Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Lamb, Associate Professor in Geophysics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

You have probably seen the images of the surface of Mars, beamed back by NASA’s rovers. What if there were a time machine capable of roaming Earth during its remote geological past, perhaps even going right back to its beginnings, beaming back pictures of similar quality?

This is not science fiction. In remote corners of the world, geologists have found tiny relics of Earth’s very ancient surface.

I have been part of this scientific endeavour, looking at the treasure trove of information in the bedrock of the Makhonjwa Mountains in South Africa and the adjacent small kingdom of Eswatini.

These rocks reach back more than three quarters of the way through our planet’s long history of nearly 4.6 billion years. In my new book, The Oldest Rocks on Earth, I describe the graphic images “beamed back” by this geological time machine.

World of oceans

The ancient rocks reveal a world with extensive oceans and intense volcanic activity on the sea floor.

Deep beneath the crust, Earth was much hotter than today, giving rise to an unusual white-hot magma, rich in elements from its interior. Huge volumes of super-heated water continually gushed out of underwater cracks, building up chimneys of valuable metals. And life was thriving around these undersea vents.

Volcanic islands rose up from the ocean depths. These were dangerous places. Pools of hot bubbling mud dotted their shores, and clouds of volcanic ash periodically exploded from volcanic craters.

Life was already there, forming microbial mats in the sheltered nearshore waters.

Periodically, large earthquakes violently shook the bedrock, triggering submarine avalanches that cascaded down into the deep ocean, creating vast jumbles of rock on the sea floor. Giant asteroid impacts disturbed this world, but crucially, did not extinguish it.

Deep-seated forces were pushing up new land, creating the early continents.

Ocean waves moved back and forth on sandy beaches along coastlines with bays, lagoons, inlets and estuaries, with tides similar to those today.

During floods, large rivers brought muddy water from the continental interior. Farther in the distance, their headwaters drained a mountainous terrain, often enveloped in thick cloud.

It was a blue planet because, like today, the oceans scattered light in the blue part of the colour spectrum.

But the atmosphere contained a lethal cocktail of gases, including high concentrations of methane and carbon dioxide. These greenhouse gases kept the surface at the right temperature for liquid water, at a time when astrophysicists calculate the Sun was much weaker. But there was no oxygen.

The earliest life forms were anaerobic microbes, although brightly coloured – pink or purple have been proposed.

Oceania today

Oceania, in the southwestern Pacific, may illustrate best what this early world was like. Here, the ocean is peppered with volcanic islands and small continents, rocked by great earthquakes where tectonic plates rub against each other. There are even clues to how life began.

The 2022 eruption of the Hunga volcano, near Tonga, created a mushroom cloud of ash that burst out of the ocean and reached up into space with an estimated energy of a 60-megaton atomic bomb. It generated more than 200,000 lightning strikes and left behind a deep underwater crater filled with a chemical soup derived from numerous underwater hot vents.

Experiments show that lightning strikes can trigger the synthesis of basic organic molecules needed by living organisms. Millions of Hunga-like eruptions on early Earth would have created myriad opportunities to kick start the chemistry of life in underwater volcanic craters – life was born out of extreme geological violence.

Staying blue

Going back in time beyond the Makhonjwa Mountains, we still find evidence for oceans, life and, I argue, plate tectonics. Earth became blue within the first tenth of its history.

Mars and Venus may have started this way, too. But our planet uniquely lies in the so-called Goldilocks Zone, receiving just the right amount of solar energy to avoid becoming a boiling Venusian hell or freezing Martian world.

It is also big enough to have a magnetic field and pull of gravity sufficient to retain its atmosphere. And right at the start, a dramatic collision with a Mars-sized asteroid spalled off our Moon, stabilising Earth’s spin axis so that day and night were less extreme.

Finally, the biochemistry of living organisms may have played a key role in keeping Earth this way by helping the bedrock absorb greenhouse gases in the face of a steadily warming Sun.

We must not be the first to let Earth lose its distinctive life-giving blue, a colour so wonderfully referred to in the Siswati language of Eswatini as luhlata lwesibhakabhaka, literally “green like the sky”.

Simon Lamb has received grants from the UK Natural Environment Research Council which has supported this work. His book ‘The Oldest Rocks on Earth’ is published by Columbia University Press, and he will receive a royalty from sales.

– ref. Ancient African bedrock reveals the violent beginnings of life on our blue planet – https://theconversation.com/ancient-african-bedrock-reveals-the-violent-beginnings-of-life-on-our-blue-planet-268365

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate in Public Health & Community Medicine, School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney

Every summer in Australia, millions of people head to the beach, and every year, thousands are rescued by lifeguards or Surf Life Savers and even surfers or other bystanders. Tragically, many people lose their lives on our coasts.

The red and yellow flags, iconic to many Australians, are meant to be a simple and easy to understand message. They denote a safe and patrolled place to go in the water at the beach.

Surfers are supposed to surf outside the flags, while others swim (or wade, or frolic) between the flags.

But for many international visitors, the message is less clear. They may not make sense to people born overseas. Research shows international students often misinterpret what beach flags indicate, rely on visual cues like other swimmers, or assume calm water is safe.

These flags are not universal. Around the world, beach safety is communicated in different ways, with different colours, symbols, messages, and even patrol systems.

Despite the significant efforts of water safety organisations, drowning rates continue to rise in Australia, and people born overseas make up a substantial proportion of these deaths.

The system isn’t working.

What do the flags mean, and why do they matter?

The red and yellow flags have been a part of Australian beach culture and safety since the 1930s. They’ve been marking the patrolled area of the beach ever since.

The idea is that if someone swims between these flags, they are under the watchful eye of professional lifeguards and/or volunteer surf lifesavers.

Usually, the flags are positioned on an area of beach away from rip currents – the fast-flowing, seaward channels of water responsible for an average 26 drownings a year and the vast majority of surf rescues.

But recent studies found that about 70% South Korean university students and 60% Japanese students interpreted the red and yellow flags as indicating a dangerous area.

And a study conducted in the Netherlands showed only 3.4% of surveyed participants correctly interpreted the red and yellow flags. About 40% thought they denoted danger.

These results should be no surprise. Other global safety systems such as road or workplace signs use red to mean danger or prohibition, yellow for caution, and green as safety or permission.

Even half of domestic Australian university students surveyed thought red and yellow flags marked a safe area, so surfers should also stay between the flags. In fact, surfers are not supposed to surf between the flags.

The global picture

Globally, beach flag systems are not standardised.

For instance, in Brazil, Spain, and some areas of the United States, beaches use a traffic-light colour system: green for safe, yellow for caution, and red for danger or closed conditions. Portugal sometimes adds purple flags to warn of marine stingers such as jellyfish.

In some northern parts of Spain, yellow flags are sometimes used to mark designated “cooling off” areas where people are allowed to swim or bathe to cool down, despite red “danger” flags also being in place.

The International Life Saving Federation recommends a global set of eight beach safety flags, including the familiar red-and-yellow for patrolled swimming areas, red for high hazard, yellow for medium hazard, and black-and-white for watercraft zones.

Unlike some countries, the federation explicitly discourages green flags to denote “safe” conditions, on the grounds that no beach or even patrolled area can ever be completely risk-free.

Communicating beach safety

Even if people don’t know what the flag colours mean, in Australia beach signs often say “swim between the flags”.

But research at Bondi Beach in Sydney found that around 30% of overseas-born beachgoers misunderstood this message.

They thought “swim between the flags” meant only people who can actually swim should go there. In other words, if they weren’t good swimmers, they believed they should stay outside the flags.

This is exactly the opposite of what the safety message intends.

Translation tools are not a reliable fix. A recent study found key hazard terms are incorrectly translated by Google Translate.

Take, for example, the term “shore dump” (which means a place where big waves can suddenly break, and “dump” a swimmer underwater). This phrase is currently rendered in simplified Chinese as “岸边垃圾场” (àn biān lèsè chǎng), which means “a place on the shore to dump rubbish”.

“Shore break” (which means the same thing) appears in Korean as “해안 휴식” (haean hyusig), meaning “shore relaxation”. This creates serious risks.

Where to from here?

Redesigning the flags might help.

A recent study conducted in Europe developed and examined a modified version of the red and yellow beach safety flag, incorporating a pictogram of a lifesaver.

This study found adding the pictogram nearly doubled participants’ correct understanding of the flags.

Some experts have also advised that changing “swim between the flags” to “stay between the flags” could improve the translation because “swim” has different connotations in different cultures and languages. Some people might think you should only swim between the flags if you’re a strong swimmer or planning to swim laps.

Simply changing the colours of flags for Australian beaches may not be enough.

The red and yellow flags are tied to a century of lifesaving culture, volunteerism, and community trust. But that legacy shouldn’t stop us from testing whether green flags improve our beach safety communication.

Samuel Cornell receives funding from Meta Platforms, Inc. His research is supported by a University of New South Wales Sydney, University Postgraduate Award. His research is supported by Royal Life Saving Society – Australia to aid in the prevention of drowning. Research at Royal Life Saving Society – Australia is supported by the Australian government. He has been affiliated with Surf Life Saving Australia and Surf Life Saving NSW in a paid and voluntary capacity.

Masaki Shibata receives research funding from Surf Life Saving Australia and is a volunteer surf lifesaver at Tamarama Beach, Sydney, which operates under Surf Life Saving Australia. He has also been collaboratively working on beach signage research with Surf Life Saving Australia and Life Saving Victoria.

– ref. Australia’s red and yellow beach flags can be dangerously confusing. Is it time to change them? – https://theconversation.com/australias-red-and-yellow-beach-flags-can-be-dangerously-confusing-is-it-time-to-change-them-266772

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Bellamy, Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, The University of Queensland

By any measure, 2025 was not a good year for world peace.

Worse, it was just the latest of a decade-long decline of peace and upsurge of war.

As author of a book on world peace and how we can achieve it (that’s literally the title), here’s my assessment.

Grim numbers

Peace is on the decline around the world by many measures.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data index, a UN-funded independent monitor, reports global conflict has doubled in the past five years.

The International Institute for Security Studies reports a 23% increase in armed conflict in 2025 alone. Approximately 240,000 people were killed by violent conflict in 2025, it reports.

And the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Peace Index reported that peacefulness around the world has deteriorated for the sixth consecutive year.

Some of the symptoms of that decline, it reports, include:

• flatlining global trade
• the loss of 42% of government revenue in the developing world to debt interest repayments (the largest global creditor is now China)
• reductions in the amount spent on peacebuilding
• a 42% decline in the number of troops committed to peacekeeping, and
• a dramatic increase in the internationalisation of armed conflict.

War happens when we have rising conflict and declining commitment to the things that produce peace.

Three things are driving those trends:

• the relative decline of liberal democracy and rise of authoritarian powers
• profound shocks such as the global financial crisis and COVID
• problems generated by economic growth based on globalisation, especially rising inequality and social fragmentation.

Nationalist populism in the West and elsewhere is a product of these three transformations, which have unsettled comfortable post-Cold War assumptions about the progress of democracy, wealth, and peace.

We do actually know what drives war and peace

Some may argue that over the long term, the incidence of war and peace ebbs and flows naturally, driven by structural forces that defy human intervention.

But this ignores the immense strides in our understanding of the factors associated with both war and peacefulness.

The forces driving war and peace are not as mysterious as they once were. For example, it is well established that democracy, gender equality, and fair trade are associated with greater peacefulness.

So, it’s perhaps no coincidence that as war increases, each of these social goods are either in decline or are severely challenged.

It is also well established that peacekeeping reduces civilian victimisation, conflict-related sexual violence, and the likelihood of conflict reignition.

Although individual wars have their own specific causes, war and peace, in general, are shaped by a limited set of factors.

Over the past two decades, researchers have done an excellent job identifying what those factors are

We know war is not randomly unpredictable or inexplicable.

This means war is not beyond human control.

War is a choice

The idea that humans are naturally warlike is as facile as the claim that we are naturally peaceful. Anthropologists and biologists have demonstrated we are both.

War is a social practice and like any social practice, is caused by human decisions.

Humans have agency and choice. Certainly, social structures, political ideas and economic pressures influence choices, but they do not determine them.

This is not to say that “war is over, if we want it”.

War occurs because people have serious disagreements about important questions and values – things they cherish so much they would rather fight than compromise.

But peoples, governments and international organisations can create conditions that make war less likely, and the instruments for preventing, limiting, and resolving war more capable.

What is to be done?

International systems are forged by their members.

In the modern international system, that means states. States are primarily responsible for maintaining peace at home – and though some are obviously better than others, by and large, the state has done an excellent job of reducing violence in everyday life.

The building blocks for peace, therefore, lie in the state, especially those that:

• are accountable (democratic)
• respect human rights
• have capable institutions
• provide dignified living and opportunities for all
• foster more gender equal societies.

But this not something that can be changed quickly or easily, and is a political struggle that each society has to undertake on its own terms.

So, it’s wise to focus on rebuilding those international tools we know can make a difference.

3 urgent priorities for the year ahead

First, we must reaffirm international support for the basic principles of the United Nations Charter, including the principal of non-aggression.

In practical terms, this means standing resolutely against aggression and furnishing those who defend themselves against it – notably Ukraine – with every possible support.

Second, we must revive support for UN and regional peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts and capabilities. Peacekeeping works; more peacekeeping works better. This is especially true when the priority is protection of civilians, women, peace and security.

Third, addressing the gravest crisis of our time: Gaza. To give peace a chance, that means deploying the International Stabilisation Force (the UN-mandated multinational peacekeeping force outlined in the Gaza peace plan).

It must be given every authority and capability necessary to protect civilians, protect Israel from Hamas, and facilitate the extension of legitimate government under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority as a pathway towards Palestinian statehood.

World peace is possible because peace and war are human institutions, not forces of nature.

Even the most deeply ingrained institutions can be reformed. The abolition of slavery was considered impossible until it was achieved.

Yet to say world peace is possible is not to say that it is likely, much less that it is inevitable. But it is something worth studying and striving for. After all, peace is built in the striving.

Alex Bellamy does not currently receive funding from any organisation.

– ref. Is world peace even possible? I study war and peace and here’s where I’d start – https://theconversation.com/is-world-peace-even-possible-i-study-war-and-peace-and-heres-where-id-start-270783

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justin Bergman, International Affairs Editor, The Conversation

In democratic systems, the courts are a vital check on a leader’s power. They have the ability to overturn laws and, in Donald Trump’s case, the executive orders he has relied on to achieve his goals.

Since taking office, Trump has targeted the judiciary with a vengeance. He has attacked what he has called “radical left judges” and is accused of ignoring or evading court orders.

The Supreme Court has already handed the Trump administration some key wins in his second term. But several cases now before the court will be pivotal in determining how much power Trump is able to accrue – and what he’ll be able to do with it.

As Paul Collins, a Supreme Court expert from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, explains in episode 4 of The Making of an Autocrat:

It’s all about presidential power. And that’s really significant because it’s going to enable the president to basically inject a level of politics into the federal bureaucracy that we frankly haven’t really seen before in the US.

Listen to the interview with Paul Collins at The Making of an Autocrat podcast.

This episode was written by Justin Bergman and produced and edited by Isabella Podwinski and Ashlynne McGhee. Sound design by Michelle Macklem.

Newsclips in this episode from CBS News, The White House, Associated Press, NPR, Spain’s Culture Ministry.

Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here. A transcript of this episode is available via the Apple Podcasts or Spotify apps.

Paul Collins 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. Donald Trump loathes the courts. He’s following the autocrat playbook to sideline them – https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-loathes-the-courts-hes-following-the-autocrat-playbook-to-sideline-them-272270

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thea van de Mortel, Professor Emerita, Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University

You’ve been hanging out for a break, getting through the busy last weeks of work or class. You’re finally ready to relax. And then tiredness descends, you feel the tickle in your throat, and you realise you’re getting sick.

Why does this always seem to happen just in time for a holiday or the weekend?

Some call this the let-down effect or leisure sickness.

But is it real? While you may hear about leisure sickness online and anecdotally, studies on this phenomenon are very limited and often not well designed.

So let’s take a look at the evidence – and what you can do to stay healthy.

What the evidence shows

Leisure sickness is a term coined by Dutch researchers in a 2002 study. It refers to people who are seldom ill during the working week but get sick relatively often on weekends or holidays.

The researchers surveyed 1,893 people and found roughly 3% reported leisure sickness. Symptoms typically included headaches, tiredness, colds and flu, muscle pain and nausea. People were more likely to develop infections on vacation rather than weekends, and symptoms were most common during the first week of their holiday.

However, this research relied on people’s recall, and memory can be unreliable. The definition of leisure sickness was also vague. For example, one person’s idea of “seldom” and “relatively often” may differ from another’s.

Another 2014 study investigated “let-down headaches” by asking 22 participants who regularly experienced migraines to keep a diary of their stress levels and migraine onset.

It might seem counter-intuitive, but reducing stress seemed to trigger the migraine. When they recorded a reduction in stress on one day, they typically developed a migraine within the next 24 hours. If work was the stressor, this could mean a pattern of migraines on their days off.

Some evidence suggests strokes are also more common on weekends than weekdays in some groups. There is no clear cause, but the study authors suggested strokes could be triggered by lifestyle changes on weekends.

So, what’s going on?

The lack of quality research on leisure sickness means we don’t fully understand its potential causes. But there are some theories.

People often travel during vacations, and sit in enclosed, crowded spaces such as planes, increasing their exposure to germs. Travel to distant locations can also expose us to strains of germs we’re not immune to.

On holidays we may also drink more alcohol, which can reduce immune function. And we may be pushing our body to do things we don’t normally do, putting stress on it.

Another theory is that being busy at work makes us distracted and less likely to pay attention to symptoms. On leave, symptoms such as muscle pain or a headache may become more obvious – and we can’t blame it on work. So we may notice sickness more.

But isn’t relaxing good for your health?

There is a complicated relationship between stress and the immune system.

Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system and makes our bodies release hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol.

Chronic stress can mean our cortisol levels are sustained at high levels. Over time, this reduces how well our immune cells respond to infection, so we are more likely to get sick if we come into contact with viruses or bacteria.

But in the short term, both adrenaline and cortisol can actually enhance how well some parts of the immune system work. This means acute stress can temporarily improve our resistance to infection, which is why we may feel busy and stressed but not fall sick. Cortisol’s anti-inflammatory properties can also relieve pain.

But when the acute stress stops – for example, when we finally get a chance to rest – there may be a sudden transition. We no longer benefit from the temporary immune boost or cortisol’s pain relief. So this is when we might fall sick, and feel symptoms such as headaches and muscle pain.

How can I avoid getting sick?

There’s still a lot we don’t understand about how or why leisure sickness might happen. But we know staying active, getting enough sleep and eating a healthy, balanced diet – even when you’re busy – can help boost your immune system.

One Finnish study examined more than 4,000 public employees who were physically inactive. It found those who took up regular exercise, particularly vigorous exercise, were less likely to take sick leave than those who remained inactive.

Given the link between chronic stress and multiple chronic diseases, it is also sensible to manage your workplace-related stress.

There is good evidence that meditation, mindfulness and relaxation techniques can help reduce stress.

There are also steps you can take to reduce the risk of respiratory infections on vacation, so you get to enjoy the whole holiday. Consider keeping up to date with flu and COVID boosters, and taking other precautions, such as wearing an N95 mask on planes and in airports.

Thea van de Mortel 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. Why do I seem to get sick as soon as I take time off? – https://theconversation.com/why-do-i-seem-to-get-sick-as-soon-as-i-take-time-off-270673

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow in Urban Risk and Resilience, The University of Melbourne

January is consistently Australia’s busiest month for moving house – around 14-18% of the yearly total, far higher than any other month.

When people choose a new neighbourhood to live in, there are many factors to weigh up such as price, commute time, school zones and general convenience.

But research shows less obvious aspects of a neighbourhood such as walkability, aircraft noise and tree canopy can measurably improve or worsen daily health and long-term wellbeing. Yet they rarely make it onto anyone’s checklist when choosing where to live.

Here are simple clues to get a sense of how these underrated factors will affect life in a new place.

Walkability

Walkability describes how easily people can reach everyday destinations on foot. It reflects a combination of how well connected streets are, distance to shops and services and how pleasant and practical it is to walk.

A recent study of over two million house moves in the United States found people who relocated to more walkable neighbourhoods took about 1,100 extra steps per day. This level of extra activity is associated with better health by lowering risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and early death.

Other studies consistently link walkable areas with better mental health and lower car dependence.

Walkability can vary widely even within the same city and similar price ranges, so it’s worth checking. Two easy tools help assess it:

• the Community Walkability Map run by the Heart Foundation, which estimates which destinations are reachable with a 5–20 minute walk from any address.

• the Australian Urban Observatory, which gives a walkability score to each suburb based on housing density, street connectivity and access to local services. The tool has other liveability indicators and makes it possible to compare between suburbs and against the city average.

Aircraft noise and flight paths

Research shows long-term exposure to aircraft noise can worsen health in several ways.

People living under frequent flight paths have been found to face higher rates of heart disease and poor mental health.

Night-time aircraft noise is linked to sleep disruption, including more awakenings and less deep, restorative sleep.

The noise can also affect children’s learning, with noise exposure associated with poorer attention and reading development when schools sit directly under busy flight corridors.

Most major airports in Australia offer tools to check noise levels for a specific location.

Aircraft noise exposure depends on where flight paths sit, how low planes fly, and how frequently they pass over a neighbourhood.

In Melbourne, residents can access detailed reports for a given address which combine noise-contour maps, flight-path overlays and expected noise levels for individual properties. Other cities don’t have access to this level of detail.

How loud is too loud? At night, a good rule of thumb is that aircraft noise at 55 decibels and up will cause frequent negative effects, such as disturbed sleep and higher health risks. This figure comes from the nighttime noise guidelines issued by the World Health Organization.

Australian aviation guidelines use 70 decibels as the threshold for a “noisy event” likely to disturb indoor activity.

The way a house is designed makes a difference. Double-glazed windows, sealed frames and newer insulation can reduce how noisy it is inside.

If your research suggests a new place may be exposed to aircraft noise, it’s worth checking window quality and insulation.

Tree canopy and urban heat

Tree canopy plays a major role in how hot a neighbourhood feels. Suburbs with fewer trees and less green space absorb and radiate more heat, meaning they are significantly hotter than leafier suburbs. Streets with more trees and shaded surfaces can be 5–10°C cooler on hot days.

Higher local temperatures are linked to greater heat stress, worse sleep during summer nights, and less outdoor activity.

Tree canopy and heat exposure are easy to check. States such as South Australia offer urban heat and tree canopy maps, while Victoria has an Urban Forest visual tool for central Melbourne and less detailed equivalents over a broader metropolitan area.

Using the satellite view on a mapping app can work to give a quick sense of how shaded a street is and whether the surrounding area is dominated by trees, paved surfaces or open, unshaded areas.

Not just nice to have

Many people don’t check how walkable, noisy or leafy an area is before deciding to move there. But these factors have a real impact on quality of life and health.

There’s a broader planning challenge here. More walkable neighbourhoods lead to significantly more walking, aircraft noise worsens sleep and tree canopy can dramatically cool neighbourhoods. This means these issues aren’t just nice to have. They should be thought of as core public health infrastructure.

Connected street networks, reliable shade, quieter residential zones and easy access to daily services should not be luxuries confined to the high-priced areas often coded as “leafy” suburbs in Australia.

Newer developments often lack the mature tree canopy of older suburbs. While it takes time for trees to mature and produce their cooling canopy, this can be sped up with strategic planting of large, spreading trees, consistent irrigation in early years and protection of verge and open-space planting areas. Local planning rules can help by creating tree canopy targets and space for deep-rooted trees.

Similarly, detailed data on aircraft noise should be accessible and easy to interpret in all cities with major airports, not just in Melbourne.

As thousands of Australians prepare to move house this month, it’s a good time to think about what we value in a neighbourhood – and how we could expand access to these desirable attributes.

Planning for walkability, heat resilience and low noise are matters of equity. Healthier urban environments should be available to everyone, not just those who can afford them.

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. Moving house? 3 surprising ways your new neighbourhood can affect health and happiness – https://theconversation.com/moving-house-3-surprising-ways-your-new-neighbourhood-can-affect-health-and-happiness-266997

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Hartigan, Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney

When the topic of central banks and the outlook for interest rates comes up, economists often turn to the so-called “star” variables to help with their predictions.

What do we mean by star variables? Why they are important to central bankers, and how do they influence interest-rate decisions?

The star variables relate to key concepts in economic models used by central bankers to help them understand how the economy works.

Star variables are named so simply because they are usually labelled with an asterisk to distinguish them from other variables in economic modelling.

Central bankers don’t normally think about the star variables in isolation. Instead, these variables are better thought of as a “constellation” linking economic growth, the labour market and interest rates together with inflation outcomes.

The three north stars

1. Potential output or y*: This is the economy’s maximum sustainable output that can be produced when all resources are fully employed. It is sometimes referred to as the economy’s speed limit. If economic growth is faster than potential, it can put upward pressure on inflation because demand for goods and services is outstripping supply.

The reverse is also true: if the economy is growing below potential, demand is subdued and inflation will likely fall.

Potential output is closely linked to productivity. Boosting productivity lifts the economy’s speed limit – allowing faster economic growth without fuelling inflation. But falling productivity lowers the economy’s speed limit, meaning it can’t grow as fast as previously without causing inflation to rise. This is the problem currently facing Australia.

2. Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment or NAIRU or u*, a concept that became popular in the 1970s. The idea is there is a “natural” rate of unemployment that doesn’t put pressure on wages or inflation.

3. The neutral interest rate or r* is considered to be the level of the central bank’s key interest rate that is not too low (and stimulating demand) and not too high (and restraining demand). It is a useful guide to the stance of the central bank’s monetary policy, or stance on the policy interest rate.

Good in theory, hard to measure in practice

These three interlinked variables are fundamental to how central bankers think about the economy.

But they are also concepts that are not observable, unlike published statistics on inflation or economic growth. They need to be estimated, and that’s where the uncertainty comes in.

In fact, central bankers must use statistical methods originally developed to track spacecraft to estimate them. This is done by detecting the effects these variables have on other variables that are observable, such as inflation, wages growth and the unemployment rate.

In a recent speech, a US Federal Reserve official wondered whether the three variables are “too abstract and elusive to be of practical value”. He concluded:

The short answer is that they play a central role in macroeconomic theory and have important implications for the conduct of monetary policy.[…] When the stars perfectly align, it means the economy has reached an equilibrium where its resources are fully utilized.

How the variables help with setting interest rates

Most central banks focus on maintaining price stability (low and stable inflation). A few, such as the Reserve Bank of Australia and the US Federal Reserve, have dual mandates to maintain price stability and full employment.

The way central bankers put their objectives into practice is influenced by the star variables. Specifying a target for inflation is seen as the best way to achieve price stability. The Reserve Bank’s target is 2–3% over the economic cycle.

Over time, inflation tends to be steady when the unemployment rate is close to the NAIRU. Because of this, central bankers often use the NAIRU as a rough guide to full employment, which is also broadly consistent with the economy operating near potential.

Understanding the central bank’s objectives is important because they tell us where the economy should go. But they don’t tell us what the central bank will do to get there – that is, what policy interest rate setting is needed to achieve its objectives (what economists call the central bank’s “reaction function”).

This is a way of describing how the central bank adjusts its policy interest rate based on differences between current economic conditions and the star variables.

But this is easier said than done. The uncertainties with estimating the star variables, together with the uncertainties in how interest rate changes flow through the economy, makes it difficult for central bankers to know exactly what decision they should make to achieve their objectives.

All this uncertainty is one reason why central bankers are very cautious. Sometimes it is better to do nothing than make a wrong decision and risk losing credibility.

Luke Hartigan receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DP230100959). He previously worked at the RBA as a Research Economist.

– ref. Why central bankers look to the ‘stars’ when setting interest rates – https://theconversation.com/why-central-bankers-look-to-the-stars-when-setting-interest-rates-270052

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Research Fellow, Iverson Health Innovation Research Institute, Swinburne University of Technology

Recent surveys estimate more than 6.7 million Australians – almost half of all workers, and the majority in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra – work from home at least some of the time in paid or unpaid roles.

With that increase in working from home, it’s easy to spend too long sitting – which is now recognised as bad for our health. Many of us now know what it feels like to sit at a computer all day, then once finished with work, simply transfer across to the living room couch.

When we have to physically go into our workplace, it’s easier to get incidental activity: from leaving the house, to walking and standing in an active commute, walking to talk to a colleague, go out to get lunch and more.

With many Australians not reaching physical activity guidelines, could we be strategically using an under desk treadmill or walking pad to walk while we work?

How much – and how often – do you really need to walk?

The benefits of walking are now widely substantiated. For instance, studies that have got people to increase their weekly walking have made profound and consistent benefit to health outcomes, such as improving blood pressure and glucose tolerance.

Recent evidence has converged in on 7,000 steps being a target for daily steps when considering prevention of many diseases.

The World Health Organization has also reverted its recommendations from previously saying physical activity must be done in at least 10-minute bouts to “every move counts”, regardless of duration.

Recent experiments back this up too, finding that short, frequent walking or squatting breaks to avoid prolonged sitting can actually have better health outcomes than one bout of walking.

So walking for our health does not need to be performed in a structured and routine way. It can simply be accrued through the day with incidental activity and regular walking breaks.

Together, this evidence suggests that a treadmill at your desk – encouraging regular walking breaks interspersed throughout the day, when you would otherwise be just sitting – would likely be beneficial.

What studies have been done on treadmill desks?

Though there are only a handful of specific studies on the health impacts of office workers using a treadmill desk, they have mostly shown they’re beneficial.

Those studies have found a treadmill desk or walking pad results in changes in fat loss, improving cholesterol, blood pressure and metabolism, with some benefits longer term. But different investigations into their use revealed different results:

• one study found sedentary office workers increased their steps between 1,600 and 4,500 steps per day (with the greatest weight loss among people with obesity), compared to people who weren’t provided a treadmill

• a small study of overweight and obese physicians found they did manage to make using a treadmill work, ending up with 1.9% lower body fat while using the treadmill desk

• another found it led to an increase of 43 minutes of light walking – though workers still reported finding it hard to meet a demanding work schedule to fit that in.

In other words, your mileage may vary! But while these changes may sound small, they are still likely to improve your health, especially when adopted long-term.

Is it too tricky to type?

But how feasible is adding treadmill desks into our workplaces, either at home or in an office?

People may be concerned about the ability to direct attention to walking simultaneously with performing computer-based work.

Interestingly, one study found there weren’t any significant impact to cognitive abilities between those sitting vs walking at their own pace on a treadmill.

However, walking and cycling desks can impair typing and particularly moving a mouse precisely. That makes a treadmill desk less suitable for mouse-intensive work.

For those who find it hard to type accurately while walking, voice-to-text typing options maybe be worth a try. Some are built into computer operating systems, such as in Apple or Chromebook computers.

Try this before you buy

All things considered, treadmill desks are likely to provide a significant contribution to health through changes to physical activity and sedentary behaviours, without much downside.

For some, adding a treadmill desk to your work environment may be the motivator and visual reminder you need to take regular walking breaks – especially if you’re really short on time or do work that makes it hard to leave your desk.

But even the most basic walking pad costs money. You’re looking at around A$180-200 for entry level walking pads, through to $1,000 or more if you want a better treadmill you can also run on. You may also need to invest in a standing desk to be able to work properly.

So before you invest in a whole new desk set up, it’s worth asking: would it be easier and cheaper to simply try regularly walking away from your desk?

Even small changes in physical activity can make a real difference – especially for those who are very sedentary in their work and home life.

Christian Brakenridge 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. Walk while you work: are the extra steps on an under desk treadmill worth the cost? – https://theconversation.com/walk-while-you-work-are-the-extra-steps-on-an-under-desk-treadmill-worth-the-cost-264336

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dwain Allan, Lecturer, School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing, University of Canterbury

It’s hardly a revelation that we’re living in an era of distraction and smartphone addiction. Our phones interrupt us, hijack our attention, and tempt us into scrolling. Even when we aren’t interacting with them, their mere presence makes it difficult to concentrate.

To address this, app developers have responded with a vast ocean of productivity and focus apps, each promising to tame the chaos with timers, app blocking, habit reminders, and rewards designed to help you stay focused and be productive.

To understand whether these apps are worth our while, we first need to consider why staying focused is so difficult in the first place.

Why is it so hard to stay focused?

By and large, a lack of focus boils down to difficulties with self-regulation, the ability to monitor and manage thoughts, emotions and behaviours for goal pursuit.

In short, when a task feels boring, stressful, or tedious, it creates an unpleasant feeling. We then search for relief, and for most of us that comes by way of our smartphone, which has become our go-to coping device, even if it derails the work we need to do.

There’s been much talk that our capacity to focus has dwindled in recent years, though this is not supported by the scientific literature.

The research does, however, suggest that certain technology habits (especially multitasking and constant digital interruptions) are associated with greater distractibility for some people. In other words, while our ability to focus may not be declining, the modern world places far greater demands on it.

The rise of focus apps

To cope with these demands, a new generation of focus apps has burst onto the productivity scene. These apps use gamification (the application of game design elements in non-game settings) and cute characters to encourage focused work.

Chief among these is Focus Friend, which briefly took over ChatGPT as the most downloaded app during its first month on the App Store in August this year.

The app works by encouraging you to set a focus timer. During that session, a virtual bean character quietly knits in the background. If you pick up your phone and open apps you have pre-selected as off limits, the knitting unravels and the bean looks upset. If you stay on task, you earn digital rewards such as socks, scarves, and room decorations for your bean.

How does it get you to focus?

Beyond the usual gamification tricks, this app also uses several psychological principles.

First, it uses incentives by giving you immediate, tangible rewards – knitted items and room upgrades when you complete a focus session.

Next, it leverages reward substitution by getting you to do one potentially unpleasant thing (deep work) to earn something immediately enjoyable (seeing the bean’s world improve).

The app also stimulates commitment and consistency. Simply starting the timer functions like a small promise to yourself, and once that’s made, we tend to want to behave consistently by maintaining streaks and avoiding behaviour that would break that session.

Over time, decorating the bean’s room activates the IKEA effect. That is, we place more value on things we help build, so the more you customise and invest in the space, the more motivated you become to protect it by continuing to focus.

Do focus apps actually help?

The research examining the effectiveness of focus apps is thin. One study examined a range of apps for reducing mobile phone use and found that gamified focus apps, while scoring high on user sentiment, were rarely used and were less effective than simpler strategies such as switching the phone to grayscale mode.

While no peer-reviewed studies exist specifically on Focus Friend, its high App Store ratings plus the slew of articles from enthusiastic users, suggest people enjoy using it. However, enjoyment alone does not correlate with increased focus or productivity.

How to use focus apps wisely

Do you have an automatic and uncontrollable urge to check your phone when working? If so, you could try to use a focus app.

Practical steps include scheduling specific focus sessions in which to use the app and selecting a clearly defined task. Also, when you feel the urge to check your phone mid-session, take note of the feeling and remind yourself that discomfort is part of getting important things done.

Finally, after a week of use, review your experience to see whether the app actually helped you make progress. Ask: “is this serving me, or am I serving it?”

Be sure to watch for pitfalls. Apps such as Focus Friend don’t assess the quality of your work, so you could spend focused time on low-value tasks. It’s also fairly easy to trick the app using your phone settings.

Perhaps most importantly, remember that while a focus app can help you resist checking your phone, it can’t resolve the inner forces that pull you into distraction. The key to better focus might be diagnosis, not download – that is, learning to notice what you feel, choosing how you want to respond, and making the commitment to staying focused on what matters.

Dwain Allan 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. Focus apps claim to improve your productivity. Do they actually work? – https://theconversation.com/focus-apps-claim-to-improve-your-productivity-do-they-actually-work-271388

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lee, Associate Professor of History, UNSW Sydney

Today, the National Archives of Australia (NAA) released a key selection of records of the Australian Cabinet and its National Security Committee from 2005.

The election in October 2004 had given the Howard government a commanding majority in the House of Representatives. From July 2005, it also obtained control of the Senate, a rare accomplishment for any Australian government.

Freedom from having to negotiate with the Senate cross bench on legislation emboldened the cabinet in several directions. Most significant was the government’s plan to initiate the comprehensive reform of Australia’s industrial relations laws.

Introduction on WorkChoices

In March 2005, Cabinet agreed with suggested reforms that would encourage a more direct relationship between employers and employees. The reform package approved by Cabinet sought to replace separate state and federal industrial relations systems with a unified national system. It was known as WorkChoices and, once passed, the act would come into effect on March 27 2006.

The new system dispensed with unfair dismissal laws for companies under a certain size. It also replaced the “no disadvantage test” (NDT), a provision that required workers be no worse off under new enterprise agreements as compared to any relevant law or award. This was superseded by a more limited safety net of five conditions that could be bargained away. The new system also restricted trade union power by limiting workers’ ability to strike and allowing them to bargain for conditions without collectivised representation.

The new industrial relations laws sparked a major campaign of resistance. Defence of employees’ rights was led by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). The ACTU’s “Your Rights at Work” campaign would play a significant role in the Howard government’s defeat in 2007.

Security and regional issues

Industrial relations reform was the key issue for the remainder of Howard’s fourth term. But security and regional issues continued to be important.

The tsunami that devastated countries in the Indian Ocean region in December 2004 killed 290,000 people and displaced more than one million. Howard attended a Special Leaders’ Meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on January 6 2005. There he promised that Australia would “do its bit” towards regional efforts to establish a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean.

Indonesia had a pressing need for reconstruction assistance. By providing such assistance, Australia was presented with a unique opportunity to improve a relationship with Indonesia soured by East Timor’s winning of independence in 2002.

Cabinet reached the decision in February 2005 to provide $1 billion for relief and rehabilitation, with a focus on Sumatra. Later, in June 2005, it agreed to recommendations by Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer to extend cooperation with Indonesia in defence and combating terrorism and people-smuggling.

2005 was a critical year for the extension of Australia’s commitment in Afghanistan. Australia had made a military contribution to US-led operations in Afghanistan in 2001-02 through the deployment of Special Air Service (SAS) elements. But in 2002, the SAS Task Force was withdrawn.

By 2004, with the Taliban resurgent, the US Central Command was requesting a further contribution of Australian special forces to the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom. Defence Minister Robert Hill advised Cabinet that a further Australian contribution in Afghanistan “may enhance our already strong relationships with the US and the United Kingdom, and develop our relationship with NATO”.

The National Security Committee agreed to Hill’s submission to deploy a Special Forces Task Group within the Combined Forces Command – Afghanistan. The SAS would stay in Afghanistan until 2021 in what became 20 rotations involving 3,000 personnel.

Australia’s close relationship with Japan had much to do with the Cabinet agreeing in 2005 to an Australian military contingent providing a secure environment for the Japanese Iraq Reconstruction and Support Group, which was operating in the Al Muthanna province in southern Iraq.

The increasing tempo of the insurgency in Iraq was highlighted in May 2005, when Australian engineer Douglas Wood was kidnapped. Howard insisted Australia would neither pull troops out of Iraq nor pay ransom. Six weeks later, Wood was rescued by Iraqi troops with US assistance.

By the following year, Iraq would be on the brink of collapse and the United States contemplating pulling out. As the Iraq War became increasingly unpopular, the Howard government would have to confront evidence of the payment of bribes to the Iraqi government by Australian wheat trader AWB.

Closer to home, Cabinet monitored the regional commitment in the Solomon Islands, its plan to bolster the effectiveness of government in Papua New Guinea and political instability in Fiji .

Climate change

In 2025, the Liberal and National parties agreed formally to abandon the net zero by 2050 climate target.

But 20 years earlier, in 2005, Downer and Environment minister Ian Campbell had warned Cabinet of the baleful consequences for Australia of climate change and the imperative for concerted international action.

The concerns raised by the two ministers contributed to Howard’s proposing an emissions trading scheme on the eve of the 2007 election. However, rather than ending the climate wars, this merely presaged their continuation without end

Read more:
Climate wars, carbon taxes and toppled leaders: the 30-year history of Australia’s climate response, in brief

WorkChoices brings Howard unstuck

Howard’s WorkChoices reforms of 2005 were hugely controversial, and continued to dog Liberal ministers for years afterwards. So potent were they that Howard not only lost the 2007 federal election, but his long-held seat of Bennelong too.

David Lee is a member of Australians for War Power Reform.

– ref. Cabinet papers 2005: WorkChoices, Afghanistan and climate change take centre stage – https://theconversation.com/cabinet-papers-2005-workchoices-afghanistan-and-climate-change-take-centre-stage-271205

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Barton, Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University

TV adventurer Bear Grylls has built a global reputation through his often unconventional and sometimes extreme survival feats to stay hydrated.

He has squeezed moisture from elephant dung, sipped the contents of camel intestines, downed yak eyeball juice and, perhaps most famously, drank his own urine.

If you’ve seen Grylls gulp down a mouthful of his own urine on camera, you might conclude it’s a legitimate survival hack. After all, Grylls used to be in the SAS.

In one episode, he tells viewers urinating on the ground would be wasting fluids, drinking your own urine is “safe”, and grimaces while taking a warm, salty mouthful.

Let’s see if this is fact or fiction.

Your urine is like a bin

Fluids make up about 60% of your body’s total weight. To maintain the correct balance of substances in this internal environment, your kidneys will continuously filter about 180 litres of blood fluid (plasma) every day.

Thankfully, we don’t pee out 180L of urine, because our kidneys “throw back” or reabsorb about 99% of what they filter back into the bloodstream.

The best way to imagine this process is by picturing a messy garage. If you tried to pick through the chaos and remove only the unwanted items, you’d be there all day. A more efficient method is to empty everything onto the driveway, keep what matters, toss the rest. Your kidneys use the same strategy.

They ignore the large cells and proteins, and filter the plasma portion of blood, which essentially empties the entire garage. They then selectively return the useful substances back to the bloodstream. What’s left behind becomes urine, the physiological bin.

Its final contents depend on a few factors, including your hydration status, metabolic activity and recent diet (including medications and supplements).

Typically, urine is about 95% water. The rest is:

• urea (about 2%, a byproduct of breaking down protein, which we’ll come back to shortly)
• creatinine (about 0.1%, a by-product of muscle metabolism)
• salts and proteins.

So does urine hydrate you? Is it safe?

The answer … yes and no. The answer isn’t always clear-cut because, as we saw above, what’s in your urine depends on what was in the garage.

If you are well hydrated and healthy, your urine will likely appear clear to straw-coloured, meaning it is mostly water (but will still contain urea, salts and other waste products). A drink of this “first pass” urine will indeed provide you with some degree of hydration.

But in a Grylls-type survival setting, you’d be losing water from your body via other means. For instance you’d lose about 450 millilitres a day via skin sweating and about 300mL a day via water vapour in your breath. If you were in a hot, humid environment, these volumes would increase significantly.

As a result, your kidneys would need to work harder to hold onto precious water and keep it in your blood. This will further concentrate the waste products, and what ends up in the bin will be pretty toxic to your body.

So by drinking urine in a survival setting, you’d be consuming higher concentrations of waste products, including urea, that your body explicitly intended to remove.

By drinking urine with higher concentrations of waste products (and/or if your kidneys are impaired), urea and other metabolic waste products can accumulate in your body. This can become toxic to cells, particularly those in the nervous system.

This can lead to symptoms such as vomiting, muscle cramps, itching and changes in consciousness. Without treatment, this toxic state (known as uraemia) can be life-threatening.

Is your urine sterile?

Toxins aren’t the only issue.

While urine leaving the kidneys is likely sterile, the rest of the urinary tract (bladder and urethra) isn’t. Our bodies are full of resident bacteria that maintain our health and support daily functions – when they stay in their usual place.

So when urine passes through the bladder and urethra, it can collect these bacteria. If you drink that urine, you are re-introducing those bacteria into parts of the body where they don’t belong – mainly the gastrointestinal tract.

In healthy conditions, stomach acid often kills many of these bacteria. But in a survival situation where dehydration, heat stress or poor nutrition can compromise the gut lining, the risk of those bacteria crossing into the bloodstream increases. This can set the stage for life-threatening infections.

That’s the last thing you need while lost in the bush.

In a nutshell

Please don’t rely on drinking your own urine if you’re lost in the bush. It’s basically the equivalent of drinking from the bin.

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. If you get lost in the bush, can you really survive by drinking your own pee? – https://theconversation.com/if-you-get-lost-in-the-bush-can-you-really-survive-by-drinking-your-own-pee-269086

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Connal McLean, PhD Candidate in Zoology, University of Otago

The New Zealand velvet worm’s reign as Bug of the Year is coming to an end, with voting now open for the 2026 competition.

This year, 21 nominees are vying for the crown in the competition’s fourth year. Nearly 100 bugs have so far featured, representing an incredible range of rich invertebrate diversity – from insects and arachnids to crustaceans, worms and molluscs.

The term “bug” was chosen deliberately. While not scientifically precise, it acts as an easily understood umbrella definition of Aotearoa New Zealand’s sometimes overlooked littlest animals.

As relatively large organisms ourselves, we humans tend to notice and celebrate larger and more charismatic fauna and flora, such as birds and trees. But they comprise only about 5% of New Zealand’s estimated 70,000 native land species.

The rest are small and often unseen, but absolutely vital. Aotearoa is home to over 20,000 insect species – and those are just the ones we’ve identified. Around 6,000 beetle species alone crawl, burrow and fly across our landscape.

Bugs are the tiny critters that run the world. Forming the base of many food webs and ecological interactions, they underpin much of our freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity.

They pollinate food crops, decompose waste and recycle nutrients. Owing to their fast response to environmental changes, they also serve as key indicators of environmental health.

And the nominees are …

This year’s nominees are the most diverse in the competition’s history.

There are repeat candidates, such as the endangered Canterbury knobbled weevil (Hadramphus tuberculatus), as well as new contenders such as the tadpole shrimp (Lepidurus apus viridis) which reproduces without males, or the double-spined stick insect (Micrarchus hystriculeus), which is an incredible master of camouflage.

Some nominees, such as the sapphire spider fly (Apsona muscaria) – a fly that eats spiders – are relatively unknown. And there are more familiar species such as the impressively large black tunnelweb spider (Porrhothele antipodiana).

Others are known for their outstanding features or behaviour, including the hellraiser mite (Neotrichozetes spinulosa), which looks like a walking pin-cushion, and a critically threatened avatar moth (Arctesthes avatar), named for the movie series with its themes of environmental destruction.

We even have the ancient and gigantic glow-in-the-dark North Auckland worm, and the Otago alpine cockroach (Celatoblatta quinquemaculata) that can survive being frozen solid.

There is also one of the world’s only marine insects, the intertidal caddisfly (Philanisus plebeius), whose nymph lives on the rocky shore.

Many are endemic and found only here. But like bugs and insect populations around the planet, they face mounting threats – described in one study as “death by a thousand cuts” – from climate change, agrichemical use and habitat loss or modification.

Aotearoa is not exempt from these threats, but many of our bugs are data-deficient, understudied, underappreciated and often out-competed for attention by other wildlife.

This summer, keep an eye out for the tiny things around you: the bugs that soar in our skies, scamper in our forests, settle in our rivers and lakes or even hide underground.

As humans continue to expand urban landscapes into natural ones, the Entomological Society of New Zealand hopes its Bug of the Year contest will help build public support and appreciation for more research into these unsung heroes of the natural world.

How to vote

Not sure what to vote for? Take the personality quiz to see which bug you most align with.

Voting closes on February 16 2026, with results announced on February 18.

Nominees are suggested by the public, so if your top pick isn’t featured this year, you can make recommendations by July 1 for the 2027 contest and beyond.

Connal McLean is affiliated with The Entomological Society of New Zealand and The Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust.

Jacqueline Theis receives funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (grant number UOWX2101). She is affiliated with the Entomological Society of New Zealand.

– ref. Are you a hellraiser mite or a knobbled weevil? Take the quiz and vote for NZ’s Bug of the Year – https://theconversation.com/are-you-a-hellraiser-mite-or-a-knobbled-weevil-take-the-quiz-and-vote-for-nzs-bug-of-the-year-269260

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Naduni Madhavika, Doctoral Researcher, Social Sustainability in Tourism, University of Tasmania

If they haven’t already, many Australians will soon head off for summer holidays. But behind every smooth check-in, cocktail or airport gate smile is one of more than an estimated 270 million tourism workers – about 8.2% of the global workforce.

These workers – cleaners, cooks, waiters, porters and cabin crew – often labour around the clock to make holidays feel effortless for everyone else. But too often there’s a dark reality hiding behind this idyllic picture.

Our team at the University of Tasmania specialises in researching the ways worker exploitation and modern slavery can appear in the tourism industry.

Drawing on our ongoing research, here are some of the places hidden exploitation can surface in tourism, and steps you can take to help ensure you have an ethical summer holiday.

The invisible hands behind hotel luxury

Hotel guests love coming back to an immaculate, freshly made-up hotel room. But meeting that expectation often relies on housekeepers working long, demanding shifts, sometimes with unjust wages or harassment.

Global hotel chains often struggle to monitor workplace standards across different countries with different laws and standards.

Australian cases reveal how exploitation can stay invisible. For example, in 2017, a Sydney cleaning company was fined A$447,300 for exploiting 51 workers. In its ruling, the Federal Court said some workers were treated as “slaves”.

One modern slavery expert interviewed in our research recalled a “green” hotel where staff appeared to work extreme hours without overtime, suggesting eco-labels can mask deeper exploitation.

Migrant workforce in tourism

Tourism relies heavily on migrant workers – from international students to backpackers on working holiday visas.

While they help fill key labour shortages, these workers often lack secure work or protections, and visa status can shape whether they can speak up about unfair treatment.

A 2018 study found about a third of backpackers, international students and other temporary migrants in Australia earned about half the casual minimum wage.

A separate 2024 report from not-for-profit community legal centre the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre highlighted the similar risks Pacific Islander workers face working in Australia as part of the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) visa scheme – low pay, insecure jobs and limited protection.

These concerns are reflected in latest official data, with modern slavery reports to the 1800 FREEDOM hotline run by NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner surging by 116% in the past financial year.

Around half of these reports involved temporary migrant workers.

When kitchen heat turns harmful

Chefs and other kitchen staff are a core part of tourism’s workforce, including many who relocate to work in seasonal roles. But kitchens can be a hotspot for harm, with many staff working long, pressured shifts and stressful working conditions.

A survey by United Kingdom-based non-profit The Burnt Chef Project found four out of five hospitality workers had faced a mental health issue during their career.

A separate recent study of chefs in Australia and New Zealand found burnout, financial hardship and unsafe conditions were worryingly prevalent in the hospitality industry.

Out of sight, online exploitation rises

Interviewees in our ongoing research expressed serious concerns about child exploitation linked to tourism. This includes sexual exploitation, child labour, orphanage tourism, child trafficking and enforced begging.

It also includes exploitation arising from forced interactions with volunteers that undermine children’s privacy and increase the risk of physical and sexual abuse.

These risks are highest in destinations where tourism booms alongside poverty and weak child protection systems.

Non-profit ECPAT International warns child sexual exploitation in tourism remains widespread and is increasingly arranged online.

How to ensure an ethical holiday

There are a few easy steps to help make sure your holiday doesn’t unknowingly fuel worker exploitation in tourism.

1. Do some research

Before booking, spend some time checking online reviews, such as on TripAdvisor, booking websites, Google reviews or on social media.

Travellers often flag poor staff treatment, unsafe conditions, or exploitative practices long before they make headlines. Repeated complaints, ultra-cheap prices or unethical “vibes” are all red flags.

2. Choose ethical community experiences

Engage in experiences led by locals – such as workshops, cooking sessions, storytelling or guided walks – rather than activities that treat communities as exhibits.

Avoid orphanage tourism, which is strongly linked to child exploitation.

And steer clear of activities offering unsupervised access to children, paid photos, or short-term “teaching” by unqualified visitors. Choose community-run, skill-based programs instead.

3. Ask simple questions.

If in doubt, ask simple questions such as:

Do guides and drivers get regular breaks and rest days?

Are staff hired transparently and paid a full wage, not just tips?

Do you have a child-protection or responsible-tourism policy?

Do staff have formal contracts, and do they receive overtime-pay?

Companies that treat workers well should be able to answer these questions confidently.

4. Report what you see

Know the signs of exploitation: restricted movement, fearfulness, no ID, few belongings, unsuitable clothing or someone being closely controlled. If something feels off, trust your instincts.

If you have concerns when travelling in Australia, you can report them through the Australian Federal Police. If a child is in danger, immediately contact local police.

If travelling internationally, you can also report to local authorities, child helplines or ethical tourism hotlines. Your report may protect someone who cannot speak up. Behind every holiday are real people who deserve dignity and visibility.

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

Workers in Australia can contact the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94 for issues of pay and conditions.

If you are experiencing workplace bullying or harassment, you can contact the Fair Work Commission on 1300 799 675.

Naduni Madhavika is a full-time PhD candidate at the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Australia. She is a recipient of the Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship, a competitive funding initiative of the Australian Government that supports domestic and international candidates undertaking higher degrees by research (HDR).
She is also a member of the Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery (HTMS) Research Network, an academic initiative established by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) under the Department of Home Affairs, Australian Government, Canberra.

Balkrushna Potdar is a Lecturer in Marketing at the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Australia. He is an active member of the Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery (HTMS) Research Network, an initiative established by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) under the Department of Home Affairs, Australian Government, Canberra.

Mansi Mansi and Rakesh Pandey 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. Worker exploitation can hide in plain sight. Here’s how to ensure an ethical summer holiday – https://theconversation.com/worker-exploitation-can-hide-in-plain-sight-heres-how-to-ensure-an-ethical-summer-holiday-270077

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Garritt C. Van Dyk, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Waikato

We all scream for ice-cream, especially as temperatures soar in the summer. Ancient civilisations had the same desire for a cold, sweet treat to cope with heat waves.

There are plenty of contenders claiming credit for the first frozen desserts, from Italy and France in the 17th century to China in the first century.

But before you can make ice-cream, you need a reliable source of ice. The technology to make and store ice was originally developed in Persia (modern-day Iran) in 550 BCE.

Ancient ice makers

These ancient Persians built large stone beehive shaped structures called yakhchal (“ice pit”). They were constructed in the desert, with deep, insulated subterranean storage, making it possible to store ice all year.

High domes pulled hot air up and out, and wind catchers funnelled cooler air into the base. The yakhchal was not just an ancient ice house, it was also an ice maker.

Canals filled shallow ponds, shaded from the sun, with fresh water during the winter. Overnight temperatures dropped, and in the dry desert air the water would cool through evaporation.

Some yakhchals have survived centuries of desert erosion, and are found across Iran in areas where it is cold enough to produce ice in the winter, or close to mountains where ice could be harvested.

A study of one 400-year-old yakhchal, still standing in Meybod, estimated its annual production at 50 cubic metres – about 3 million ice cubes.

Early frozen desserts

Stored ice was used to make frozen desserts such as fruit sorbets, sharbats, and faloudeh (frozen rosewater and vermicelli noodles) sweetened with honey syrup.

After the Arab conquest of Persia circa 650 CE, the Persian method for ice production and storage spread across the Middle East.

The new technology was used to freeze milk and sugar mixed with salep flour (powdered orchid root) and mastic (dried sap from an evergreen bush) to make stretchy forms of ice-cream in Syria, like booza and bastani, in Persia.

A frozen dessert, sushan, (literally “crispy mountain”) was also developed in China in this period, during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Goat’s milk curd was melted, strained and poured into metal moulds shaped like mountains.

The final texture was described by poet Wang Lingran as being somewhere between a liquid and a solid, melting in his mouth.

Discovering the science of freezing

Freezing techniques changed when a popular book on “natural magic” – meaning everything from natural science to astrology and alchemy – was first published by Giambattista della Porta in Naples in 1558.

Magia Naturalis included instructions on how saltpetre (potassium nitrate) could be added to ice to rapidly chill wine for summer feasts:

cast snow into a wooden vessel, and strew into it Salt-peter, powdred, or the cleansing of Salt-peter, called vulgarly Salazzo. Turn the Vial in the snow, and it will congeal by degrees.

This method meant it was much easier to freeze liquids, because potassium nitrate dissolved in water draws heat out of the surrounding environment.

Experiments in the 17th century revealed a similar reaction occurs with mixture of ordinary salt, water and ice. Smaller quantities of stored ice could now be used to freeze and chill mixtures to create frozen desserts on demand.

This technology was combined with supplies of cheaper sugar sourced from European plantations in the Caribbean. Sugar is an important element of frozen desserts because it keeps mixtures from freezing into impenetrable ice blocks.

France v Italy in the claim for first ice-cream

Two claims for the “first” ice-cream recipes emerge at almost the same time in France and Italy in the 1690s.

Earlier attempts produced granular, slushy confections. Recipes that produced results we would recognise today were introduced by men who managed households for noble patrons.

Alberto Latini, working for Cardinal Barberini (nephew of Pope Urban VIII), had access to expensive and novel ingredients, like chocolate and tomatoes. His recipe for a new “milk sorbet” aligned with the cutting edge cooking methods in the 1694 edition of his book, Lo Scalco alla Moderna (The Modern Steward).

This recipe used milk, sugar, water and candied fruits, and is considered a precursor to Italian gelato.

The other contender for first ice-cream is Nicolas Audiger, who had worked for Jean-Baptiste Colbert, chief minister to Louis XIV, who helped prepare feasts at Versailles.

He published a handbook on running noble households, La maison réglée, in 1692 with numerous recipes for fruit sorbets, and one for ice-cream sweetened with sugar and flavoured with orange blossom water.

While both claims have merit, Audiger’s recipe included detailed descriptions of the techniques for stirring and scraping to ensuring a better texture and even distribution of sugar throughout the mixture. He wrote his volume after spending 18 months in Italy, so he probably learned Italian techniques and refined them, leading to the creamy delights we now enjoy.

The ice-cream paradox?

In the northeastern United States, the original Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream factory in Vermont used to run a promotion where prices changed as the weather got colder. As temperatures dropped below freezing, ice-cream cones got cheaper.

This might lead you to think that people in the hottest climates eat more ice-cream, but the highest per capita consumption in the world is in Aotearoa New Zealand, followed by the US and Australia. The next four countries are famous for being cold: Finland, Sweden, Canada and Denmark.

Maybe the answer to this apparent paradox is that when it is hot you need ice-cream to cool you down, and when you are cold and miserable you need it to cheer you up.

Garritt Van Dyk has received funding from the Getty Research Institute.

– ref. Inside scoop: the 2,500-year history of ice-cream – https://theconversation.com/inside-scoop-the-2-500-year-history-of-ice-cream-270156