Sept. 15 marks the anniversary of an infamous terror attack: the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. On that Sunday morning, members of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group, planted dynamite on the east side of the brown brick building.

The bomb went off in the midst of Sunday school, at 10:22 a.m., murdering four girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, who were all 14 years old, and Denise McNair, who was 11. The blast injured 22 other churchgoers, including a 12-year-old girl, Sarah Jean Collins, who was blinded in one eye.

Sixteenth Street Baptist was the oldest Black congregation in the city of Birmingham. Just on the edge of downtown, the building had been the main hub of organizing for civil rights demonstrations that spring, known as the Children’s Crusade. More than 1,000 Black children marched together protesting segregation, famously facing down police dogs, fire hoses and jail. Months later, this church at the center of it all became the target of white supremacists.

The bombing of churchgoers in their own house of worship shocked the world. The ensuing public outrage is often credited as one of the factors that drove support for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. Yet it was not the only such attack on Black churches during the civil rights era.

I first realized the connection between attacks on Black churches and civil rights organizing the first time I taught a class about U.S. social movements, 15 years ago. As a sociologist who studies religion, social movements and race, I was shocked that I had never heard of how widespread bombings and burnings were. From that day on I have documented and studied scores of examples.

Faith and justice

To date, my research team has created a map of about 145 cases across the South, ranging from around 1954 to 1970. As with the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, many of the attacks coincided with local civil rights activism and protest.

As sociologist Aldon Morris documented in his groundbreaking book from 1986, “The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement,” Black churches were the backbone of local organizing. Social movements need resources, such as leadership, fundraising, volunteers and participants, as well as safe places to meet in order to strategize and coordinate. At the time, all of these were found in local churches, the heart of the Black community.

These factors and the churches’ public visibility, however, made them standout targets to the white supremacists willing to use violence and terror to try to stop the movement.

Targets for violence

For example, Bethel Baptist Church and its parsonage in Birmingham, Alabama, were bombed three times. On one occasion a Black laborer in the area saw a paint can filled with lit dynamite, ran to it and tossed it into the street, where it exploded – shattering windows instead of buildings.

The first of these attacks took place on Christmas 1956, when a bomb damaged both the church and the adjoining parsonage where the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was sleeping. The minister was the leading figure in the Birmingham fight for civil rights. He was the head of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, the local organizing arm of the Black churches, and a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Shuttlesworth was a constant thorn in the side of local authorities, on account of his efforts to integrate the city’s public spaces, including its public schools.

Other examples abound. For instance, in 1961-62, one of the main civil rights organizations, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, engaged in a long battle with local authorities to protest segregation in Albany, Georgia. Over 1,000 protesters were arrested and jailed, and the campaign failed to achieve its goals. But in the moment it was significant, prolonged and highly contested.

During this period, four nearby Black churches associated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee were burned to the ground, including Shady Grove Baptist and High Hope Baptist churches.

Past and present

Unfortunately, violence against Black places of worship is not relegated to America’s history.

A wave of burnings in the 1990s targeted about 200 Black churches across the Southeast, as historian Christopher B. Strain documents in his 2008 book “Burning Faith.”

More recently, a Black church in Memphis, Tennessee, was a target for arson in 2025: Clayborn Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church, which played a leading role in the Civil Rights Movement. The congregation was the organizing place for the sanitation workers’ strike that brought King to town in March 1968, weeks before he was assassinated there. Strikers’ signs created at the church that said “I AM A MAN” have become famous as a symbol of human dignity.

When radical white supremacists want to strike at the heart of the Black community, they still attack Black churches – such as the 2015 shooting at Mother Emanuel AME in Charleston, South Carolina, which killed nine churchgoers during a Bible study.

In some cases, the memory of earlier attacks has been lost to history – and that is something my team is trying to change through our research at the Black Church Burning Project.

Jason Wollschleger has received funding from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the Louisville Institute, the Weyerhaeuser Center for Christian Faith and Learning, Whitworth University’s Office of Church Engagement, and The Democracy Lab at Whitworth.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/birmingham-church-bombing-wasnt-an-isolated-act-of-terrorism-there-were-dozens-of-attacks-on-black-houses-of-worship-during-the-civil-rights-movement/

Water is an amazing substance. The human body is made up of more than 50% water. Approximately 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by water. We drink it, bathe in it, cook with it, clean with it. It is also used to cool data centres, which is an increasing draw on what is a scarce resource in many parts of the world.

The boom in artificial intelligence (AI) has been fuelling the construction of new data centres worldwide. This is driven by the massive computing workloads required to train and run generative AI models. AI data centres are specialised facilities with the infrastructure needed to support the increased computational demands.

A recent UN report warned that water used by AI data centres is expected to equal the everyday water needs of 1.3 billion people by 2030. Currently, air conditioning systems carry cool air to the server rooms housing the electronic equipment. Water is then used to carry away waste heat from the air to the environment.

But are there other potential ways to cool these facilities, ways that may not consume as much water?

For engineering purposes, water has extraordinary thermal properties. It has a very high specific heat capacity (the energy required to raise its temperature). It also has an exceptionally high latent heat of evaporation (the energy required to turn liquid water into water vapour).

Latent heat is what cools you when sweat evaporates from your skin, an astonishingly powerful cooling mechanism. These properties make water the ideal medium to transport heat, for applications ranging from automobiles and home heating, to large scale thermal power stations.

If you step inside a data centre, your senses are struck by the noise of cooling fans and the feel of swirling airflow on your skin.

The reason that air is used for direct cooling of the equipment is that it is safe, compared to a liquid like water, which could leak and damage electronics. In comparison with water, however, air is very poor at transporting heat even when given a helping hand by noisy cooling fans and churning air flows. The energy required to cool data centres is comparable in scale to the energy consumed by the electronic equipment itself.

Water is used to extract the waste heat from the air conditioning system through something called a chilled water loop. Hot air from the servers is passed over cold water coils. The now warm water is then piped outside the server hall.

A structure called a cooling tower is used to remove this heat from the chilled loop. The water to be cooled is brought in contact with ambient air as a spray, and a portion of it evaporates.

This cools the rest of the water, which is then recirculated. There are other flavours of data centre cooling which also exploit the latent heat of water – using the direct and indirect evaporative cooling of outside air. However, these also consume lots of water.

Is water consumption a bad thing?

Evaporative cooling places a demand on water supplies, but it also serves to reduce electrical energy consumption of the overall cooling infrastructure. In this context, it is important to note that electricity generation itself also requires water.

I am a professor at the University of Limerick, so for Ireland’s mix of energy sources, approximately 0.1-2 litres of water are required per unit of electricity (L/kWh).

Hence, by reducing electricity demand, evaporative cooling could be regarded as a “least bad” option in terms of the overall consumption of energy and water resources.

Of course, sufficient sources of water are required – clearly a critical factor in many parts of the world – and water stress is an issue even in rainy Ireland. However, there is some evidence of collected rainwater being used to reduce the demand on the water network here.

The use of air as the primary coolant for the electronic equipment significantly influences the overall energy consumption of a data centre. Because air is such a poor coolant, it only heats up by 5-20°C when it passes through the equipment.

The cooling infrastructure has to remove large quantities of thermal energy at relatively low temperatures – in the range of 25-40°C. Heat transfer is driven by temperature differences, hence the cooling plant is large, and it requires a lot of electricity to run the associated fans, pumps and compressors.

What if liquid was used to cool the electronic equipment using a “direct-to-chip” scheme? In this case, sealed pipe networks bring the coolant into the equipment, to extract heat from the power-hungry CPUs and GPUs (microprocessors and graphics processors) at the heart of servers.

Here, because a liquid such as water is far superior to air, the water being piped away from the equipment is hotter – closer to the component temperature limits, and potentially 60°C or higher.

Direct-to-chip schemes do reduce the cost of cooling, and offer opportunities to make use of waste energy in the form of heat carried away by water from the server equipment.

So why haven’t all data centres moved to this technology? Some are already using direct liquid cooling, but there may be some resistance to retrofitting an “air driven” facility. The replacement of electronic equipment in data centres is fairly frequent (between 2-7 years), allowing the transition to “direct-to-chip”. But there are costs involved in making the switch and some air cooling needs to be retained for certain classes of equipment.

Direct-to-chip systems would require a smaller, more frugal infrastructure.

Data centres now draw such vast quantities of electrical energy – over 7.5 TWh in today’s Ireland, almost a quarter of metered consumption – that it is imperative to reduce consumption and reuse the resource where possible.

Jeff Punch 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.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/theres-a-better-way-to-cool-data-centres-that-cuts-their-huge-thirst-for-water/

Fewer than one in five women in England now take folic acid before pregnancy. This is down from one in four just five years ago.

The decline is worrying because it could undermine the progress that has been made in recent years to prevent serious birth defects linked to low folic acid intake.

Although the UK government has mandated that from December 2026 all non-wholemeal wheat flour must be fortified with folic acid, the amount being added isn’t enough to stop the ongoing need for folic acid supplements. As such, all women planning to become pregnant should still take a folic acid supplement daily when trying to get pregnant and during their first trimester.

Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate (also known as vitamin B9). It helps cells grow and divide.

In early pregnancy, folic acid supports the development of the neural tube, which becomes the baby’s brain and spinal cord. If the tube does not close properly, babies can develop conditions such as spina bifida or anencephaly.

Spina bifida happens when a baby’s spine and spinal cord do not fully develop, while anencephaly is a severe condition where major parts of the brain and skull are absent.

In England, it’s estimated that some form of neural tube defect occurs in 12.5 per 100,000 births. Most of these conditions can be prevented if a woman has enough folate before becoming pregnant. Other factors, such as not getting enough vitamin B12, may also play a role. Mild forms affect 5 to 10 million people.

Neural tube defects can also lead to pregnancy loss, death soon after birth or lifelong disability, with devastating impacts on families.

Because these conditions develop so early in pregnancy, taking a folic acid supplement before getting pregnant remains one of the most important ways to reduce the risk.

A widening gap

The decline in folic acid use before pregnancy is worrying for a number of reasons.

Uptake is already low in certain groups, with data showing supplement use is consistently lowest among Black and Asian women and those living in deprived areas.

Uptake has also fallen steeply in the north-east of England and remains well below the national average in the west midlands. These differences show folic acid supplement use is not simply individual choice.

Several factors influence uptake. Some women are not planning a pregnancy, while others do not know when folic acid is needed, believe a healthy diet is enough, or lack access to pre-pregnancy care.

Previous pregnancy experience does not necessarily help, either. Research suggests women who have been pregnant before are less likely to take folic acid during their next pregnancy compared to first-time mothers. Possible reasons for this include unplanned later pregnancies, competing childcare responsibilities and a lower sense of need after a prior healthy pregnancy. So knowledge is not enough.

It’s currently not clear why supplement use has been declining overall. It may reflect a combination of limited and unequal access to timely pre-pregnancy advice or practical barriers such as cost and availability. It could also be due to confusion about whether flour fortification means supplements are no longer needed.

Why fortification isn’t enough

The key challenge with folic acid is timing. The neural tube closes by about four weeks after conception, often before a woman knows she is pregnant.

As many pregnancies are unplanned, this means many women will not start supplements before the neural tube closes. Even those intending to become pregnant may miss this critical window if they do not receive timely advice.

So relying on supplements alone to prevent serious birth defects is not a good strategy.

Mandatory fortification is valuable because it does not depend on pregnancy planning. It safely raises folate levels across the population, including in women not taking supplements or who become pregnant unexpectedly.

Countries which have already introduced mandatory fortification – including the US, Canada, Chile and Australia – show how powerful this can be in preventing neural tube defects. For instance in Canada, where mandatory fortification was introduced in 1998, rates of spina bifida fell by 53%.

The new UK policy will add a low level of folic acid (0.25mg per 100g flour) to non-wholemeal wheat flour.

Although this new strategy is welcome, experts have already raised concerns that it will only prevent a small proportion of neural tube defects.

The government estimates that this strategy will reduce neural tube defects by around 20%, preventing about 200 cases each year. But this falls short of the reduction of between 25 and 50% seen in countries fully effective fortification levels.

The design of the UK scheme will also limit who benefits most. It covers only non-wholemeal wheat flour, excluding wholemeal flour, some imported products and many non-wheat flours that are important staples for some cultural and ethnic communities.

Preventing most neural tube defects requires high enough folate levels before pregnancy begins. Diet alone is unlikely to achieve this, and the proposed fortification level will provide only partial protection.

There’s also a communication risk. If people hear that flour is being fortified, they may assume supplements are no longer needed. As England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, has said, fortification is a “simple and effective” way to reduce neural tube defects – but women who may become pregnant should still take a folic acid supplement before and during the first 12 weeks.

With folic acid supplement use already in decline, it’s key that women are still made aware of the benefits of using supplements before pregnancy.

Adding folic acid to flour is a long-needed step towards population-wide health. But it is not enough. The aim will be to achieve a system that combines fully effective fortification with timely education, care and support before and between pregnancies, so every woman has the best possible protection against birth defects.

Danielle Schoenaker receives funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through an NIHR Advanced Fellowship (NIHR302955), the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Southampton (NIHR203319), and the NIHR Inequalities Challenge: Maternity Disparities Consortium (NIHR208377 and NIHR208324).

Keith Godfrey receives funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Southampton (NIHR203319), and the NIHR Inequalities Challenge: Maternity Disparities Consortium (NIHR208377 and NIHR208324). He is affiliated with the UK Preconception Partnership, which advocates to support people with preparation for pregnancy and parenthood.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/the-uk-will-add-folic-acid-to-flour-but-supplements-remain-vital-before-pregnancy/

In 1804, William Blake wrote in his poem Jerusalem of England’s “green and pleasant” land. This idealised vision of English pastoral has resonated through two centuries, fusing the character of the nation with its landscape – those “mountains green” and “pleasant pastures”.

Turned into a hymn by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916, Jerusalem is sung annually at the Last Night of the Proms. It has been adopted by various English sports as an unofficial anthem, including at the Commonwealth Games. It’s invoked regularly by politicians of all persuasions. The “green and pleasant land” has become a powerful emblem for England.

In my book, A History of England in 25 Poems, I’ve traced that “green and pleasant” ideal over a millennium of English writing, as it forges ideas of English identity.

But now, a scorching summer has left this green and pleasant land in flames and we’re warned that this is only the beginning. What could climate crisis mean for our self-image as a nation, and for the stories we tell about ourselves?

Shared experience over 1,300 years

The idea of England as the green and pleasant land doesn’t begin with Blake. It’s part of 1,300 years of tradition in poetry and prose that goes back at least to the writing of the English monk, author and scholar, the Venerable Bede in the eighth century. Bede describes Britain as “an island of the ocean”, filled with green – trees, crops, pasture – filigreed with rivers and springs, and stocked with natural resources.

Since then, English poetry has been steeped in imagery of England’s green.

The 13th-century round-song Sumer Is Icumen In celebrates the arrival of spring.

The seed grows
and the meadow blossoms
and the wood springs (into leaf) now
(Groweþ sed
and bloweþ med
and springþ þe wde nu)

The two-tone call of the cuckoo echoes through the song – a joyful expression of shared experience as the familiar green of seasonal renewal returns.

The climate crisis has a communications problem. How do we tell stories that move people – not just to fear the future, but to imagine and build a better one? This article is part of Climate Storytelling, a series exploring how arts and science can join forces to spark understanding, hope and action.

England’s green is there in the flower-carpeted arbour (a leafy, flower-filled garden) of the 14th-century poem Pearl, where a father lays his head to grieve for his lost daughter, possibly killed by the plague. The arbour is “shaded with plants bright and beautiful” (“schadowed þis worteȝ ful schyre and schene”). It’s the perfect English summer’s day, recognisable to any reader – at odds with the father’s desolation at the loss of his little child.

And there’s the famous springtime of Chaucer’s pilgrims, as they ride out through “April, with its sweet showers” (“Aprill with his shoures soote”) on their way to Canterbury in The Canterbury Tales. All the familiar signs of spring – rain, sunshine, flowers and crops flourishing – inspire these pilgrims to set out on their journey.

In the late 16th century, Shakespeare gives us another evocation of England in Richard II. Here, the dying John of Gaunt describes England as a “blessed plot” and an “other Eden” – an “other Eden” that is delightful and perfect. Yet it’s often forgotten today that Gaunt is actually warning that of losing this “dear, dear land” to rot and ruin.

In search of England

Later, poets celebrate the delightful parkland of great country estates. Ben Jonson’s To Penshurst, first published in 1611, sets the model for the “country house poem”, idealising the perfect pastoral of a country estate as a microcosm of England itself, with “garden flowers”, fertile woods and meadows, and contented, obedient inhabitants under their benevolent master.

In his prose, Edward Thomas wrestled with ideas of what England is or could be.
On the eve of the Great War, Thomas experiences an unexpected moment of stillness in a halt at Adlestrop railway station. In this quiet moment, he seems to get close to it, in the misty, elegiac song “of all the birds / Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire”. Thomas writes elsewhere that he finds England only in “the little things”: in trees, birdsong, nature, green.

This tradition of English pastoral continues right up to today. In the selection of 25 poems in my book, the last words go to contemporary poet Zaffar Kunial, in his poem The Groundsman from his 2022 collection, England’s Green. The Groundsman stands us at the edge of a cricket pitch, by its overgrown boundary in the height of summer. Grasses and wildflowers wave and tangle. A butterfly flutters. The poem sweeps through time and history in the names and stories of flora and fauna, as light as skimming your fingers through summer grasses. Through his green imagery, Kunial is in conversation with William Wordsworth, John Clare, Edmund Spenser – a pantheon of English pastoral through the centuries.

But our climate is changing. This summer’s heat is a harbinger of the new normal. Green fields are yellow and parched. Plants in the UK flower around a month earlier than they did hundreds of years ago, because of global heating. Those singing cuckoos are now on the red conservation list. We’re facing future ecosystem collapse – and it’s already happening now.

If the future of England’s green and pleasant land is precarious, then so might be the stories we tell about ourselves.

Are we ready to let go of a formative national mythology? A verdant, pleasant, temperate and moderate land. A land that begets people of mildness and clemency, not extremes. A green and generative earth that brings forth flourishing and fruitfulness. Will these old emblems still hold? Without our green and pleasant land, do we know who we are?

I hope we’ll save our green England before it’s too late. I want my children to listen to birdsong in spring woodland, just as others have done centuries before them. Today, “green and pleasant” still shapes how people think and talk about England, 1,300 years after Bede. But this is about more than political arguments. Politicians, conservationists, activists – and poets – all have a part to play in helping us write this new map for our country, in a world poised at an environmental turning point.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Catherine Clarke wrote A History of England in 25 Poems.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/climate-change-is-rewriting-englands-green-and-pleasant-story/

It’s a cold winter afternoon and you’ve just brought the washing in. Suddenly, you pause. Are these clothes a bit damp?

In the laundry basket, your hand can clearly distinguish the textures of silky shirts, woollen jumpers, cotton bed sheets. So why is it so hard to tell whether the washing is cold and damp, or just cold?

A sensible guess might be that our hands are numb from the cold, making it harder to detect wetness. The less intuitive reality is that we humans completely lack any specialised sensors that respond to “wetness” in the first place.

That’s right – your skin alone can’t actually detect if something is damp.

How do we tell if something is wet?

Our ability to sense information about our external environment starts at nerve cell endings in our skin.

There are specialised molecules on the surface of these nerve cells called sensory receptors. They convert environmental information into a biological signal, which is amplified into an electrical impulse and transmitted along nerve cells to the brain.

There are numerous different sensory receptors in nerve cells that are activated by cold, warmth or damaging heat. There are also sensory receptors that respond to very precise tactile information such as vibration, friction or stretch.

When you put your hand in that laundry basket, all the information about temperature and texture comes from the relevant sensory receptors in your hand.

The electrical signals triggered by these multiple inputs can also be integrated together in the central nervous system, or the brain. In this way, we can infer an extraordinarily nuanced sense of our environment.

Our experience of wetness arises in this way. It comes from the combined input of cold and friction receptors, refined by association with previous experience.

This means our brain can detect wetness without needing a specific sensory receptor activated by moisture. All we need is a set of related sensory inputs that, taken together, are consistent with our concept of wetness.

This integration of information even extends to include our other senses (the look, smell and sound of the material), and draws on related context (such as “is it currently raining?”) to inform our subconscious assessment of whether something is wet.

It’s not a perfect system

Sensory integration is only as good as the quality of input it receives. It can be hard to feel if clothes are damp in wintry conditions, because both cold and wet things activate our cold receptors.

Likewise, in hot weather it’s much easier to tell when our skin or clothes are damp, as evaporation leads to both local cooling and a slight change in pressure on the skin.

However, we can experience similar challenges in sensing wetness in a warm environment: try closing your eyes in a warm bath and lying still. Without evaporation or cooling from the contact of water against your submerged skin, it can become difficult to consciously perceive that those parts are wet – at least until you lift your arm out of the water and the skin cools as water evaporates.

Our lack of specific wet receptors doesn’t mean our perception of wetness is an illusion generated by our brain. Sensory integration allows us to sense a consistent and tangible quality of objects.

While this sense may sometimes be unreliable, our perception of wetness is not totally untrustworthy. On the contrary, the precision with which we navigate our environment by combining information from different sensory receptors is, frankly, awe-inspiring.

There’s a way to help your brain

Next time you’re trying to figure out whether your washing is damp or just cold, you can try and use some of these insights.

Help your brain out by adding additional context to the signals you’re receiving from the nerve endings in your hand. Squeezing or rubbing the clothes to generate more friction can enhance the mechanical information that influences our ability to detect wetness.

You can also try using visual information, such as variations in colour across the fabric when lightly stretched, to add fresh sensory context.

Or, shifting from cold and damp to warm and damp by heating a small part of material with a hairdryer (or your own breath) will make it much easier to tell if the clothes are dry, or … if you need to hang them all out again.

Kate Poole receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Development and has previously received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Felix Aplin receives funding from the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and has previously received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/is-the-laundry-still-damp-or-just-cold-why-your-skin-cant-tell-the-difference/

On a warm evening in May, swifts scream over rooftops, chasing insects above the traffic. A fox slips along a garden wall while gulls squabble on a supermarket roof. We tend to treat these animals as visitors. But they’re residents too, living alongside us in places designed for people.

My recent research argues this needs to change. Instead of asking how nature can make cities better for humans, urban planners should consider what cities owe the many species that already live in them.

More than half the world’s population now lives in urban areas, while cities continue to expand into wildlife habitats.

In the UK, swifts provide a distinct example. They nest in gaps under eaves and roof tiles, which can disappear when older buildings are demolished, re-roofed or insulated. UK swift numbers have fallen by around 60% since 1995. In 2021, the species was added to a list of birds at greatest risk of extinction.

The issue isn’t simply how we can make cities greener. It’s who we think cities are for.

For my new study, I compared approaches to incorporating nature into urban planning, including environmental offsetting, sustainable development and nature-based solutions such as green roofs, street trees and wetlands. I also examined cases where governments and courts have given species and ecosystems a different status in decision-making.

The pattern I found was striking. These approaches have become increasingly good at showing how nature benefits people, but much less willing to ask whether other species have interests of their own.

Trees are planted because they cool streets. Wetlands are protected because they can hold floodwater. Parks are funded because they improve our health.

All of those benefits are important. But they can also leave nature looking like a service provider for people. If a tree no longer provides enough shade, or a wetland becomes more valuable as development land, what happens to the argument for protecting it?

This is where the idea of “multispecies justice” comes in. It starts from a different premise, where animals, plants and ecosystems are not simply amenities that provide benefits to people. They are co-inhabitants of places we share.

That changes the question urban planning asks. Instead of only considering what nature can do for us, it asks what responsibilities we have towards the species with which we live.

What would change?

This doesn’t mean turning cities into wildlife reserves. It can involve small changes to decisions that shape urban life.

For example, before restoring a river, planners could consider whether the proposed changes are likely to create conditions in which fish and frogs can thrive. They could then assess the project not only on its effects on flooding or visitor numbers.

A development could be designed around established wildlife routes rather than treating them as obstacles to mitigate later. Environmental assessments could consider what a new road does to the routes used by badgers, bats or other animals, alongside its effects on drainage and emissions. Some places might be left undisturbed during breeding seasons.

There are already examples of governments experimenting with this type of approach. In New Zealand, the Whanganui River was recognised as a legal person in 2017, with guardians appointed to represent its interests. Colombia’s Atrato River was recognised as a subject of rights in 2016, with a similar system of guardianship.

These cases aren’t straightforward solutions. The rights granted to rivers still have to operate within existing political and legal systems. Research suggests implementation in Colombia has been uneven.

But they illustrate a different way of thinking. Nature doesn’t have to justify its existence solely through the benefits it provides to people.

The idea is also beginning to appear in more conventional urban planning. Barcelona has built green corridors linking parks to the hills beyond the city so that wildlife can move through it.

In the UK, Scotland has become the first nation by law to require swift bricks in new buildings. These hollow bricks contain a nesting cavity and cost roughly £30 each. But its significance is larger than the brick itself. It treats the presence of another species as something that should be considered when we design buildings, rather than as an unexpected problem to deal with afterwards.

In England, efforts to require swift bricks by law were rejected by the House of Lords. The UK government has instead pursued their inclusion through planning policy and development requirements.

A different way of designing cities

None of this makes urban planning simple. Species can have competing needs, and protecting wildlife can sometimes conflict with other environmental or social goals.

A protected predator might threaten a vulnerable population. Preserving a habitat might complicate a development intended to reduce overheating. There won’t always be a simple answer.

But those conflicts already exist. The difference is that they’re often resolved using systems that give human interests the greatest weight. Multi-species justice asks us to make those choices more explicit.

Read more:
Why building nature-centric housing involves a mindset shift

Cities are already shared habitats. The birds nesting in our roofs, the insects in our gardens, the bats above our streets and the organisms in our soils are not simply passing through. They are part of urban life.

The challenge for planners is to decide whether they’ll continue to design cities primarily around human needs, adding nature where it provides a benefit, or begin to treat the flourishing of other species as a legitimate consideration in its own right.

Saman Sobhani receives funding from the MUST project (Enabling Multispecies Transitions of Cities and Regions), which is funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) within the Research Council of Finland (grant numbers 358365, 358368, and 358372).

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/what-if-our-cities-were-designed-for-wildlife-as-well-as-people/

Mention psychotherapy and many people picture a familiar movie scene: someone lying on a couch, talking about their childhood, while a therapist sits behind them taking notes.

That image comes largely from psychoanalysis. But it doesn’t represent most psychotherapy today. Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis aren’t really competing treatments.

Psychotherapy is the broader term for a range of psychological treatments designed to help people change troubling thoughts, feelings, behaviours, or relationships. These include cognitive behavioural therapy, family therapy, and psychoanalysis, which played an important role in the field’s development.

Where did psychoanalysis come from?

Psychoanalysis developed from the work of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Freud proposed that much of our mental life happens outside our conscious awareness. He believed early experiences and unconscious conflicts could shape how we feel and behave.

Psychoanalysis aimed to bring these influences into awareness. Patients were encouraged to say whatever came to mind, a technique known as free association, while the analyst helped them look for patterns and meanings. Dreams and the patient’s relationship with the analyst could also be explored.

Psychoanalysis also strongly influenced early psychotherapy with children. Freud famously worked with a five-year-old boy known as “Little Hans” for a phobia of horses. His daughter, Anna Freud, later became a pioneer of child psychoanalysis.

So, do you really lie on a couch?

In traditional psychoanalysis, quite possibly.

Traditional psychoanalysis is intensive. Patients may attend several sessions each week, often for years, typically lying on a couch with the analyst out of view.

In the early days of psychoanalysis, the analyst wasn’t necessarily silent. But rather than giving advice or teaching skills, they listened, asked questions, and offered interpretations intended to help the patient recognise patterns outside their awareness. Some psychoanalysts still practise this way.

But from the early 20th century, psychotherapy began to diversify. Behavioural therapies focused on learning and changing what people do. Later, cognitive therapies focused on changing patterns of thinking, while family therapies focused on interactions between people.

Meanwhile, modern psychodynamic therapy grew from psychoanalysis and retains some of its focus on unconscious processes and relationship patterns. But it is usually less intensive. Therapist and client generally sit face-to-face, meet less frequently, and the therapist may take a more active role.

What does psychotherapy look like today?

There’s no single answer because psychotherapy now includes many approaches. Many involve more than just talking.

A therapist might use carefully chosen questions to help someone examine a belief. For example, what evidence supports it? Is there another way of looking at the situation? They might then test that belief with a behavioural experiment in everyday life.

Someone who thinks, “If I speak at a meeting, I’ll make a fool of myself”, for example, might make a small contribution and observe how others respond – perhaps finding things don’t go as badly as they feared.

A therapist might help a person with depression plan activities that provide pleasure or a sense of achievement. Therapy may also involve practising new skills between sessions.

None of this involves mind-reading. Good psychotherapy should be collaborative: therapist and client agree on what they are trying to change and work together towards those goals.

What about children?

Psychotherapy doesn’t always involve an adult talking one-to-one with a therapist.

With children, the person doing much of the therapeutic work may sometimes be the parent.

Evidence-based parenting programs can help parents encourage positive behaviour, respond differently to problem behaviour and strengthen their relationship with their child. Other therapies involve both children and parents or use developmentally appropriate activities.

So, what happens in psychotherapy depends on who needs help and what problem they are experiencing.

But does psychotherapy work?

For many mental health problems, yes. But “psychotherapy” isn’t a single treatment. Asking whether psychotherapy works is a little like asking whether medicine works: which treatment, for which problem?

Some therapies have much stronger evidence for particular problems than others. The Australian Psychological Society’s ⁠Evidence-based Psychological Interventions review brings together research on psychological treatments for a range of mental health problems in adults, children, and adolescents.

So someone seeking help can ask not only, “Does therapy work?”, but “Which therapies have the best evidence for my problem?” They can also ask a psychologist what approach they use and how they’ll know if it’s working.

What about psychoanalysis? Research supports shorter psychodynamic therapies, which grew from the psychoanalytic tradition, for some mental health problems. But traditional, intensive psychoanalysis itself has been studied much less extensively.

So, what’s the difference?

The simplest answer is that psychotherapy is the umbrella, while psychoanalysis is one approach underneath it.

Psychoanalysis played a major role in psychotherapy’s history. But the field has changed enormously since Freud’s time.

Today, psychotherapy is unlikely to involve lying on a couch while someone silently analyses your unconscious mind. It’s much more likely to involve therapist and client agreeing on what needs to change and actively working together.

Trevor Mazzucchelli is a registered psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia, with endorsement in clinical psychology, and is a member of the Australian Psychological Society and a Fellow of the APS College of Clinical Psychologists. He is a co-author of the Stepping Stones Triple P – Positive Parenting Program and a consultant to Triple P International. The Parenting and Family Support Centre receives funding from royalties generated by Triple P resources, which are developed and owned by The University of Queensland. Royalties are distributed to the University, its Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, and contributing authors. Trevor Mazzucchelli does not hold shares in Triple P International but has received, and may receive in the future, royalties and consultancy fees. Triple P International had no involvement in this article. He has received research funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. He does not endorse any specific program, product or organisation in this article.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/whats-the-difference-between-psychotherapy-and-psychoanalysis/

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has called for a 75% cut to the tobacco tax and a freeze on any price indexation of the tax for three years. Hanson said this would make cigarettes cheaper and so undercut Australia’s growing illicit tobacco market.

One Nation argues this would bring a packet of cigarettes currently selling for about A$46.50 down to roughly $21 or $22. That’s if the tax cut is passed on in full to consumers.

That “if” matters. Tobacco companies, not governments, set the retail price of cigarettes. There is no legal mechanism to force tobacco companies to pass a tax cut on to people who smoke.

A large tax cut could be an immediate cash windfall for companies that manufacture a product killing about 24,000 Australians each year, while doing very little to dismantle illicit supply networks.

Earlier today, Health Minister Mark Butler said of One Nation’s proposal, “Governments aren’t usually in the habit of engaging in price competition with organised crimes.”

Is this new?

One Nation’s proposal is not entirely new. Hanson floated a 50% tobacco tax cut earlier this year ahead of her National Press Club address. The federal Coalition and shadow cabinet are reportedly considering recommending an 80% reduction in tobacco tax.

The Tasmanian Liberal government has also publicly called for the Albanese government to lower tobacco taxes – but has not specified by how much.

NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns has openly voiced his support to review and cut the tobacco tax. This is a break from the federal Labor position to focus on strengthened and coordinated enforcement activities to curb the illicit market.

States such as South Australia and Queensland have brought police, small business, and health interests together to collectively tackle illicit tobacco sales.

Calls to cut the tobacco excise directly align with the position of the tobacco industry. Philip Morris Limited and British American Tobacco Australia both argued for a cut to the tobacco tax in their submissions to the parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s illegal tobacco crisis.

Read more:
Could making tobacco cheaper actually cut down smoking rates? We asked 5 experts

What would happen if we slashed the tax?

There is no independent published modelling to look at the impact of One Nation’s proposed 75% tobacco tax cut – on illicit tobacco sales, smoking uptake and quitting, or health.

A report commissioned by Ritchies IGA (an Australian supermarket chain that sells tobacco products) that uses data provided by British American Tobacco Australia positions tax cuts as part of the solution to the growing illicit market. The report estimated reducing excise by 42% combined with stronger enforcement, could shrink the illicit tobacco market by about 47%. The report does not establish how much of the reduction would be because of the excise cut rather than enforcement.

The report is problematic for other reasons.

First, there is a clear commercial conflict of interest in a supermarket chain, using tobacco industry data, advocating for a lower tobacco tax (and cheaper cigarettes).

Second, the report assumes the price of illicit cigarettes will remain broadly stable while the prices of taxed products will fall. Illicit suppliers could easily respond by lowering their prices, as there is no evidence to suggest illicit tobacco prices have hit “rock bottom” in Australia.

But there is strong Australian evidence to show the benefits of increasing the tobacco tax – fewer people smoking, including among lower socioeconomic groups.

How about the cost of living crisis?

Many households buying tobacco face financial stress. But that does not mean the tobacco excise is the cause of the financial hardship, or cutting the excise would reduce economic disadvantage.

In response to lower prices, many people would smoke more cigarettes a day, and take more years to quit, offsetting any savings and greatly increasing sales to tobacco companies.

Strengthening tobacco control policies that protect people from predatory promotion by the tobacco industry would reduce tobacco-related disparities.

For example, we have long known tobacco retailers are far more concentrated in lower income communities. This makes it more difficult for people who smoke to quit and more likely children will be exposed to tobacco promotions and sales.

Improving access to proven smoking cessation medicines – including nicotine replacement therapies such as patches, gums and inhalers – for all people who smoke is also urgently needed. It should not be more expensive to quit smoking than to buy cigarettes.

Read more:
Despite claims smoking has made a comeback, just 5.6% of Australians now smoke daily

What’s happened internationally?

International examples show there is no simple relationship between tobacco excise rates and illicit tobacco sales. In some countries with high taxes (for example Singapore) illicit trade is low and in many countries with low taxes (for example Vietnam), illicit trade is high.

Proponents of tax cuts often point to Canada’s tobacco tax cuts in the 1990s. But the lesson is not as simple as they suggest.

There was some reduction in the volume of illicit tobacco sales when accompanied by well-resourced enforcement. However, provinces that cut the tax had more people smoking, more people starting to smoke and lower quitting rates than provinces that did not cut taxes.

What should we do instead?

Cutting tobacco tax will not solve the illicit tobacco crisis. And it could easily undo the progress Australia has made in bringing smoking prevalence down to a new low of 7.8% in 2025.

The illicit tobacco market needs a serious response: licensing, inspections, penalties, border control, and swift action against landlords and retailers who profit from illegal sales.

What it does not need is a policy that makes tobacco cheaper, rewards tobacco companies, and risks recruiting another generation to smoking.

Becky Freeman is an expert advisor to the Cancer Council tobacco issues committee, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) e-cigarette advisory committee, and a member of the Cancer Institute vaping communications advisory panel. She has received relevant competitive grants and funding from the Australian Department of Health Disability and Ageing, NHMRC, Medical Research Future Fund, NSW Health, the Ian Potter Foundation, VicHealth, Cancer Council, and Healthway WA.

Christina Watts has received funding from the Australian Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, NSW Health, Cancer Council NSW and Cancer Council Australia for work relating to e-cigarette and tobacco control.

Sam Egger 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.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/one-nation-wants-to-cut-the-tobacco-tax-would-that-curb-the-illicit-cigarette-market/

Microfinance was once celebrated as Asia’s tool to lift people out of poverty. From Bangladesh to India, Cambodia and the Philippines, the promise was simple: provide small loans to low-income households, help them start businesses, increase income and escape poverty.

Pioneered in the 1970s, microfinance was designed to provide financial services to low income people typically excluded from traditional banking.

Small loans, usually between US$200 and US$500 were particularly targeted at empowering women to start businesses and support their families. According to the World Bank, more than 1.7 billion people do not have access to banking.

Yet decades of experience suggest that credit alone has not delivered the transformation to economic independence promised.

We need to ask a difficult question: what if we solved the wrong problem?

Based on flawed assumptions

One fundamental problem is the assumption that poor households in developing nations lack capital but have profitable investment opportunities.

In reality, many poor families operate very small businesses such as food stalls, small shops, farming, tailoring or petty trading. These activities are often labour intensive and face intense local competition.

Giving more people loans can therefore create more businesses without creating more customers. When many borrowers enter the same market, additional credit may simply divide existing demand among more businesses. That boosts competition and makes it harder for individual businesses to generate a profit.

This problem is closely related to another assumption: that poor families are entrepreneurial. Some borrowers do have business experience, skills, networks and opportunities that allow them to generate a high return on their investment.

But others would benefit much more from stable employment, education, vocational training and infrastructure such as reliable roads and transport, electricity, internet access, and market facilities.

Treating all poor households as potential entrepreneurs can therefore lead to the wrong policy intervention. Evidence from India shows access to microloans increased borrowing and investment by existing businesses, rather than helping people to start new businesses.

This suggests microloans can help particular types of households, but they are not a universal mechanism for escaping poverty.

What some microloans are actually used for

A second problem is that loans are not always used for productive investment. Poor households face medical expenses, school fees, food costs, housing needs and unexpected economic shocks.

Sometimes, a business loan is used for these immediate needs or to repay another debt. That borrowing may help manage a financial emergency, but it does not necessarily generate the additional income required to repay the loan and increase household wealth.

The cost of borrowing can further increase this pressure. Microfinance loans can carry substantial interest charges. In Bangladesh, for example, the Microcredit Regulatory Authority sets a maximum charge of 24% on microfinance loans.

With such high interest rates, a small business has to earn enough just to pay back the loan. The real problem is that the enterprise the loan pays for might not make enough profit to cover the cost and risk of borrowing. A micro business that only makes a small return may not earn enough to repay the debt, especially if the loan is just financing survival rather than financial independence.

Multiple loans can create further problems

When borrowers obtain loans from several financial institutions, new borrowing can be used to repay existing debt rather than to finance productive investment.

Research on rural households in Cambodia shows how microfinance borrowers increasingly rely on other debt to meet microfinance repayments. This debt juggling means lenders such as banks or development agencies appear to maintain a strong repayment record, but households remain financially vulnerable.

The experience of Pakistan highlights another important change in microfinance: the increasing use of land as collateral. In rural Sindh province, land is one of the most valuable assets held by farmers and is widely used as security for bank loans. But farmers with small land holdings have less access to credit than large landowners, because they lack enough collateral to pledge against loans.

This creates an important paradox. The original promise of microfinance was to help people who had no collateral. The modernisation of the sector can instead make the poor’s most valuable productive asset – their land – the security behind their debt. And that can put their main asset at risk if they have trouble repaying the loan.

Broader support is essential

The stark lesson is that access to capital is only one constraint on economic development.

In reality, entrepreneurs also need skills, technology, infrastructure, digital connectivity, market access, and stable employment opportunities. For the poorest households, taking on debt may be particularly inappropriate when they lack the capacity to generate a reliable and sustainable return.

Ruipeng Liu 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.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/microfinance-was-supposed-to-save-asias-poor-why-has-it-failed-to-live-up-to-its-promise/

If you’re a keen angler and regularly catch yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi), you may have encountered instances of the fish’s flesh turning mushy and unpalatable once cooked. Some have said it’s a bit like trying to eat wet newspaper.

This can be disappointing for the angler and for the hungry guests you’ve invited to dinner. It is also a waste of food – and of the fish’s life.

It’s often hard to pinpoint which fish will turn mushy when cooked as they can look, smell and taste the same when raw, such as when served as sashimi. The issue only appears once the fish is cooked or prepared as ceviche. In other words, you need heat or a pH change for the problem to reveal itself.

The mushy flesh problem is associated with the parasite Unicapsula seriolae but it’s too soon to say it’s definitely the cause – that research hasn’t been done yet.

What we do know is that this parasite shows up in a lot of kingfish that turn mushy when cooked.

Now, our research suggests infection with Unicapsula seriolae may be more widespread than first thought.

In fact, we found even flesh that doesn’t go mushy after cooking can still be infected.

Mushy kingfish and parasite infection in NSW

I’ve been fascinated by the mushy kingfish problem for over 15 years now, following my own encounters in the waters off Sydney, the mid north coast of New South Wales, and at the dinner table.

There are reports dating back to the 1990s of people in NSW catching kingfish that later turns mushy when cooked.

But our research wanted to go beyond anecdotal evidence, so we scientifically tested for and detected this parasite in kingfish caught in NSW. For the first time, we show it is present in kingfish from NSW.

Scientists had previously only tested for and detected this parasite in kingfish caught in Queensland and Western Australia, and in aquaculture settings in Western Australia.

Our recent research involved working closely with NSW-based anglers, spearfishers and charter operators to obtain donations of kingfish tissue in 2024 and 2025.

We tested for the presence of microscopic parasites in kingfish by:

• looking at samples under the microscope

• doing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing and

• DNA sequencing.

In the samples we tested, we found 38.9% of fish were infected with the myxosporean parasite, Unicapsula seriolae. This falls within the range of infections in wild kingfish in previous Australian reports, which put the figure at between at 29.3% and 80%.

But crucially, we also showed that a larger proportion of infected fish (71.4%) did not develop mushy flesh when cooked, or were asymptomatic.

This indicates that relying on fish turning mushy once cooked will mean most infections get missed.

This microscopic marine parasite is similar in size to the human red blood cell, making it impossible to spot with the naked eye. Only some fish will develop signs of infection in the form of black cysts that can be seen with the naked eye.

We also found the parasite in fish caught throughout the year, even though the issue of flesh turning mushy when cooked only usually shows up in fish caught in summer and spring.

This might suggest there’s a temperature link that causes this issue to become more prevalent in warmer months, but it’s too soon to say for sure.

How does this parasite affect fish health and human health?

Scientists don’t yet fully understand the impacts this parasite can have on the health of kingfish. But we do know that in aquaculture settings outside of NSW this parasite has been associated with mass-mortality events (when other pathogens are also present).

Despite this, we still do not know the exact role the parasite plays in the health and physiology of wild kingfish.

Scientists are also unsure what the consumption of raw Unicapsula seriolae-infected kingfish means for human health.

Currently, there is no evidence to suggest it causes food-borne illnesses here in Australia. In Japan, the same parasite has been linked to cases of food-borne illnesses in people who ate raw greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili) – a species closely related to the yellowtail kingfish.

We do not have any accounts of similar cases here in Australia. More research is required to investigate the impacts to human health, if there are any.

All in all, we found most infected kingfish from NSW waters do not become mushy when cooked. And we still do not exactly know why the flesh turns mushy when cooked for some infected kingfish but not others.

Further research is required to understand the significance and consequence of infection, and to develop improved rapid detection methods.

Although sample sizes were small, we are continuing our work to better understand infection.

If you’re an angler or consumer and would like to contribute to the ongoing research you can become a citizen scientist and log your encounters with mushy kingfish on the mushy fish app.

The research upon which this story is based was supported by the Charles Sturt University Faculty Early Career Researcher scheme, the Gulbali Institute and the SUNY Center for Biotechnology and Biodiversity.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/parasite-linked-to-mushy-fish-could-be-much-more-widespread-than-thought/

Imagine your team has been tasked to deliver a high-stakes policy paper under intense time pressure. Everyone turns to generative artificial intelligence (AI) and within minutes, it delivers a full draft complete with structured arguments and authoritative-looking citations.

The team then transfers the AI-generated text into the corporate template, polishes the narrative flow and structure, and gives it one final check before sending it up the chain. Leadership takes a glimpse of the polished-looking draft, and – assuming the underlying research has already been verified – signs off and publishes.

This scenario is not hypothetical. South Africa’s Draft National AI Policy had to be withdrawn earlier this year after reviewers found a number of the citations pointed to journal articles and authors that didn’t exist. Ironically, the mistakes were introduced by AI.

Similarly, last year, consultancy firm Deloitte provided a partial refund to the Australian government after admitting that generative AI had been used to help produce a commissioned document which contained fabricated citations and referenced quotes from sources that simply did not exist. The report cost Australian taxpayers A$440,000.

But the cost of letting AI do our work and thinking also comes at a cost to our brain.

Value of thought

As seen in the examples above, work tasks produced by AI often look polished on the surface but carry significant underlying flaws. This is a byproduct of how the modern workplace has conditioned us to prioritise the final deliverable – the report, the presentation, the assignment – over the actual process.

However, this strictly outcome-driven approach rarely rewards the process by which results are obtained. When we skip the process, we lose the ability to fully grasp what the output actually means.

This will inevitably result in us finding it challenging to critically evaluate the outcomes we consume. More importantly, it will also impact our capacity to discern facts from partial truths and lies.

Ultimately, the true value of knowledge work lies not just in the final deliverable, but in the clarity of thought and the messy, iterative process required to achieve it.

Blindly relying on AI

Recent empirical evidence also highlights a severe disconnect between perceived benefits of using AI and its improvement in quality.

A 2025 study by the University of Melbourne and accounting firm KPMG surveyed more than 48,000 respondents across 47 countries. It found two in three people (66%) use AI on a regular basis, while more than half believe their performance benefits from its usage.

The study specified that the primary driver of AI adoption was the fear of missing out (48%), leading users to prioritise the speed of delivery over the quality of the final output.

Yet 61% of respondents said they have had no AI training, while 60% also reported inappropriate, complacent and non-transparent use of AI in their workplace.

A separate study from July 2026 by the Centre of AI Safety, a San Francisco-based nonprofit research organisation, found even the top-performing AI agents failed to complete roughly 85% of projects to a standard acceptable for commissioned work.

This indicates that even today’s best AI models still fall short of professional quality on most projects. It also shows we are relying on AI to generate final deliverables without understanding how it gets there.

This blind reliance strips away quality control, replacing genuine knowledge creation with an ever-increasing volume of automated “work slop”.

Improving cognitive skills

So how do we reverse this trend?

The answer isn’t simply banning or limiting AI in the workplace. Instead, we need to redefine our working relationship with AI and the outcomes it produces by taking a more human-centric approach.

First, organisations must set realistic time frames for deliverables that genuinely allow for people to think rather than focus on doing things quicker. There is a need to actively disconnect from AI tools during the brainstorming and structuring phases so ideas and thoughts are driven by actual human synthesis, not just algorithmic prediction.

Traditional whiteboard sessions – where teams physically map out their initial concepts through markers and pens – is a way this may be facilitated.

Second, we must cultivate a culture that is constructively critical of all outputs, whether generated by humans or AI.

This means actively questioning logic, structure, references and underlying assumptions. When teams are expected to defend the behavioural reasoning and methodology behind their work, it very quickly reveals who actually did the thinking and who merely copy-pasted from an AI agent.

Perhaps creating a critque group can create a safe, comfortable environment where feedback and comments can flow freely.

Technology can assist with certain processes, but it is dangerous to assume it can replace our ability to think critically. This is because the most valuable asset we have isn’t the polished final page – it’s the ebbs and flows of the cognitive process that is required to honestly write and evaluate one.

Jongkil Jay Jeong has previously received funding from the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/offloading-work-tasks-to-ai-comes-with-a-cost-to-our-brains/

For many parents, keeping their children safe online is a top priority. But now there’s an emerging threat: “com networks”.

Com networks (short for community networks) are online groups that mostly target vulnerable young people in the online spaces they use every day, including gaming platforms and social media.

Through threats, they convince young people to harm themselves and others.

Perpetrators are often motivated by status, fascination with violence, or sexual gratification.

What do we know about these networks?

These groups are known by many names and promote different harms. This makes them difficult to define and detect.

But we do know these groups are a growing threat to young people.

In June, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the threats are “confronting”. She added:

Right now, kids are hurting their siblings, killing their pets or injuring themselves because they are being blackmailed by other youth, teens or adults who enjoy watching the pain of others or are dominating and exploiting the vulnerable.

Europol recently removed more than 4,000 websites linked to “The Com” network in a joint operation with international authorities.

But the true number of com networks is unknown. As more reports emerge, there are warning signs parents should look for.

How are young people targeted?

A young person’s first encounter with a com network might not appear dangerous. It often seems like a normal conversation online, making the warning signs difficult to spot.

Perpetrators gradually build trust with the young person, exposing them to increasingly extreme content and behaviours. They may encourage the young person to share or do something humiliating, using this to pressure them into more harmful acts.

Children can be coerced into harming siblings, pets, or themselves, or encouraged to attempt suicide.

These groups often target isolated young people, those struggling with their mental health or body image, exploring their identity, or looking for friendship or acceptance online.

The line between victimisation and causing harm can become blurred: a young person might be experiencing abuse while also being pressured to recruit others or harm someone.

What are the warning signs?

There is no single giveaway of someone being linked to a com network.

But some suggested indicators of concern include:

• sudden changes in eating or sleeping habits

• distancing from friend groups

• receiving anonymous gifts (physical or digital)

• sudden changes in behaviour, routine, or appearance

• unexplained injuries, including bruises, cuts or burns, and those which appear to form a symbol or word (“cut signs”)

• family pets or other animals being harmed.

Other potential indicators of concern include:

• letters, symbols, or numbers written in blood on walls (“blood signs”)

• obsession with new online friends

• unexplained injuries to siblings

• use of encrypted communications platforms

• cruelly sharing identifiable or private information (“doxing”)

• hoaxing an emergency service to trigger an armed police response to a location (“swatting”).

In isolation, these indicators may not be related to com networks. But knowing what to look out for might help some people – including parents and caregivers – identify and report abuse.

What can be done?

Com networks do not sit neatly within existing categories of crime. Their hybrid nature means there are potential gaps in current interventions.

Effective prevention needs a holistic approach. It also needs to be collaborative, with tech providers and industry working alongside law enforcement.

Schools must keep working to reduce bullying and exclusion, equip children with digital literacy skills to recognise and resist this grooming, embed accessible reporting and anonymous support for bullying and harm, and provide greater monitoring of tech use in the classroom.

Parents and caregivers also play an important role in prevention. They are encouraged to understand the online games their children are accessing, along with talking with their children about whom they are interacting with online.

Communication and trust are key: young people are better protected when they feel they can talk to trusted adults and won’t be blamed.

If parents and caregivers are concerned about their children’s online interactions, they do not need to navigate this alone. Support is available, including Family and Child Connect, Kids Helpline and other child and family support services.

The eSafety Commissioner also has a reporting page for online harm.

Where there is an immediate risk of harm, parents should contact emergency services.

If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Sue Sweeney, co-author of our upcoming research project on this topic, contributed to this article.

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.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/the-emerging-threat-of-violent-exploitative-digital-com-networks-what-do-we-need-to-know/

Erupting or silent, volcanoes have always captured our imagination.

As volcanologists, we have seen how that fascination can collide with rolling news coverage and social media, amplifying false claims, misleading images and long-standing misconceptions about how volcanoes behave. We want to help.

Much more than simply getting the science wrong, misinformation can distort people’s perceptions of hazards and risk and influence how they respond to an eruption.

With this in mind, we sought to better understand which misconceptions about volcanoes are most common and how they take hold and spread.

Our newly published research draws on our own experiences as science communicators, as well as an analysis of hundreds of international media articles published during volcanic events.

By providing a clearer picture, we hope to help journalists communicate volcanic hazards more accurately – and to help everyone from any background recognise misleading information.

When misconceptions become misinformation

Our international study team included experts from universities, volcano observatories, and government agencies, while our media analysis covered 375 articles published between 2017 and 2022.

We identified 18 common misconceptions spanning everything from seismology and volcanic hazards to climate, eruption timescales and misleading images.

Some involved attention-grabbing terms such as the Pacific Ring of Fire, supervolcanoes and mega-tsunamis. Others reflected more basic misunderstandings about how volcanoes work.

Volcanic ash, for instance, is often described as “smoke”. In fact, it consists of tiny fragments of rock, crystals, and volcanic glass, mixed with gases and water vapour in an eruption plume.

Similarly, the term magma “chamber” can suggest a vast underground tank of liquid magma. The reality beneath many volcanoes is more complex, involving networks of molten rock, crystals and gas.

We also examined how misinformation spreads during volcanic events around the world.

During Mt Agung’s 2017 unrest and eruption in Bali, old footage of other volcanoes was presented as current activity, while clouds and gas emissions were wrongly reported as eruptions.

Some reports suggested an eruption could affect the entire island, contributing to tourist cancellations and leaving volcanologists to counter false information.

More recently, a 2025 eruption of Mt Etna in Sicily produced a pyroclastic flow within an area already closed to the public. Videos of tourists outside the affected area moving away were shared as people “fleeing for their lives”, creating the impression Sicily itself was unsafe.

The resulting coverage fuelled public anxiety and tourism concerns, while exaggerating the actual danger.

We also examined misinformation surrounding Yellowstone volcano in the United States, which has often been portrayed as an “overdue” supervolcano capable of destroying humanity.

Documentaries, disaster films, and tabloid media have exaggerated the likelihood and potential impacts of a future eruption, while earthquakes have been portrayed as signs an eruption is imminent. In reality, its last 50 or so eruptions were lava flows with only local impacts.

How to spot volcano misinformation

So, how can people navigate the flood of information online during a volcanic crisis?

We recommend first checking the source. Start with organisations responsible for monitoring and managing the volcano, including volcano observatories, geological agencies, and emergency management authorities.

Scientists and other experts can also provide valuable context, but it is worth considering whether they are speaking within their area of expertise.

When it comes to reporting about what a volcano might do next, it is also important to distinguish between what is possible and what is likely.

Volcano science involves uncertainty and scientists and emergency managers may discuss a range of scenarios because they need to prepare for what is more likely.

But an alarming headline stating a volcano “could” produce a massive eruption or tsunami can easily be written as suggesting that it “will”.

And before sharing images and videos they encounter online, it’s always a good idea to ensure they’re credible – particularly as AI-generated content becomes more common.

Is the image actually from the volcano being discussed? Has the same image appeared elsewhere online with a different location or date?

Even with intensive monitoring, volcanologists cannot always forecast what a volcano will do next. Good communication can, however, help people understand what is happening, what could happen, and what is most likely.

That distinction is more important than we might think. Describing volcanic ash as “just smoke” can cause people to underestimate its hazards, while calling a volcano “overdue” can make an eruption seem inevitable.

Our guide is intended to help journalists and individuals recognise such misconceptions, assess the evidence behind claims, and make better-informed decisions during volcanic events.

For journalists in particular, our message is simple: there’s no need to exaggerate the science. Volcanoes are interesting enough on their own.

The authors acknowledge the contribution to this article of study co-author Sam Poppe, Assistant Professor in Planetary Volcanology at the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

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.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/19/during-eruptions-misinformation-can-spread-further-than-ash-how-can-we-spot-it/

Last week, the Fair Work Commission ruled Gregory Baker, a computing academic at Macquarie University, should be treated as an ongoing, part-time employee, after the university had earlier declined his request to convert from a casual role.

It was immediately described as a “landmark” decision, the first test of Labor’s “employee choice pathway” reforms passed in 2024.

But the ruling also made headlines for other reasons. Baker represented himself at the tribunal, and has said he won with the help of trained artificial intelligence (AI) agents. His success again has us asking: can AI replace lawyers?

On closer scrutiny, Baker’s case looks less like evidence of AI replacing lawyers and more like a powerful illustration of how a highly capable user can employ AI tools to terrific effect.

Request denied

Speaking to the Australian Financial Review following the ruling, Baker said it was actually an AI tool that alerted him to the possibility of converting his role from casual to permanent part-time in the first place.

He had been teaching computer science at Macquarie University over consecutive semesters from 2023 to 2025, and in November 2025, he gave the university the required notice that he believed his work no longer met the requirements of casual employment.

The university did not accept this notification and Baker lodged a dispute at the Fair Work Commission – without a lawyer – in December 2025. The parties could not reach agreement, and the case went to arbitration on May 12. A decision was handed down last Wednesday.

Expert use of AI

Baker has said he won by using multiple paid AI agents, such as OpenAI’s paid offering, ChatGPT Pro. This “team” helped assemble his case, follow up references and anticipate his employer’s counterarguments.

His victory has been celebrated as historic, with the Australian Financial Review describing it as:

the first known successful use of technology by a self-represented person in the legal arena.

However, a few things set this particular case apart. Baker’s IT background, expertise managing AI agents and ability to optimise their use for his case represent a rare level of expertise in using AI in a legal context.

Details included in the Fair Work Commission’s decision also suggest he kept his legal argument narrowly focused on teaching he’d done in one particular unit.

Less expert use of AI in court often sees those bringing claims produce “kitchen sink”-style arguments, which include weak, exaggerated and nonsense claims.

Baker’s dispute was also narrow, limited to the application of a casual conversion law that had not yet been tested. Importantly, the Fair Work Commission (a tribunal, not a court) is designed to be user-friendly, to enable workers to bring claims without a lawyer.

Less positive attention

Elsewhere, the use of generative AI in legal proceedings is attracting a lot of attention for less positive reasons.

Most of this attention centres on the damage caused by inaccuracies, hallucinations and “AI slop”, and how courts and tribunals should best respond.

By making it easier to put a case together, AI has removed traditional access barriers for some litigants. But while case numbers are going up, case precision and quality is going down, making it harder to manage disputes to resolution.

Courts and tribunals are struggling with the volume. At the Fair Work Commission alone, workload has reportedly increased by 70% over three years.

New challenges are emerging as time goes on. Reports suggest litigants and lawyers in some overseas jurisdictions are embedding prompts in digital documents (something called “prompt injection”) to overcome or manipulate AI-based review systems some courts use to process documents.

A big opportunity

Baker’s example shows us something significant: used well, AI tools can empower people with narrow legal disputes and digital skills to achieve successful resolutions, at low cost.

This is an important development in access to justice. In Australia, there is a huge gap between the number of people with legal problems and the very limited funding available for legal assistance.

Most of the community is in the “missing middle”, unable to afford private legal assistance but on incomes too high to qualify for free legal aid.

AI tools stand a good chance of helping people with sufficient legal capability with problems and cases – like Gregory Baker’s – that are a good fit for the solutions AI can offer. These are few and far between, however.

Where might things be headed?

We should expect case numbers and self-representation in courts and tribunals will continue to grow and expand beyond Fair Work.

While there will be some baseless cases, the growth also represents the natural consequence of removing one traditional access barrier to our formal justice institutions – getting in the front door to start proceedings.

The bigger picture challenges are persistent, and raise important questions: who will most benefit from the capacity of AI tools to enhance access to justice, and who will continue to struggle to get basic legal problems resolved?

For courts and tribunals, the challenge will be striking a balance between managing caseloads and delivering justice, while not wasting the opportunity to expand access to justice.

Professor Genevieve Grant receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/18/an-ai-legal-team-has-won-its-first-case-its-a-rare-win-for-access-to-justice/

Before booking a holiday, it pays to check the weather.

Rain can turn a joyful trip into a glum stretch of days. Soaring temperatures are making sunny summers less appealing. And destructive fires, floods and other natural disasters often lead to tourist evacuations.

Australians are keen travellers. In 2025 alone, we made about 113 million overnight trips locally and more than 12 million trips abroad. We also live in one of the world’s most heatwave-prone nations, meaning Australians are exposed to unpredictable weather at home.

But just how much does weather influence the behaviour of Australian tourists? That’s the question at the core of our new study, which we believe is the first to reveal how Australians’ travel choices are being shaped by our rapidly changing climate.

Holidaying in heat

For our new study, we conducted a national online survey to unpack how weather influences when, where and how Australians travel.

We found a fifth of the 2,292 people we surveyed had changed their most recent holiday because of weather. This included 8% who had been affected by fires, floods or storms, and 6% who had been affected by heavy rain.

However, our main interest was heat.

Extreme heat poses an urgent threat to human health. It kills thousands of people each year, and research suggests this figure is rising due to the effects of human-induced climate change. In Australia alone, the number of deaths from heatwaves is expected to double in the next 40 years.

Existing evidence suggests rain dampens tourist enthusiasm more than heat. However, our study revealed 6% of Australians altered their holiday plans based on impending hot weather. On top of this, a third of those surveyed had decided against going to holiday destinations they considered too hot, such as Dubai or northern Australia. We understand this represents the first empirical evidence that Australians are altering their travel patterns due to heat.

Read more:
Study finds 2 billion people will struggle to survive in a warming world – and these parts of Australia are most vulnerable

Whims of the weather

Beyond extreme heat, our study suggests weather shapes how Australians holiday in several ways.

Timing

Of the surveyed Australians who tweaked their travel based on weather, 36% either shortened, extended or changed the original dates of their holidays in response to unexpected weather. Natural disasters – such as bushfires or storms – as well as forecast rain and heat were common reasons people changed their travel plans.

Activities

Weather also influences what Australians get up to while on holiday. About 31% of our weather-sensitive survey participants adjusted their planned activities – such as shopping indoors on a humid day – to align with weather forecasts. This was particularly true among beach tourists and those visiting friends or relatives.

Destination

About a fifth of the people who altered plans abandoned their original destination to travel somewhere else instead. A destination change was most common among people doing nature-based activities – such as camping, hiking, cycling or water sports – and least common for city tourists. Natural disasters were the primary reason people switched destinations, followed by heat and then rain.

However, 10% simply gave up and stayed home due to unfavourable weather. The majority were people who had planned to visit family and friends – and perhaps used the weather as a handy excuse.

In rain, hail or shine

What most surprised us was that 80% of people stuck to their original holidays, regardless of the weather.

Nature-based tourists were reluctant to change their holiday plans even in adverse weather. However, this is worrying from a health perspective, particularly given the number of heat-related deaths among hikers.

To protect our outdoorsy travellers, authorities must strengthen heat-related warning systems, build more shaded spaces at major tourist sites, and provide more water sources. They should also provide clear information about staying safe in hot conditions, such as avoiding hiking during the hottest parts of the day and drinking enough water. Heat safety training should be mandatory for staff dealing with tourists at major outdoor attractions, such as national parks.

Older Australians were also more likely to travel in spite of unpredictable weather. This may be because they can’t easily change prepaid holiday plans, particularly if they lack computer skills or have limited finances. But given older people are more vulnerable to heat, tourism operators must be especially conscious of heat stress when running tours or activities for seniors.

Read more:
Extreme heat is particularly hard on older adults – an aging population and climate change put ever more people at risk

Where to from here

Worryingly, many Australian tourists lack the knowledge and resources to cope with unpredictable weather. Nearly half of our survey participants were poorly prepared for heat, and about 5% were not prepared at all. Just under half had no weather apps on their phones that would deliver timely weather warnings.

Australia’s new national warning system alerts anyone with a mobile phone when a heatwave is about to hit. However, the current understanding of a heatwave – defined as a stretch of at least three abnormally hot days – means Australians won’t be warned of any single sweltering day.

Research shows people often recognise the risks of extreme heat, but don’t believe it will affect them personally. Education could help bridge this gap. Our study found educating people about extreme heat led them to avoid heatwave-prone places.

We must also educate local health professionals and tourism operators about the dangers of extreme heat and strategies to mitigate it. Only then can we keep Australian tourists safe – both at home and abroad.

Read more:
Drowning risk increases during heatwaves in unexpected ways – here’s how to stay safe this summer

Kerstin Zander receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Stephen Garnett receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/18/extreme-heat-is-altering-when-where-and-how-we-travel-new-research/