easier for viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) to be transmitted.

While these two factors counter each other, overall we expect to see reduced health impacts compared with previous waves.

We are already seeing fewer people with confirmed infections and fewer people who are unwell requiring hospitalisation.

We also know from weekly surveys that people are less likely to test for COVID and report their results at this stage of the pandemic. So reported cases are now a smaller fraction of all infections than in previous waves.

Read more:
Flu or COVID? You can now test for both at home with a single swab. Here’s what you need to know

New sub-variants are likely the cause

The slow and drawn out nature of the current wave is most likely due to the sequential emergence and spread of new Omicron sub-variants. The current wave started with XBB.1.5, then shifted to XBB.1.9.1 and XBB.1.9.2, then most recently XBB.1.16.

Each sub-variant has been able to spread where the previous one could not. But the competitive advantage of each has been minor. So we have only seen a progressive increase in infections as new sub-variants emerge, rather than the dramatic surges in infections and health impacts associated with previous variants.

Are we at the peak of the current wave?

There is some debate about whether New South Wales has reached the peak of its wave. However, forecasts for most other jurisdictions suggest declines have begun or are imminent.

But as always, there is uncertainty in how the wave will develop, and we cannot exclude the possibility of sustained epidemic activity over a longer period.

Hospitalisations for those infected with COVID may stay elevated for a while longer. This is due both to the lag between infection and hospitalisation and we are seeing a shift in infections to older people as the wave progresses.

Thankfully, we do not expect the health system to come under the pressure from COVID seen during the BA.5 wave in winter 2022. This is good news.

However, for the first time in Australia, the SARS-CoV-2 wave may coincide almost completely with influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) waves. This certainly appears likely in NSW. The combined impact of these three viruses may be significant.

Looking ahead, this combined threat will need careful attention. Surveillance systems need to be (re-)designed to detect, anticipate and forecast the combined burden of acute viral respiratory infections.

We expect COVID to contribute to the increased burden of seasonal respiratory diseases over the next few years, and perhaps well beyond.

Read more:
I need a flu shot and a COVID booster. Can I get them at the same time?

How about future waves?

Future COVID waves are likely to become much more predictable, and coincide with winter. While this is somewhat speculative, it is consistent with how other respiratory viruses behave.

What might this look like? In the United Kingdom all COVID indicators have seen a major decline after winter. We see similar patterns in other temperate northern hemisphere countries, such as the United States.

Although there are other contenders, internationally, it is likely that the next wave of COVID will also be caused by a sub-variant of XBB.

Without a clear successor to XBB.1.16 identified at present, a new wave will likely only form as genetic mutations accumulate during the next northern winter.

During that time (our Australian summer) people will travel between Australia and the northern hemisphere, re-importing these newer variants into Australia. As conditions in Australia change (next autumn) and the risk of transmission increases, a new wave may develop, peaking in the winter of 2024.

Alpha, Delta, Omicron waves

Of course, we have seen COVID behave very differently to this over the past three years. The Alpha, Delta and then Omicron variants appeared and spread across the globe causing large and often devastating waves.

But they occurred at a fundamentally different period of the pandemic, where small changes in the virus had dramatic consequences for transmission and our health.

Recent changes to the virus have provided far less advantage, suggesting such transformative events are now far less likely.

Still, we should maintain sufficient surveillance to keep an eye on emerging sub-variants (genomics), case numbers and hospitalisations – all essential if we are to protect our health and wellbeing.

James Wood receives funding from NSW Health and the National Health and Medical Research Council for projects on COVID-19. He has previously received funding from the federal government as part of COVID responses in 2020-21 and from WHO Western Pacific Regional Office in 2020. He is a current member of the Australian Technical Advisory Committee on Immunisation.

Freya Shearer receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Government Departments of Health and Foreign Affairs and Trade, and NSW Health.

James McCaw receives funding from the Australian Government Departments of Health and Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. He is an invited expert member of the Communicable Disease Network of Australia and between January 2020 and May 2022 was an invited expert member of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.

– ref. We’re in another COVID wave. But it’s not like the others – https://theconversation.com/were-in-another-covid-wave-but-its-not-like-the-others-206493

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susanne Schmidt, Professor – School of Agriculture and Food Science, The University of Queensland

Most food and garden waste in Australia comes from homes. Australian households waste 3.1 million tonnes of food each year. That’s more than five kilograms each household per week.

Over half of all household waste is food organics and garden organics, also known as “FOGO”. These scraps and clippings take up space in landfill and, when they rot, emit dangerous greenhouse gases.

The federal government’s National Waste Policy Action Plan aims to increase the organic waste recycling rate from 47% to 80% by 2030 and halve the amount sent to landfill. This won’t happen on its own – we need investment and action.

Food and garden waste can be captured and turned into compost. Composting is no longer just the domain of the home gardener or eco-warrior. It’s happening at commercial scale, through services such as council collection from homes.

A federal government fund is building new composting facilities and supporting other food and garden organics recycling projects. The South Australian government has invested in council trials of weekly green bin collection and fortnightly rubbish collection.

But more must be done. Recycling food waste into high-quality compost is a win-win solution, for people and the planet. Here, we explain why.

Read more:
Despite government delays, food waste recycling bins are coming to your kitchen sooner than you think

Compost is a winner for the climate

When food rots in landfill, in the absence of oxygen, the process releases a potent greenhouse gas called methane.

Composting is different because the microbes can breathe. In the presence of oxygen, they transform waste into valuable organic matter without producing methane. They recycle organic carbon and nutrients into compost, which can be used to improve soil health and productivity.

This process also captures and stores carbon in the soil, rather than releasing it as carbon dioxide (CO₂) to the atmosphere.

In Australia, organics recycling (including food and garden organics, biosolids and tree wastes) saves an estimated 3.8 million tonnes of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere each year. That’s equivalent to planting 5.7 million trees or taking 877,000 cars off the road.

Soils can profit from compost because globally an estimated 116 billion tonnes of organic carbon has been lost from agricultural soils. This has contributed to rising CO₂ levels in the atmosphere.

Promisingly, compost can restore soil organic carbon while also boosting health and fertility. Compost improves soil structure and water retention. It’s also a source of essential nutrients that reduces the demand for costly fertilisers.

The opportunity presented by soils to draw down atmospheric CO₂ levels was brought to global awareness in the 2015 global Paris Agreement, via the “4-per-mille” initiative.

Translated from French, it means increasing the organic carbon stored in global soils by 0.04% each year (4 per 1000) would neutralise increases in atmospheric CO₂. In other words, CO₂ would remain constant rather than continue to increase. That would make a substantial contribution to mitigating climate change.

Read more:
Soil carbon is a valuable resource, but all soil carbon is not created equal

Farming with precision

Our research has investigated how compost can benefit global agriculture.

We found that in most cases where compost is applied as a generic product to agricultural land, the benefits are not fully realised. But if suitable composts and application methods were aligned with target crops and growth environments, crop yields can be increased and organic carbon in soils replenished.

We call this a “precision compost strategy”. Using a data-driven approach, we estimate global application of this strategy has potential to increase the production of major cereal crops by 96.3 million tonnes annually. This is 4% of current global production and twice Australia’s annual cereal harvest.

Of great relevance for Australia’s farms, precision compost has the strongest effects in dry and warm climates, boosting yield by up to 40%. We now need to develop this strategy for the specific needs of farms.

Compost has the potential to restore 19.5 billion tonnes carbon in cropland topsoil, equivalent to 26.5% of current topsoil soil organic carbon stocks in the top 20 cm.

Give FOGO a go-go

The rate of food and garden waste in Australia is growing at a rate six times faster than Australia’s population and 2.5 times faster than GDP.

But less than a third of Australian households have access to food waste collection services. A national rollout has been pushed back from 2023 to the end of this decade so there is time to overcome some roadblocks. This includes uptake by community and high quality composting.

This waste stream offers a huge opportunity for landfill diversion and compost production. The cost benefit alone is compelling: councils can save up to A$4.2 million a year on landfill levies by diverting 30,000 tonnes of waste (based on A$74 to 140 per tonne of waste, with levies increasing).

Preventing food in the home from being wasted should be top priority. But for unavoidable food waste, turning it into high-quality compost makes perfect sense.

Read more:
What can go in the compost bin? Tips to help your garden and keep away the pests

us

Susanne Schmidt receives funding from Fight Food Waste CRC.

Nicole Robinson receives funding from Fight Food Waste CRC.

– ref. The case for compost: why recycling food waste is so much better than sending it to landfill – https://theconversation.com/the-case-for-compost-why-recycling-food-waste-is-so-much-better-than-sending-it-to-landfill-205583

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Russell Tytler, Professor of science education, Deakin University

The case for action on climate change no longer needs to be laid out.

We see, almost daily, disturbing images of bushfires, floods or a mass extinction crisis. But however widespread that sense of urgency may be, we are struggling as a nation to respond in a substantive, coordinated way.

One thing is clear: these responses will need to be sustained and developed by future generations. Education is crucial for the workforce needed now and for young people who will be increasingly faced with the accelerating realities of climate change.

The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia has done a review of research on climate change education in schools around the world.

Here we outline three areas needing urgent attention: the emotional and psychological effects of learning about climate change, the school curriculum and the education of teachers.

The emotional side of learning about climate

Teaching climate change in schools raises basic and potentially divisive questions about the purpose of education and the nature of childhood. We are supposed to teach children about their world. But what if in doing so, we scare them with facts about climate change?

We also know children are worried about climate change anyway. Many children and teenagers are stressed and anxious due to their growing awareness of climate change.

An increasing body of research is identifying approaches to teaching and learning about climate change that address students’ understanding in this complex area and engages them with positive actions.

This includes making climate change personally relevant, interacting with scientists to experience scientific practices and designing projects to address an aspect of climate change.

Read more:
Ignoring young people’s climate change fears is a recipe for anxiety

Climate change is (almost) missing from the curriculum

In 1975, UNESCO’s Belgrade charter on environmental education bluntly said the “youth of the world” needed a “new kind of education” if we were to avoid politically and economically short-sighted responses to environmental crises.

To date, environmental sustainability has not had a specific home in the Australian curriculum. It has been taught across various different subjects such as geography and science, or art, according to school and teacher priorities.

Our review found schools seem almost perfectly evolved to avoid, let alone prioritise, an educational area that relies on cross-curriculum activity.

The most recent update to the curriculum (agreed) under the former Morrison government in April 2022 included a more substantial focus on climate change at Years 9 and 10 in geography and science. But it ignores other foundational year levels in these subjects, and other potentially powerful parts of the syllabus, such as English and the arts.

Students need to receive a nuanced education, to understand the attitudes, motivations, and technologies that will address climate change. They need knowledge, but also the intent and skill to apply that knowledge faithfully and responsibly.

Student agency in confronting climate change is also becoming a key feature within international education circles. Australia participates in three main international tests, one of which is the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

The next PISA test in 2025 will measure

the degree to which 15-year-olds are knowledgeable of, concerned about, and able to act on environmental issues as a result of their science education.

So teacher education is key

So we need teachers to adapt their teaching. And the urgency lies now in developing their confidence, knowledge and supports to do this.

Our review found teachers around the world don’t always have the knowledge and training they need to tackle climate change in their classrooms. For example, one 2016 study found US science teachers had an “insufficient grasp” of climate science. A study of Australian education degree students came to a similar conclusion, despite their favourable attitude to environmental education.

This is understandable. Knowledge about the scale and nature of this complex problem has expanded so rapidly that whatever a new national curriculum may mandate, it is unrealistic to expect teachers (and teacher educators) to have naturally kept up.

Our review argues we need to “turbo charge” teacher education in universities and professional development programs in schools to develop a culture around climate change education. We need a national initiative to support teachers across all year levels in their knowledge of climate change and how to meaningfully engage students.

This needs to cover the interconnected issues of climate change, environmental destruction, social justice and Indigenous knowledges. We also need to be able to counter misinformation.

The scale of government decision-making around climate change mitigation, energy policy, and environmental reconstruction is huge. But as part of this, school education, and teacher education, need to be high on the agenda.

Read more:
Dumbed-down curriculum means primary students will learn less about the world and nothing about climate

Russell Tytler receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a member of the Climate Change Education committee.

Peter Freebody is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Up to 2013 he received numerous research grants from the ARC to study various aspects of the teaching and learning of literacy.

– ref. How should we teach climate change in schools? It starts with ‘turbo charging’ teacher education – https://theconversation.com/how-should-we-teach-climate-change-in-schools-it-starts-with-turbo-charging-teacher-education-207221

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Travis Holland, Senior Lecturer in Communication, Charles Sturt University

In June 1993, director Steven Spielberg released a film that unleashed a wave of technological change in film-making and simultaneously helped to revive popular interest in dinosaurs.

Jurassic Park, based on Michael Crichton’s novel, spawned five blockbuster sequels as well as a multitude of spin-off games, toys, novels, and multiple animated television shows. It features a theme park housing de-extincted dinosaurs that break out of their confines and cause havoc.

Underpinning the plot is clever genetic engineering that has allowed the Park’s scientists to assume they could control all aspects of the dinosaurs’ development, including their sex, much to their later horror when it becomes apparent such control was never possible.

The film franchise has taken an average of over $1 billion dollars at the box office, according to Variety.

From puppets to CGI

According to industry legend and multiple documentaries, Spielberg had planned to use only practical effects, including stop-motion Velociraptors and an animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex. However, well into the filming schedule, he was convinced to also include wholly digital dinosaurs after viewing test footage produced by staff at special effects house Industrial Light & Magic.

In a critical history of Industrial Light & Magic, Julie Turnock observes that the film “relied on a canny mix of large-scale mechanical effects cut together with a few digitally generated shots”. After its success, ILM embraced digital composition technology more fully and integrated it into many later films.

As it stands, Jurassic Park features about 50 shots of digital-only prehistoric creatures, including the first full-body scene of a dinosaur – the sauropod Brachiosaurus – flocking Gallimumus, and the T. rex chasing a Jeep.

Industrial Light & Magic now claims on their website that “Suddenly, directors could imagine making films in which realistic animals, fantasy creatures, even digital people could perform without restraint.”

Nowadays, films and television productions are replete with photoreal computer-generated animals and people and the next revolution in screen production has them projected live behind actors on a series of large screens known as “the volume”.

Palaeontologists aren’t extinct

Shortly after seeing their first dinosaur, on-screen palaeontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill) suggests to his palaeobotanist partner Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) that the de-extinction success of Jurassic Park might make their profession redundant. Their colleague Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) responds, “Don’t you mean extinct?”

But far from extinction, palaeontology and associated sciences have seen an extensive rebound in public interest in the thirty years since Jurassic Park was released.

In 1975, palaeontologist Robert Bakker popularised the term “dinosaur renaissance” to describe a spate of developing research findings which argued the creatures were endothermic (warm-blooded), active, and related to the birds rather than cold-blooded, slow and wholly extinct as had been the public perception for much of the previous century. This renaissance lasted from about the 1960s into the 1980s and Jurassic Park reflected many of these new orthodoxies.

Bakker himself consulted for the film and was referenced by the character Tim Murphy. A Bakker lookalike also appeared in the sequel The Lost World, further reinforcing its role in reflecting these new perspectives.

But the film also arrived at the dawn of yet another new age of dinosaur discoveries which Steve Brusatte, in his 2018 book The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, described as “the golden age of discovery”. Brusatte referred to the cohort of scientists making these newer discoveries as “men and women from many backgrounds who came of age in the era of Jurassic Park.” Among their findings are new understandings that many dinosaurs were feathered like their modern avian cousins.

Elizabeth Jones recently chronicled the history of the field of “ancient DNA” science, noting the “Jurassic Park effect” playing out on this fascinating area of research:

Even as scientists rejected the conclusions or the implications of the Jurassic Park narrative, they drew on the popularity of the book and movie to emphasise the importance of the technical enterprise in which they were engaged.

And a recent review of the last 60 years of dinosaur research by celebrated palaeontologist Philip J. Currie suggested “public interest continues to be stimulated by a multibillion-dollar movie, media, and toy industry founded on our interest in dinosaurs.”

The Jurassic Park legacy

Dinosaurs have long featured in popular media such as films and television. The first animated dinosaur, Gertie, debuted as part of a vaudeville performance in 1914. Dinosaurs, including a fearsome Tyrannosaurus featured in Disney’s groundbreaking and famed 1940 film Fantasia. But it was Jurassic Park which truly presented them as believable living creatures for the first time.

Though the science of the film has been widely criticised since its release, Jurassic Park succeeded in revolutionising film-making and reigniting a public fascination with dinosaurs even as palaeontology itself underwent a boom in new research efforts. In his recent memoir, actor Sam Neill described the film’s visuals as “a perfect collision of coming-of-age computer generated imagery… with state of the art puppetry”.

The sequels sequels and spin-offs have continued to adapt to changing social expectations, featuring strong female and queer characters, and even feathered dinosaurs in response to changing scientific understandings.

Perhaps the next Jurassic film will feature a full-lipped Tyrannosaurus?

Travis Holland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. How Jurassic Park changed film-making and our view of dinosaurs – https://theconversation.com/how-jurassic-park-changed-film-making-and-our-view-of-dinosaurs-203147