Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Masafumi Monden, Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Sydney

Princess Aiko, the only child of Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, came of age last month as she turned 20. Despite her royal lineage, Aiko may never ascend to the throne.

Japanese consistently tell poll after poll they would be happy with a female emperor or an emperor descended from the female line. But Japanese imperial household law forbids this – and despite succession in the male line hanging by a thread, it doesn’t look like it’s changing anytime soon.

A history of female emporers

The Kōshitsu tenpan 皇室典範 (or imperial household law) only allows men to ascend to the throne. But this law prohibiting female emperors dates back only to the Meiji period in 1889 when Japan had reopened to the West and modelled its new government on Prussia, which had banned emperors of female descent.

Before then, Japan was no stranger to female emperors. The very first ruler of Japan we know by name was the Shamaness-Queen Himiko in the third century. She brought peace to Japan after a long period of war, dispatched several diplomatic missions to China and, according to Chinese sources, was even succeeded by another female ruler.

After vanishing from Japanese history for centuries, Himiko’s memory is now experiencing something of a golden age, reappearing in everything from manga to mascots.

Since Himiko, at least eight women have reigned as emperor in Japan. The first was in the year 592; the last to occupy the throne was Go-Sakuramachi, who reigned from 1762 to 1771.

Reform proposals don’t go far enough

In 2005, the modern ban on female succession looked likely to be scrapped under then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

But while the debate was actually underway in the Diet (Japan’s parliament), the news broke that Prince Akishino – Naruhito’s younger brother – and Princess Akishino were expecting another child.

Reform ground to a halt. And when Prince Hisahito was born, becoming the first new male member of the imperial family in nearly 41 years, the whole debate was placed on the back burner.

But the problem hasn’t gone away. No more male babies have been born since, and every time a female member of the imperial family marries a commoner, they lose their royal status. The former princess Mako, the elder daughter of Prince and Princess Akishino, was the last to do so. She’s just moved to New York with her husband, Kei Komuro, a law clark.

In December, a Japanese government panel put forward two proposals to address the slowly dwindling number of male heirs to the throne:

• allow princesses who marry commoners, like Mako, to retain their status as working members of the royal family

• allow males from Japan’s old princely families (who had lost all status after the second world war) to be adopted into the imperial family.

These are only proposals, and it’s anyone’s guess whether they will be taken forward. Even if they are, there are pitfalls.

Many of these former princely families, for example, have themselves died out since the war. Plus, there is a strong argument the Constitution (which forbids discrimination on the basis of family origin) makes it impossible to restore royal status to the few princely families that remain.

And even if reforms are put in place to allow women in the imperial family to retain their royal status when marrying out, the government is not contemplating granting such status to their spouses or children. Doing so could pave the way for female monarchs or female-line emperors, which traditionalists staunchly oppose.

Some die-hard traditionalists even claim the existence of a special Imperial “Y” chromosome carried generation after generation in the male line dating from the first emperor, Jimmu, around 700 BC. Allowing a child of Aiko’s to ascend to the throne would sever this magic thread and raise questions about the legitimacy of the imperial family, they argue.

Revisiting the ban on female succession, meanwhile, has not been broached again since 2005.

What the public thinks

Princess Aiko is striking a more restrained and personal note. Rather than spending a large amount of money on a new tiara during her recent coming of age ceremonies in December, she chose to wear an old one belonging to her aunt, Sayako.

Borrowing the old tiara is said to have been Princess Aiko’s idea, given the economic hardship of the Japanese people amid the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Crown Prince Akishino, now second in line to the throne after his brother, is less popular in the public eye. Akishino’s spending of 4.3 billion yen (over A$50 million) on home renovations, together with the scandal around his daughter Mako’s marriage to Komuro were not well-received.

This has contributed to a swing in public sentiment on the idea of female succession. A recent survey showed 85% of Japanese were in favour of a female emperor and more than 80% would actually rather Princess Aiko be the next emperor.

This is a huge shift since the scant 35% of people who supported the idea of a female emperor when a similar survey was conducted in 1999.

Keeping the ban on female descent is increasingly difficult to justify. Japan ranked 120th out of 156 countries in the World Economic Forum’s global gender gap report in 2021, worst among the G-7 countries. Despite legislation being passed in 2018 to promote female political representation, recent elections in the Diet Lower House actually saw female representation fall, and there are only three women in Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s 20-member cabinet.

This coming spring, young Prince Hisahito starts high school. As the system now stands, he can’t make any choices about the rest of his own life – regardless of what he and his cousin Princess Aiko may actually want, or their nation prefer.

Masafumi Monden 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. With male imperial descendants dwindling, will Japan’s leaders finally accept a female emperor? – https://theconversation.com/with-male-imperial-descendants-dwindling-will-japans-leaders-finally-accept-a-female-emperor-174867

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alice Gorman, Associate Professor in Archaeology and Space Studies, Flinders University

In a few weeks’ time, a rocket launched in 2015 is expected to crash into the Moon. The fast-moving piece of space junk is the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which hoisted the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite off our planet. It has been chaotically looping around Earth and the Moon ever since.

Asteroid-hunter Bill Gray has been keeping tabs on the 4-tonne booster since its launch. This month he realised his orbit-tracking software projected the booster will slam into the lunar surface on March 4, moving at more than 9,000 kilometres per hour.

The booster is tumbling wildly as it travels, which adds some uncertainty to the timing and location of the predicted impact. It is likely to occur on the far side of the Moon, so it won’t be visible from Earth.

Some astronomers say the collision is “not a big deal”, but to a space archaeologist like me it’s quite exciting. It will be the Moon’s newest archaeological site, joining more than 100 other locations that document human activity on the Moon and in cislunar space.

A history of crash landing on the Moon

The impact will leave a new crater on the dark side of the Moon.

The very first human-made artefact to make contact with the Moon was the Soviet Luna 2 in 1959 – an extraordinary feat, as it was only two years after the launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite.

The mission consisted of a rocket, a probe, and three “bombs”. One released a cloud of sodium gas to enable the crash to be seen from Earth. The USSR didn’t want the groundbreaking mission to be called a hoax.

The other two “bombs” were spheres of pentagonal medallions inscribed with the date and Soviet symbols. If they exploded as planned, they would have scattered 144 medallions over the lunar surface.

Read more:
Tardigrades: we’re now polluting the moon with near indestructible little creatures

Other crashes have been missions gone wrong, like the Israeli Beresheet lander in 2019. This was especially controversial as the lander carried a secret cargo of dried tardigrades, tiny creatures that could be revived in the presence of water.

Various spacecraft have naturally decayed and fallen out of orbit, like the Japanese relay satellite Okina in 2009. Others have been intentionally crashed at the end of their mission life.

The NASA Ebb and Flow spacecraft were deliberately crashed into the lunar south pole in 2012, specifically to avoid any risk of damaging the Apollo landing sites. Impacting at a speed of 6,000km per hour, they left craters 6 metres across.

Many crashes have been used to collect seismic data. Observations from the controlled impact of Saturn third-stage boosters and ascent modules from the Apollo missions were particularly valuable, as timing, location and impact energy were known.

Environmental impacts

The Falcon 9 rocket stage is significantly larger than the tiny Ebb and Flow spacecraft and is travelling faster. The crash will make a much larger crater, which will kick up chunks of rock and dust. On this airless world, the dust could travel a fair way before settling down.

The only other spacecraft on the Moon’s far side are the US Ranger 4 probe, which crashed in 1962, and China’s Chang-e 4 lander and Yutu-2 rover. Yutu-2 is still trundling along the lunar surface on its six wheels.

Yutu’s latest results show that “soil” on the far side may be stickier than the near side, and there is a higher density of small craters.

The rocket stage could potentially cause damage to these historic spacecraft, if it lands on or near them. However, this is statistically unlikely. Current predictions have it landing in Hertzsprung crater, a long way from the Aitken basin where the Chinese spacecraft are operating.

Although there are no cameras to observe the crash, at some point NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is likely to pass over and image the impact point.

We’ll learn something about the geology of the location from the colour differences and distribution of the ejected material. It’s an opportunity to learn more about the Moon’s mysterious far side.

Changing attitudes to space junk

In the earlier Space Age, little thought was given to leaving what many call “trash” on the lunar surface.

The Moon is sometimes considered a “dead” world because it has no life. The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Planetary Protection Policy does not require any special precautions for lunar activities.

But there is a growing awareness the Moon has distinct environmental values of its own. The Declaration of the Rights of the Moon, created by a group of independent researchers, states the Moon has “the right to exist, persist and continue its vital cycles unaltered, unharmed and unpolluted by human beings”.

Canadian researchers Eytan Tepper and Christopher Whitehead have suggested the Moon could be protected by giving it legal personhood, much like the Whanganui river in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Read more:
Can the Moon be a person? As lunar mining looms, a change of perspective could protect Earth’s ancient companion

The Moon is struck by meteors all the time. In many ways, the Falcon 9 impact will be just another one. What makes it interesting is how it acts as a litmus test for changing public opinions about our responsibilities to the space environment.

The public is looking for accountability from space agencies and private corporations. As plans for lunar mining and habitation accelerate, hopefully it’s a message that is ready to be heard.

Alice Gorman is a Vice-Chair of the Global Expert Group on Sustainable Lunar Activity and a co-author of the Declaration of the Rights of the Moon.

– ref. A rogue rocket is on course to crash into the Moon. It won’t be the first – https://theconversation.com/a-rogue-rocket-is-on-course-to-crash-into-the-moon-it-wont-be-the-first-175834

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriella Edelstein, Lecturer in English, University of Newcastle

Review: The Museum of Modern Love, directed by by Timothy Jones.

When was the last time you looked at a stranger in the eyes? Really looked, for an uncomfortably long period of time, recognising something about them and yourself in the process? Probably not recently. In a pandemic world it is becoming harder – if not impossible – to connect with other people on such an intimate, vulnerable level.

The Museum of Modern Love, adapted by Tom Holloway from Heather Rose’s Stella Prize winning novel, explores what it means to gaze deeply at another person and recognise their shared humanity.

The play centres on a composer Arky Levin (Julian Garner) and his unfathomable choice not to visit, sit with and look at his wife Lydia (Tara Morice) who is dying in a nursing home.

Like his namesake Konstantin Levin from Anna Karenina, Arky needs to have a divine moment of transcendence to find the courage to connect to his beloved.

While Konstantin’s realisation is religious in nature, Arky’s moment of truth comes in the form of performance art.

Read more:
Exquisite prose, with rare and subtle insight

The artist is present

Rose took inspiration from the Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović’s epic endurance work The Artist is Present (2010).

Held in New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Abramović sat in a chair for eight hours a day for 75 days. As she sat, strangers could choose to sit and stare into the artist’s eyes for as long as they liked. But they could not speak, nor touch.

Over the 75 days, 1,545 people sat in front of 850,000 spectators.

For the sitters, it was reportedly a sublime moment of recognition: they laughed, they cried and they were transformed through the simple act of maintaining eye contact with Abramović.

Holloway’s The Museum of Modern Love returns to this performance artwork to make a moving case for the importance of not just actively engaging with art, but actively engaging with each other.

Read more:
The mystical stillness of Marina Abramovic in Sydney

Who watches the watchers?

Much of the play is set in MoMA. As the audience in Sydney’s Seymour Centre, we watch the art gallery patrons watch Abramović’s sitters (like Godot, we never see Abramović herself). The cast also joins us in this watching: when not performing they sit on the stage’s edges, gazing on the action within.

At times, the production is at risk of becoming a play about wealthy New Yorkers having existential crises. It is at its best not when Arky is at its centre, but when the MoMA attendees stand around discussing Abramović.

Holloway captures those sorts of lovely, absurd conversations you might hear in an art gallery: about gaze as desire, loneliness, the value of art in society and that eternal question: “is this even art?”

At some points, these conversations stretch the limits of credulity. In real life, no one speaks like they are in a novel about art. But to hear this sort of navel-gazing discourse is why we engage with art in the first place: to imagine the impossible.

While the characters talk, their faces are projected in close-up at the back of the stage, moving in slow motion, as though they are before Abramović. This draws our attention to the effect (and sometimes awkwardness) of watching: exactly what the theatre audience was there to do.

Behold

Theatre is a uniquely predisposed artform to have audiences question what it means to watch and look.

The word “theatre” derives from the Ancient Greek theasthai, which means, in its most simple definition, “to behold”. But more than this: theasthai suggests gazing at something with intent and acknowledging what you’re looking at can have an emotional effect upon you.

Going to the theatre is never a passive act. An audience should expect to be moved, even transformed by what they are watching.

During The Museum of Modern Love, there was laughter, sighing, even an audible “eugh!” of recognition from one audience member when a character revealed she is a PhD student. The performance was a powerful reminder of the civic importance of the performing arts in bringing people together for a few hours of beholding, of contact.

The Museum of Modern Love wants to draw our attention to the power, and purpose, of performance. As one character asks: “what good is art without the people to be moved by it?”

It is a particularly pertinent question in our post-pandemic world.

The Museum of Modern Love plays at The Seymour Centre as part of the Sydney Festival until January 30.

Gabriella Edelstein 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. The Museum of Modern Love reminds us to engage with art – and each other – https://theconversation.com/the-museum-of-modern-love-reminds-us-to-engage-with-art-and-each-other-173413

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isabella Alexander, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney

This week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the federal government had “freed the Aboriginal flag for Australians”.

After an extensive social media campaign to #Freetheflag, the federal government has purchased the copyright from Harold Thomas, the Luritja artist who created it more than 50 years ago. The deal reportedly cost $20 million.

Read more:
Don’t say the Aboriginal flag was ‘freed’ – it belongs to us, not the Commonwealth

The Aboriginal flag has long been a symbol of resistance and unity for Indigenous people in Australia. Although the copyright settlement is a practical solution to a controversial problem, not everybody is pleased the federal government now owns the exclusive rights to reproduce the Aboriginal flag.

Has it really been freed?

A fight to #FreetheFlag

Controversy over the flag erupted in June 2019. Clothing the Gaps, an Aboriginal-owned-and-led business, received cease and desist letters from a non-Indigenous company, WAM Clothing, demanding it stop using the Aboriginal flag on its clothing.

As the then-copyright owner, Thomas had granted WAM Clothing exclusive rights for use of the flag on its clothing. This meant anyone else wanting to put the flag on clothing – even non-commercially – had to get permission from the company.

Clothing the Gaps started a petition to #Freetheflag, which gathered more than 165,000 signatures and high-profile supporters from across Australia.

Community anger grew when the AFL, NRL and Indigenous community groups were also asked to pay for using the flag, and in some cases, threatened with legal action.

In September 2020, a Senate inquiry began examining the flag’s copyright and licensing arrangements. In the meantime, Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt was quietly negotiating with Thomas to purchase the flag’s copyright.

Then in the lead-up to Australia Day this week, Morrison announced the flag was now “freely available for public use”.

What’s in the agreement?

The exact details of the agreement are confidential but, according to the government, the agreement transfers the Aboriginal flag’s copyright to the Commonwealth. The agreement also includes:

• all future royalties the Commonwealth receives from sale of the flag will be put towards the ongoing work of NAIDOC (the details of this have yet to be seen)

• an annual $100,000 scholarship in Thomas’ honour for Indigenous students to develop Indigenous governance and leadership

• an online history and education portal for the flag.

To ensure Aboriginal flags continue to be manufactured in Australia, the current manufacturers, Carroll and Richardson Flagworld, will remain the exclusive licensed manufacturers and providers of Aboriginal flags and bunting.

But this only covers commercial productions – individuals are free to make their own flags for personal use.

Read more:
How easy would it be to ‘free’ the Aboriginal flag?

Thomas still has rights

Under the terms of the copyright assignment, Thomas retains moral rights over the flag.

This means he still has the right to be identified and named as the creator of the work, can stop someone else being wrongly identified as the creator of the work, and can stop the work from being subjected to derogatory treatment, which means any act which is harmful to the creator’s reputation.

Thomas will also use $2 million to establish a not-for-profit body to support the flag’s legacy.

Just like the national flag

The flag will now be managed in the same way as the Australian national flag.

This means it will be free for anyone to use it in any medium and for any purpose (except for making and selling flags commercially). You can place copies on clothing, sportsgrounds and articles, and you can use the flag in any medium, such as on websites or in artworks, including having it tattooed on your body.

However, it is recommended to follow the usual protocols for respectful use of the flag.

How free is the flag?

Despite the new provisions, some Indigenous people are unhappy control of the flag is now in the hands of the federal government rather than an Indigenous-led body.

Others have pointed out that if the flag is “free” for anyone to use, this is likely to benefit large corporations and off-shore manufacturers using cheap labour to make clothing and products featuring the flag, rather than Indigenous-owned enterprises.

It is possible the flag is now even more free than the government suggests. As academic David Brennan points out, under the Copyright Act 1968, if the Commonwealth owns copyright in an artistic work, then it expires 50 years after the calendar year in which the work was made. This contrasts with the usual term of protection for artistic works, which is the life of the author and 70 years thereafter.

If this is correct, it would mean that copyright in the flag (which Thomas created in 1971) actually expired on January 1, 2022, and the flag is now in the public domain. This would throw into question the validity of the exclusive licence to Flagworld and the government’s ability to dispose of royalties.

It would also mean Thomas’ moral rights are extinguished, as they last only as long as the copyright does.

Without seeing the terms of the agreement, which are commercial-in-confidence, we cannot be certain. Clarification from the government would be welcome.

A final twist

Before he transferred copyright, Thomas says he created a digital representation of the flag, and minted it as a non-fungible token (NFT).

NFTs are digital certificates secured with blockchain technology, which authenticate a claim of ownership to a digital asset. They have taken off in the art world, and are bought and sold for millions of dollars.

But all they can do is provide evidence of authenticity for a specific digital file. They do not afford any other rights, such as copyright, and many find the high prices they command to be baffling. Others are concerned by their enormous carbon footprints. Thomas states he will hold the NFT “on an ongoing basis, on behalf of Indigenous communities”.

Thomas professes himself happy with the outcome, stating “the flag will remain, not as a symbol of struggle, but as a symbol of pride and unity”.

However, the thing about flags is their meaning is made by those who wave them, rather than simply by those who create them.

Isabella Alexander receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. The Aboriginal flag is now ‘freely available for public use’. What does this mean from a legal standpoint? – https://theconversation.com/the-aboriginal-flag-is-now-freely-available-for-public-use-what-does-this-mean-from-a-legal-standpoint-175626

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthea Lindquist, Obstetrician and Perinatal Epidemiologist, The University of Melbourne

Pregnant women who previously birthed by caesarean section are presented with a choice: whether to try for a vaginal birth, or book in for a repeat caesar.

Those mulling over a vaginal birth are counselled at length about the risk of a rare but nasty outcome – the uterus rupturing while labour is in full flight.

But new research looking at 130,000 births over five years has uncovered an increased risk of another outcome women deserve information about: extensive tearing around the vaginal region during birth.

Our new study, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, hones in on the risk of vaginal trauma for those who birth vaginally after a prior caesarean. This kind of birth trauma relates to significant injury to a woman’s perineum, the important region between the vagina and anus. The perineum anchors many pelvic floor muscles that help control the bladder and bowels.

We defined serious birth injury as a tear in the perineum that extends into the anal sphincter – the delicate ring of muscle that helps us control our bowels. Damage to this muscle is called a third-degree perineal tear.

Read more:
Explainer: vaginal birth after caesarean

What we studied

The study looked at 130,000 births in Victoria and compared the risk of a third-degree perinatal tear among first-time mums with those who birth vaginally after a prior caesarean (sometimes referred to as a VBAC). In our study, vaginal birth included women birthed without any medical assistance, and births by forceps or the ventouse (vacuum birth). Anything but birth by caesarean.

The results were clear: a vaginal birth after a previous caesarean increases the chance of significant vaginal trauma (third-degree tear) by 21% (albeit from a low baseline rate).

A potential reason for this increased risk might include a mismatch between a uterus that has birthed before and a perineum that has not. If this is the case, the labour progresses quickly, which does not allow enough time for the perineum to stretch naturally. However, the real reason for this risk is unknown and further research is needed.

Lifelong impacts

Once a vaginal birth injury occurs, the tears are immediately repaired by obstetricians. Many women heal fully – but some who sustain a third-degree tear during birth develop distressing issues that never disappear, despite expert care, including from specialist physiotherapists.

Symptoms can include an ongoing dragging sensation in the pelvic floor, or true prolapse of the vaginal walls. Sometimes, coughing or sneezing can cause urine leakage. And for some, jogging becomes too hard due to leaking of urine and pelvic discomfort. Others might suffer from reduced faecal control and even the odd episode of faecal soiling. Sex can be painful.

This doesn’t mean women shouldn’t consider VBAC

This increased risk of injury does not make it unsafe for women who have had a caesarean before to try for a vaginal birth. But our results should be incorporated into counselling of these women about their choices.

Since the risk of vaginal birth injury including the anal sphincter sits at around 5-7% in Victoria for first-time mothers, the increase of 21% raises the overall likelihood to around 6–8.5%. It’s a modest rise that will bother some, but not others.

Still, women deserve to be given this information so they can judge for themselves whether it worries them enough to ask for a repeat caesarean, or try for a vaginal birth.

Read more:
Mothers need better care to reduce post-traumatic stress after childbirth

Counselling is not just about cautioning women of the risks. As midwives and obstetricians, we talk with these women about what will happen when they go into labour, when to come into hospital, and what their chance (and definition) of “successful” vaginal birth might be.

We also mention the most enticing advantage for those whose destiny is an uncomplicated vaginal birth – they sidestep another caesar. Often, this means a shorter recovery time and improved likelihood of breastfeeding.

After these discussions, some women will feel the very small risk of serious vaginal trauma (or uterine rupture) is one well worth taking and opt to try for a vaginal birth. Others will opt for the certainty of a repeat caesarean.

Women deserve full support in their birth choices. And they deserve to be fully informed about possible risks. It’s time we broaden our discussions with women planning a vaginal birth after caesarean section to include the increased risk of vaginal birth trauma.

Anthea Lindquist receives salary and project funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. Her current funding (Ideas grant funding) is not related to this project.

Stephen Tong receives salary and grant funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC). His NHMRC funding is not related to this project (aside from salary support). Stephen authored The Birth Book and he receives royalties from sales.

– ref. Vaginal birth after caesarean increases the risk of serious perineal tear by 20%, our large-scale review shows – https://theconversation.com/vaginal-birth-after-caesarean-increases-the-risk-of-serious-perineal-tear-by-20-our-large-scale-review-shows-173249

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dora Marinova, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University

Meat alternatives are suddenly everywhere, from burger joints to supermarket shelves to restaurant-grade food.

One problem? For men, in particular, there is often a visceral attachment to slaughter-derived meat. This could pose a stumbling block for an industry worth an estimated $A9.4 billion globally in 2020 and seeing significant growth, with grocery sales in Australia up by 46% in 2020.

Our new research is based on interviews with 36 men who recently went to vegan restaurants in Sydney and tried a plant-based burger. We found none of these men, who usually eat animal meat four to five times a week or more, were likely to include plant-based alternatives in their diets permanently.

But why? That’s the interesting part. Many of our interviewees made a strong link between animal meat and their own masculinity. “I don’t want to end up with my friends laughing at me over a plant-based burger,” one said. Another told us plant-based burgers were “ruining [his] reputation as a man”. A third said he felt guilty choosing plant-based burgers: “I was feeling I was sacrificing my manhood, my masculinity. It’s even worse when you are kind of forced to do it as everyone around is doing it. There is no other option.”

Why do some men react so strongly to meat alternatives?

We interviewed men aged 18-40, as these are the generations most likely to embrace flexitarianism (meat-reduction) and include more plant-based foods. That’s why it was surprising to see the strength of their negativity.

We believe two psychological responses are at work:

• The men we interviewed saw the idea of a vegan-only menu as a blow to their freedom to choose, regardless of whether they enjoyed the burger. They were determined to restore their freedom. This is in line with the idea of psychological reactance, which suggests people will react very strongly to perceived loss of freedoms

• on the other hand, the men we interviewed wanted to impress or please their girlfriends or partners who had taken them to the restaurant. This is linked to impression management theory, which describes how we strive to be in control of how others see us. Earlier research has shown men, in particular, can buy into eating larger and unhealthy meals as part of impression management. Our interviewees had to juggle how their partner saw them as well as how their friends and other men would see their choices.

What happens when these two theories collide? You get themes emerging like these:

• focusing on the novelty of a vegan restaurant. One 18 year old told us: “You don’t need to be a vegan to go and try a veggie burger. I am not a vegan, but everyone is talking about [these burgers]. I am not even kidding, they are so popular.” A 29 year old said: “We used to go out and eat steaks and burgers in pubs and steakhouses […] now we are mingling with the veggie burger eaters. Strange world!”

• protecting masculinity through food choice. A 22 year old told us: “Friends nowadays can trace you everywhere. I don’t want to end up with my friends laughing at me over a plant-based burger,” while a 19 year old said he had to “guard what [my girlfriend] is saying in front of my male friends. I think she is smart enough and understands the implications of this. We do have a vegan friend, and everybody is constantly fooling him and it’s very annoying to think that I can get in his place with my vegetarian burger”

• scepticism over the taste of the plant-based burgers. One 32 year old told us it was “tasteless for me […] not even close to real meat. You could have it once but that’s it”

• concerns over the health of plant-based burgers. A 21 year old told us plant-based burgers were not better for health compared to meat. “They are ultra-processed imitations,” he said.

Read more:
Diners more likely to choose a vegetarian option when 75% of the menu is meat-free – new research

Why does this matter?

The emergence of this new industry is a clear response to urgent calls to change our current food systems due to the heavy environmental footprint of animals bred for meat, destruction of pristine habitat to create more fields, as well as animal welfare concerns. Our reliance on meat also affects our health, both on an individual and population level. New alternatives to animal-sourced meat represent the start of the transition to more sustainable food choices.

Unfortunately, plant-based alternatives can only help us tackle our overlapping environmental crises of climate change, extinctions, wilderness loss and pollution if people actually want to eat them in preference to animal muscle. This may mean improving the ingredients used in some alternative products and reducing the processing to boost how healthy they are.

Read more:
How scientists make plant-based foods taste and look more like meat

Forcing people to abandon animal meat is a non-starter, given how strongly we react to perceived loss of freedoms. That means we need to go after the psychological reasons some men, in particular, have such a strong attachment to animal meat.

How can we do that? Social marketing would be a good start, given the successes of previous common-good campaigns around making tobacco use less popular, uptake of sunscreen and COVID vaccinations.

Our study shows any marketing messages to encourage men to take up plant-based alternatives will need to be tailored very carefully. These could include:

• describing plant-based foods as a deliberate choice to make to improve nutrition, reduce health risks and improve the environment. This approach would be likely to suppress the reactance backlash

• presenting new forms of male identity focused on food to describe a masculinity centred around caring for themselves and for wilderness to create a positive impression management.

Even with reluctant or avoidant eaters, the plant-based sector is still expected to grow strongly, adding $3 billion to the Australian economy by 2030.

Just imagine if we could bring everyone along – even self-described carnivores.

Christopher Bryant consults for alternative protein companies and meat-reduction non-profits through Bryant Research Ltd. He has received research funding from Animal Charity Evaluators. He also co-organizes the RECAP group (www.recapresearch.org).

Diana Bogueva and Dora Marinova 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. Meat and masculinity: why some men just can’t stomach plant-based food – https://theconversation.com/meat-and-masculinity-why-some-men-just-cant-stomach-plant-based-food-174785

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Gleeson, Research Fellow in Education, Monash University

Even before the pandemic, recent research shows most Australian teachers worked an average of 140 to 150% (one-and-a-half times) of their paid hours in a typical week. And they’re not necessarily getting to focus on aspects of the job they believe are important, such as actual teaching. In fact, the same research shows teachers spend, on average, 1.5 times as many hours on non-teaching tasks, such as administration and compliance reporting, as they do on face-to-face teaching.

Adding to teachers’ workloads are growing expectations they will find and use research to improve their practice for the benefit of students. References to the use of research and evidence-based initiatives now feature in various state-level school improvement frameworks, such as the Victorian Department of Education and Training’s Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (2.0), national professional standards, and professional learning programs such as those provided by the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Learning.

Read more:
‘Exhausted beyond measure’: what teachers are saying about COVID-19 and the disruption to education

By reading and using the latest research, teachers can improve their knowledge and teaching skills concerning a number of everyday issues. These range from student well-being and school engagement to subject expertise and different teaching approaches, including online learning. But using research is complex and takes time to do well – time that teachers just don’t seem to have.

Over the past two years, our work at the Monash Q Project has involved surveying and interviewing 1,725 Australian teachers and school leaders from primary and secondary schools across Australia to understand how and why they use research in practice.

We gave them a number of survey items to respond to. Having sufficient time was a key challenge they faced. Most indicated they “did not have adequate time to engage with research” (76%) and struggled to “keep up with new research” (76%).

Nearly two-thirds did not believe their school provided sufficient “structured time dedicated to reading, discussing and understanding research” (63%). As such, many reported giving up their own time to engage with research.

How much of their own time teachers give up

One in three teachers (33%) indicated they consulted research before the start of the school year, and one in four (25%) did so during the holidays between terms. For those who also consulted research during the school term, more than two-thirds (69%) indicated they did so at home on the weekend.

In most cases teachers engaged with research for less than 30 minutes at a time. Only when teachers engaged with research at home on the weekend did they usually spend more than 30 minutes on this task.

Only a small number of teachers regularly use research

Many teachers also told us they didn’t have the necessary skills when it came to understanding the research appropriately. For instance, 55% said they lacked confidence in “knowing where to find relevant research”, 64% in how to “analyse and interpret research” and 49% in how to “judge the quality of research”.

Due to time constraints and the lack of necessary skills, only a minority of teachers reported regularly using research (37%) or university-based guidance (30%) in their practice.

Teachers want to use research

Teachers told us using research well matters, though, when it comes to doing a good job and supporting their professionalism.

Most teachers indicated that using research had both “influenced their practice” (81%) and “changed their thinking” (74%) for the better. Nearly three-quarters believed research use was “critical to being a good educator” (74%). During one interview, a NSW school leader connected research use with having a teaching mindset of “professional excellence”.

A Queensland school leader said:

[…] it would be careless and wrong professional conduct if we did not reach or try to gain as much evidence (and knowledge) about student behaviour as we could.

Teachers also believed “research would help improve student outcomes” (83%), and most felt “clear about how research could be used to change practice” (75%). This contributes to growing international evidence that associates teachers’ research use with learning and teaching improvements.

Teachers need more time

Research shows one in four teachers intend to leave the profession before retirement, and time is one key factor. Australian teacher educators and international educators are calling for teachers’ workloads, particularly administrative and compliance obligations, to be addressed.

To do so effectively, we must make sure teachers’ workloads are not simply reduced, but reorganised to provide time for critical professional work such as engaging with research. This change is not just important for teachers, but also for their students.

Read more:
Schools are surveying students to improve teaching. But many teachers find the feedback too difficult to act on

Joanne Gleeson receives funding from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

Blake Cutler receives funding from The Paul Ramsay Foundation.

Lucas Walsh receives funding from The Paul Ramsay Foundation.

Mark Rickinson receives funding from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

– ref. Only 1 in 3 teachers use research evidence in the classroom – this is largely due to lack of time – https://theconversation.com/only-1-in-3-teachers-use-research-evidence-in-the-classroom-this-is-largely-due-to-lack-of-time-175517

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW

Inflation is picking up in Australia, and there is considerable speculation about what the central bank will do with interest rates in 2022.

The Consumer Price Index figures out this week show prices over 2021 rose 3.5%. That increase reflected big jumps in some prices – such as transportation costs, up 12.5% – while other prices fell – such as communication (down 0.5%) and clothing & footwear (down 0.3%).

These large differences across categories are why the Australian Bureau of Statistics also reports a less volatile measure of price changes known as the “trimmed mean”. That rose by 2.6% over the past year – in the middle of Reserve Bank of Australia’s target range of 2-3% inflation.

The trimmed mean is what the RBA tends to focus on, and will surely be a key topic at the central bank’s first board meeting for the year, next Tuesday.

Many market participants think the RBA will start raising the cash rate from its historically low level of 0.1% in August. Bond markets are pricing in a June hike.

At this point what seems almost certain is that the RBA will end the A$350 billion bond-buying program it began in March 2020 to stimulate the economy. This “quantitative easing” program was an unconventional measure for the RBA. It involved the bank buying government bonds as a last-ditch effort to boost inflation. Indeed, at various points it promised to buy enough three-year bonds to keep the yield on them at 0.1% (a policy known as “yield curve control”).

The case for the RBA increasing interest rates certainly exists. But it’s less pressing than in places such as the United States.

Read more:
Inflation hits 3.5%, but one high number won’t budge the Reserve Bank on interest rates

All eyes on the US Federal Reserve

The US Federal Reserve is under intense pressure to raise rates because inflation has clearly taken hold.

Consumer prices rose 7% in 2021. The Fed has strongly signalled it will raise rates at its next board meeting in March. At a press conference this week, the Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, said:

I would say that the committee is of a mind to raise the federal funds rate at the March meeting, assuming that the conditions are appropriate for doing so.

This follows a big debate in 2021 about whether emerging inflation was transitory, basically due to the pandemic, or more structural, due to massive government spending coupled with low interest rates – therefore requiring the Fed to respond.

The most notable voice arguing inflation was structural was former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. “Team transitory” was led by Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who conceded in December inflation was less transitory than he had thought.

The evidence has had clear implications for the US. The Fed will raise interest rates to bring inflation down. History tells us that once the Fed sets its mind to taming inflation it will succeed. The only question is whether it can do so without inducing a recession. The coming 12 to 18 months will be very informative in this regard.

Read more:
Inflation: why it is the biggest test yet for central bank independence

Lessons for Australia

The US narrative around “out of control” inflation is spilling over into Australia’s national discussion, even though inflation is far less of a concern and the RBA has more options than the US Fed.

Inflation in Australia is right in the middle of the target band, not miles outside it as in the US. The Fed cannot wait. Here, the RBA has time to assess how inflation is playing out before pulling the trigger on increasing interest rates.

That said, matters are not helped by talk in the business community of inflation spiralling out of control, or in other circles of potential industrial action over lack of wage growth.

We should remember that over the past few years the RBA has achieved exactly what it intended to do, entirely consistent with its mandate. Its core objective as an institution is to keep inflation between 2% and 3%. Right now it is 2.6%.

This is essentially the first time since Philip Lowe took over as RBA governor in September 2016 that inflation has been in the target band. In contrast, inflation averaged 2.5% over the 10-year tenure of Lowe’s predecessor, Glenn Stevens. Talk about on the money.

It would be remiss of me not to mention I was a tough critic of the RBA in 2019 over it being too slow to cut rates in the face of low inflation. But the bank has done what a substantial group of economists pushed it to do – and it has worked.

There are two caveats.

The first has to do with Lowe’s “forward guidance” about the central bank not raising rates, basically no matter what, until 2023 or even 2024. Many people, myself included, thought that was always a bad idea.

Read more:
Vital Signs: RBA governor Philip Lowe’s dangerous game on interest rates

What matters more, though, is the future.

If the RBA does decide to begin raising rates this year, the challenge will be to do so without damaging Australia’s economic recovery from the pandemic.

This will be part science, part art. It’s why the job of Reserve Bank governor is so important for the nation.

Richard Holden is President of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

– ref. Vital Signs: it’s too early for the RBA to pull the trigger on interest rates – https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-its-too-early-for-the-rba-to-pull-the-trigger-on-interest-rates-175827

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

This month about as many people have died with COVID in Australia – more than 1,000 – as die in the whole of a bad year from influenza.
“Because of extraordinarily high virus transmission, we’re getting more deaths now in this ‘enlightenment’ COVID time than in the ‘dark ages’ time,” says Brendan Crabb, research scientist and director of the Burnet Institute.

“On a seven-day average, we are now seeing more than 60 deaths every day, with no sign yet of a decline. Lessons from the UK and US are that without effective controls we may settle on a high baseline toll beyond the Omicron peak that is not much below this.”

Yet as deaths suddenly spiked in the last few weeks, attention on them doesn’t seem to have spiked proportionately.

The pandemic news of January has been been dominated by the shortage of RATs, supply-chain problems, and pressures on the health system.

We have not learned to live with the disruption of Omicron, or as yet to strike the most effective response to it, but we are not, it seems, traumatised by its current death toll.

At least, not most of the country. This week Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan justified delaying his plan to open the state border on February 5 by highlighting the deaths elsewhere.

“As you’re seeing over east, huge numbers of people are dying,” he said. He’s copped plenty of criticism for his turnaround.

In COVID’s early days in Australia, deaths were very much front and centre in public attention. Now, despite a highly vaccinated population and a less lethal variant of the virus, the substantial death numbers are higher than the narrative of late 2021 led us to anticipate. However, they aren’t leaving such a deep imprint on the public consciousness.

The earlier dire warnings to the unvaccinated about the risks they ran were absolutely accurate. But the statistics are also showing that many of those dying with COVID were vaccinated. Clearly vaccination is not the be-all-and-end-all it might have sounded. Just as in driving your car, the seat belt offers protection but is not a guarantee of survival in a crash.

Anyway, the authorities have quickly changed their messaging from the importance of being doubly vaxxed to the necessity of that booster. Crabb says vaccines are “brilliant” and the most important thing people can do is to have three doses. “But it doesn’t make you bullet-proof, nor protect those around you. Any effective strategy has to be more than vaccines.”

On various fronts, Australia’s journey through Omicron has not been managed effectively, which reinforces the already strong argument for a royal commission into how the pandemic in general has been handled.

Anthony Albanese this week took his “small target” strategy to the extreme when, appearing at the National Press Club, he was asked whether if he becomes prime minister he would set up a royal commission.

The Labor leader declined to commit. There’d need to be an “assessment” of what had been done, he said. He conceded Labor had considered a royal commission, but the matter hadn’t been though its “process”.

Albanese mightn’t want to take attention off the RATs shortage and other issues by promising a royal commission. Or perhaps he fears advocating it would open him to Scott Morrison’s again accusing him of playing politics. It could be cast by critics as tit-for-tat for the Abbott government’s royal commissions into its Labor predecessor, notably into the “pink batts” scheme which resulted in many house fires and several deaths.

But the case for a commission is overwhelming, especially to inform us about what needs to be done to ready for pandemics in the future. It is needed to investigate all fronts: health, economics and governance.

Especially in the early stages of the pandemic, everyone welcomed “health advice” being followed by governments. But the term “health advice” concealed some sharp differences that occurred among experts. These continue today, as we grapple with Omicron.

A royal commission would enable better understanding of the debates that have gone on, and go on, within the health establishment, including at the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), the group of federal and state advisers to the national cabinet. Mostly, differences within that group have been mired in secrecy.

Unreadiness and slow reactions have led to some of the serious problems in handling COVID. These have included the initial slow rollout of the vaccines, and latterly the tardiness in obtaining RATs.

Political failures account for part of these problems, but what about the bureaucracy? The pink batts royal commission identified faults in the Environment Department. Has the federal Health Department been found wanting in this crisis and what changes are needed? And what about the responses of the state health systems?

In general the Australian economy has held up well during the pandemic, and that has been substantially due to government programs. At the same time, some funds have been wasted and an outside investigation would be instructive on how things could be done better if circumstances repeated themselves.

A detailed probe into the supply-chain issues could lead to more belts and braces for the future.

The debate about governance has been fraught during COVID, which exposed just how much power the states have in the federation.

Morrison’s innovation of the “national cabinet” has run side by side with premiers taking their own courses on matters from schools to borders.

Critics of the states would have liked to see Morrison able to exercise near-total authority. Conversely, many of Morrison’s critics believe tough premiers were what held the deaths in check for so long.

How the federation has operated during COVID and what adaptations are needed would be major issues for a royal commission.

And then there’s Australia’s international response. Much attention was on the government’s call for an inquiry into the pandemic’s origins, but what about Australia’s role in a co-ordinated global response?

Like Albanese, Morrison’s line is that the time to talk about “reviews or whatever” is not now.

But calls for a royal commission are coming from across the political spectrum, ranging from backbench Labor through the crossbench to some on the right in the Coalition, although motives vary and there are differences about timing.

Some of those against such an inquiry point to the drawn-out nature of royal commissions. But the investigation would not divert from current efforts and could be staged, reporting progressively.

To the argument “not another royal commission”, the answer is that such comprehensive investigations look under the rocks, produce a wealth of information, and concentrate the attention of policymakers. Who would say the royal commissions into banking and aged care were not worth the effort?

A royal commission would not take away from Australia’s undoubted successes in dealing with COVID. Rather, it would be a form of insurance, putting us in the best position to confront a possible Mark 2 pandemic.

Michelle Grattan 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. Grattan on Friday: A royal commission into COVID’s handling would serve us well for the future – https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-a-royal-commission-into-covids-handling-would-serve-us-well-for-the-future-175845

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

As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan now includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation politics team.

In this episode, politics + society Senior Deputy Editor Justin Bergman and Michelle canvass Anthony Albanese’s address to the National Press Club this week, billed as the opposition leader seeking to outline what sort of PM he would be.

They also discuss whether the Coalition will lean on its perceived strengths – the economy and national security – in the lead-up to the federal election, as well as the calls coming from across the political spectrum for a royal commission into Australia’s pandemic response and whether this will play a role in the election.

Additional audio
Gaena, Blue Dot Sessions, from Free Music Archive.

Michelle Grattan 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. Word from The Hill: Anthony Albanese’s challenge is to define himself to voters – https://theconversation.com/word-from-the-hill-anthony-albaneses-challenge-is-to-define-himself-to-voters-175843

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco Amati, Associate Professor of International Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University

Biological metaphors for the city abound in daily use. You may live close to an “arterial” road or in the “heart” of a metropolis. You may work in one of the city’s “nerve centres” or exercise in a park described as the city’s “lungs”.

The ready use of such metaphors indicates an underlying naturalism in our thinking about the city. Naturalism is a belief that a single theory unites natural and social systems.

Historically, this way of thinking has helped us grapple with the complex urban predicaments. Today, as the world’s cities face new problems, fresh urban visions are needed again.

The effects of climate change, such as extreme heat, pose a direct challenge to cities. What’s more, climate change is prompting people to move to cities from rural areas, which puts pressure of urban infrastructure. So let’s look at how biological ideas are useful for building cities that can withstand these challenges.

The city as a body

During the 17th and 18th centuries, understanding of blood circulation and other bodily functions crystallised. This knowledge could be fed into an Enlightenment vision in which urban components mirrored the functions of different body parts.

The image to the right shows the urban vision of Italian military engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439-1501).

He believed cities should be planned with the centre of government located at the “head” – the most noble part of the body. From an elevated position – metaphorically and sometimes physically – governments could both be protected, and surveil the rest of the city-body.

According to di Giorgio Martini’s thinking, a temple should be located at the city’s “heart” to guide its spirit. And piazza should be located at the “stomach”, guiding the city’s instinct and mixing the populace.

Countless medieval and renaissance cities include a citadel on a hill. But this type of city thinking culminated in the 20th century when the French-Swiss urban planner known as Le Corbusier conceived of a city with a decision-making “head”, separate from the residential and the industrial “bowels”.

This inspired new capitals such as Brasilia (Brazil), and Chandigarh (a state capital in northern India).

Historically, planners have also been inspired by understanding of a single organ. As shown in the image below, architect Pierre Rousseau designed the French city of Nantes with a centre that functioned as a “heart” and pumped goods and individuals through it.

But such biological and scientific thinking could also reinforce social divides.

During the 17th-century plagues in Florence and Rome, for example, the poor were considered lowly organs that attracted and even bred disease. As a result, they were locked down in hospitals away from the city – a move medical experts at the time likened to surgical removal of a weak part of the body.

Cells of the city

The scientific discovery of the cell later produced a range of urban analogies in 20th century.

The below diagram shows the vision of upstate New York drawn by community planner Henry Wright in 1926. He envisaged a “tissue” of urban development which fed off clusters of recreational woodland, encouraging wholesome activity and good living for the suburbs’ residents.

For Finnish-American architect Eliel Saarinen, healthy communities were analogous to healthy cells. But this thinking had a flip side.

Saarinen believed slum areas in cities could be treated similarly to cancers – effectively “excised” by moving them out of the city centre to “revitalise” the urban centre. The poor and racial minorities bore the brunt of this thinking.

Read more:
Up on a roof: why New Zealand’s move towards greater urban density should see a rooftop revolution

New urban naturalism

In a 2017 book, influential physicist Geoffrey West proposes that hidden laws govern the life cycle of everything from plants and animals to our cities.

Such thinking shows how naturalism in city planning remains relevant in the 21st century.

For further examples, we need look only to the concept of the “smart city”, in which a city’s performance in areas such as public transport flows and energy use is carefully monitored. This data can be used to make the city more “intelligent” – improving government services and citizen welfare, and producing indices such as walkscores and liveability.

Contemporary Belgian architect Luc Schuiten takes the concept of a living city to its logical extreme in his design for a “vegetative city”.

According to Schuiten, cities should be built not of materials but of products of a viable local ecosystem. This might mean first growing a native tree then constructing a building around it.

Schuiten’s idea reflects ancient approaches in cities such the Yemen city of Sana’a, where high rise buildings are made from mud brick – a sustainable material suitable for the city’s hot climate. Schuiten takes this further, removing the agency of builders and giving it over to plants.

Naturalistic thinking provides us with a powerful set of visions for the good city of the future. But just as the naturalism of the 17th century was double-edged, so it is now.

For example, the rise of the smart city promises a great deal for citizens but delivers even more for big tech and corporations.

Read more:
Smart city or not? Now you can see how yours compares

And as with any application of science, naturalistic thinking in contemporary cities must ensure marginalised and disadvantaged groups are protected and supported.

COVID-19 provides another reason to apply a more naturalistic approach to urban planning. Perhaps seeing the city as a living organism would have left authorities better placed to deal with the pandemic’s spread through urban centres.

And among the general population, a more naturalistic understanding of our urbanised selves may have meant decisions by governments and chief medical officers were easier to accept.

Marco Amati is the author of the recent book The City and Superorganism: a history of naturalism in urban planning

Marco Amati has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council, Horticulture Innovation and the Commonwealth Government through the National Environmental Science Program

– ref. Hearts, cells and mud: how biology helps humans re-imagine our cities in vexed times – https://theconversation.com/hearts-cells-and-mud-how-biology-helps-humans-re-imagine-our-cities-in-vexed-times-173325

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye, Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology

Neil Young has given Spotify an ultimatum: remove the Joe Rogan Experience podcast or Neil Young walks. In a letter to his management team and label, the 79-year-old rocker lambasted Spotify for spreading Rogan’s misinformation about COVID vaccinations.

“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” said Young to his management team and record label.

“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”

Young is the first high-profile artist to condemn Spotify for its handling of COVID misinformation, but far from the first person to single out Rogan’s podcast on the platform.

The Joe Rogan Experience podcast has the highest amount of subscribers on Spotify. In 2020 the podcast became a Spotify exclusive through a deal estimated at $100m. Despite its massive popularity, the Joe Rogan Experience has been frequently criticised for promoting conspiracy theories, misinformation and other problematic content.

In January 2022, 270 medical health practitioners and researchers submitted an open letter calling on Spotify to moderate misinformation on its platform. The letter was prompted by an episode that featured a controversial physician who openly promoted conspiracy theories and baseless claims about COVID vaccinations.

“This is not only a scientific or medical concern; it is a sociological issue of devastating proportions and Spotify is responsible for allowing this activity to thrive on its platform,” the letter read.

Two days later, Spotify has reportedly removed Young’s music from its platform. This isn’t the first time Young has removed his songs from Spotify, citing poor sound quality as the reason when he temporarily pulled his entire catalogue from Spotify in 2015.

Stream of conscience

Neil Young is not the first musical artist demanding change from the streaming giant.

Spotify and other music streaming platforms have become a battleground where artists can leverage their power, notably over disputes concerning artists’ revenues and the value of music in an era of streaming.

In 2015, Taylor Swift briefly removed her album 1989 from Apple Music due to the platform offering a three month free trial that would not generate royalties for artists.

In 2021, the artist payout debate was reignited after the publication of a Parliamentary report in the UK calling attention to Spotify’s handling of artists’ rights management, revenue rates, and commercial fairness.

Recently, following the release of her latest album 30, Adele took aim at Spotify demanding the shuffle feature be removed from albums encouraging users to listen to the tracks in their intended order.

Self-regulation

Spotify has taken action to regulate harmful content on its service in the past. In 2017, Spotify announced it would remove content from bands connected to white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements.

Spotify also joined several other social media and streaming platforms including Facebook, Apple Music and podcast platform Stitcher to remove the polemical right wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his podcast InfoWars for spreading misinformation and lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.

In 2018, Spotify added a new hate conduct policy to its terms of use that included guidelines for removing music that “promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence.” Spotify developed the policy in partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. The platform faced immediate backlash when it cited the policy to defend removing American artists R. Kelly and XXXTentacion from its editorial and algorithmically curated playlists. The two artists’ catalogues were not removed from Spotify’s streaming library, but would be far less visible to listeners.

Critics viewed Spotify’s use of the policy an attempt to censor music. With such a sweeping definition of hate conduct, some observers wondered, why were R. Kelly and XXXTentacion removed and not the dozens, if not hundreds, of other artists with controversial pasts or criminal convictions?

The move prompted other prominent artists, most notably Kendrick Lamar, to threaten withdrawing their music from Spotify entirely. Shortly afterwards, Spotify rolled back the policy. In a corporate statement announcing the shift, Spotify also minimised its responsibility in political matters or public controversies: “That’s not what Spotify is about. We don’t aim to play judge and jury.”

Digital platforms have taken steps to moderate misinformation. For example, in the lead up to the 2020 US election, Twitter began adding fact-check labels to tweets shared by former president Donald Trump. Later that year, Facebook’s Oversight Board began hearing cases to oversee key decisions related to content moderation.

Throughout the COVID pandemic, academics and public health officials have called on social media platforms to help fight the spread of dangerous health-related misinformation.

Read more:
Adele has successfully asked Spotify to remove ‘shuffle’ from albums. Here’s why that’s important for musicians

Policing platforms

Reliance on platforms to moderate podcast content is a tenuous proposition. As commercial entities operating internationally, platforms simultaneously seek to serve their corporate interests and comply with regulations and laws in multiple jurisdictions.

Significant change can be achieved when platforms act in unison, such as in the decision to ban political advertising implemented by several major digital platforms including Spotify after facing significant public pressure. Still, users and advocates should not hold their breath waiting for platforms to do the right thing.

Read more:
Michelle Obama, podcast host: how podcasting became a multi-billion dollar industry

Failures to moderate harmful content are harder to ignore when they involve bigger name artists. Neil Young has never shied away from political action in a musical career spanning nearly six decades. The singer’s demands were bolstered by a credible threat: he’s removed his music before and now he’s done it again.

Ideally, the pressure from Young’s fans and other prominent artists will push Spotify to take effective action against misinformation so users can spend time rockin’ in the free world instead of listening to COVID conspiracy theories.

D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Neil Young’s ultimatum to Spotify shows streaming platforms are now a battleground where artists can leverage power – https://theconversation.com/neil-youngs-ultimatum-to-spotify-shows-streaming-platforms-are-now-a-battleground-where-artists-can-leverage-power-175732

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Russell, Senior Principal Research Fellow; paediatrician; infectious diseases epidemiologist; vaccinologist, The University of Melbourne

Schools will open for term one across Australia next week – except in Queensland which has delayed the start of the school year.

As as the country battles a wave of Omicron infections, states have introduced a comprehensive suite of measures to help reduce school outbreaks, as well as disruptions. Testing plans rely on regular use of Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs), which the government will provide to schools and parents. They are a very important additional tool in providing a safe school environment.

Victoria and New South Wales strongly recommend primary and secondary staff and students do a RAT twice a week on school days for the first four weeks of term. Because of the greater risk associated with COVID for some students with disabilities, Victoria’s recommendation for specialist school staff and teachers is testing five days per week.

Children who test positive will be required to stay home along with household members for seven days in Victoria. In NSW, a child who tests positive can return to school when symptoms resolve and two consecutive day of negative tests.

Regular testing of asymptomatic cases as in NSW and Victoria is known as a “surveillance strategy” and the ACT has similar plans. But while South Australia recommends early education and care staff test several times per week for surveillance, the state’s schools strategy is different and is known as “test-to-stay”. Here, close contacts will need to do a RAT every day for seven days and can attend school if they test negative.

NSW and Victoria will also allow close contacts to attend school if they are close contacts as long as they report a negative RAT test.

Both strategies, surveillance and test to stay, have been implemented in several jurisdictions in the United States, Canada and Europe, all of which reopened schools during Omicron outbreaks. But why do different Australian states have different plans, and what is the evidence for these testing measures?

Surveillance and testing to stay: the evidence

Twice-weekly testing for surveillance is voluntary in NSW, Victoria and the ACT, so not everyone will be following the guidelines perfectly. But modelling by the Doherty Institute (using Delta parameters) found detecting infections in school early – such as with surveillance – and high vaccine coverage in the community markedly reduce outbreak risk even if the testing uptake is only 50%.

The modelling also found twice-weekly screening of asymptomatic students in areas at risk of outbreaks can result in even fewer infections and fewer in-person teaching days lost.

The Doherty report also found allowing close contacts to attend school if they test negative, through a test-to-stay strategy, contains an outbreak as effectively as requiring close contacts to quarantine at home.

Doherty’s findings reproduce the outcomes seen in a real-world study when the Delta variant was dominant, which compared standard quarantine to test-to-stay in England. There was no difference in transmission between schools where bubbles were sent into home isolation for ten days versus those where daily contact testing (test-to-stay) was implemented.

Another impressive study from Utah of 13 high schools (November 2020 to March 2021) found using test-to-stay detected an additional 90 infections and saved 109,752 in-person learning days.

Read more:
When will this COVID wave be over? 4 numbers to keep an eye on and why

In Massachusetts, the test-to-stay program found that of 503,312 tests conducted (up to 9 January 2022), only 1.4% were positive, which was lower than the statewide rate of positive tests. Additionally, secondary transmission rates were found to be low in schools using this strategy and ranged from 0.7% to 2.9%. These studies were done before the emergence of Omicron.

So, which one is better?

The surveillance strategy will help identify any positive cases early, before symptoms develop, and help prevent introducing infections into schools and the broader community.

The test-to-stay strategy minimises the need for children who are not infectious to stay at home unnecessarily, helps reduce days of lost learning and staffing issues, and minimises disruption from quarantine requirements.

Read more:
Schools can expect a year of disruption. Here are 7 ways they can help support the well-being of students and staff

The decision on which strategy to take depends on context, including workforce issues and the level of community transmission, and the availability of sufficient quantity of RATs.

When there is a case in the class, test-to-stay should be done daily for close contacts for seven days. But when community transmission is high, it’s best to add surveillance screening twice weekly for staff and students aged five and above (and 3-5 year olds if tolerated).

The Doherty modelling found a synergistic benefit of combining twice weekly surveillance screening with a test to stay policy. The greatest number of face-to-face teaching days gained using this approach occurs when community transmission is highest.

States employing a surveillance strategy will need to revisit this in four weeks, including the uptake and acceptance of testing – specifically the impact of children having regular testing for an infection that has little direct harm to them. There must be a clear off-ramp as the outbreak may also be almost complete and children will be tired of having nasal swabs.

What’s likely to happen when schools open

The number of new cases surveillance detects will always be biased towards the age groups and settings most tested. As schools open, the number of infections will increase, but they will appear to increase even more because intensive testing will find many more mild and asymptomatic cases.

Mobility patterns also change after the school holidays. Because more people are moving around, there will inevitably be an increase in infections in early childhood and school settings. But these will be relatively short-lived and mild, given the overseas experience. States that delay opening schools may simply postpone trouble and lengthen the outbreak. Moreover, there is little evidence closing schools controls infection rates and transmission in the broader community during outbreaks.

Read more:
We shouldn’t delay the start of school due to Omicron. 2 paediatric infectious disease experts explain

Ongoing surveillance in the Netherlands has found adults are the most common source of infection. As children grow older, they are more likely to become the source but still less likely than adults. The study also found teaching staff during the Omicron period had slightly less infections than the general adult population.

COVID vaccination in children is effective at preventing severe disease, but has minimal impact on mild Omicron infections. Any preventive effect against infection may wane quite quickly.

It is understandable many parents will be feeling anxious about schools opening. But it is important to remember COVID in healthy children is generally a mild illness, akin to influenza, so unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children can return safely to school. Although hospitalisation does occur, it is less frequent than other common childhood respiratory viruses.

RATs are an important tool in helping to provide a safe working and learning environment and we strongly encourage school staff and parents to test as recommended.

Fiona Russell receives funding from NHMRC, the Wellcome Trust, DFAT and the World Health Organization.

Robert Booy consults to all vaccination companies in Australia and works one day a week for Vaxxas. He has received funding from NHMRC and ARC in relation to vaccine research.

– ref. Test all students and staff twice a week, or only close contacts? States have different school plans – here’s what they mean – https://theconversation.com/test-all-students-and-staff-twice-a-week-or-only-close-contacts-states-have-different-school-plans-heres-what-they-mean-175514

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Cooke, Associate Professor of Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies, Deakin University

In December 1938, Yorta Yorta man William Cooper took part in a protest organised by the Australian Aborigines’ League to deliver a letter to the German consulate in Melbourne condemning the “cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government”.

The protest came weeks after Kristallnacht, an outpouring of violence against Jews by the Nazi regime in Germany, which resulted in the burning of synagogues, damage to Jewish businesses, imprisonment of tens of thousands of Jews and many killings.

Holocaust educators in Australia have taken up Cooper’s march as an example of being an “upstander”, rather than a “bystander” during the Holocaust.

It’s also an example for the thousands of school students who visit Holocaust museums in Australia each year of the type of personal and political action needed to ensure the Holocaust does not happen again.

But what do Australians know about Cooper and his protest? The answer from a recent survey appears to be not very much.

Holocaust awareness high, but not Australia’s role

The national survey of more than 3,500 Australians, funded by the Gandel Foundation, has found people’s general knowledge of the Holocaust is high – 80% of respondents knew the Holocaust happened between 1933 and 1945 and 67% knew the Holocaust refers to the genocide of Jews.

But there were significant gaps when it came to Australia’s connections to it.

Only 16% of respondents, for example, knew who Cooper was. Just 11% knew Australia refused to accept more Jewish refugees during the Evian Conference in 1938, a meeting of 32 countries to discuss the German-Jewish refugee crisis. And only 7% of respondents knew Australia has one of the largest number of Holocaust survivors in the world per capita, outside Israel.

Read more:
How COVID has shone a light on the ugly face of Australian antisemitism

While these figures are sobering and a cause for reflection, other findings are more positive.

The survey not only measured Australians’ knowledge of the Holocaust, but also their Holocaust awareness. This is defined as acknowledging the true scale of the Holocaust and caring about Holocaust education.

Almost nine in ten Australians (88%) agreed we can all learn lessons for today from what happened in the Holocaust. And despite millennials having generally less overall knowledge of the Holocaust than older generations, they have higher levels of Holocaust awareness.

Our survey is the first of its type undertaken in Australia, and similar to other surveys overseas.

How Holocaust awareness is linked to Australian history

According to a recent biography of Cooper, what’s often missing from commentary about his 1938 protest against the Holocaust was the fact he wanted to use the opportunity to draw attention to racism and violence against First Nations peoples in Australia, too.

The author, Bain Atwood, argued the emphasis on this one event overshadowed the broader activism of Copper and the Australian Aborigines’ League on issues like First Nations representation in government, land rights and acknowledgement of colonial dispossession and violence.

Read more:
William Cooper: the Indigenous leader who petitioned the king, demanding a Voice to Parliament in the 1930s

The concern here is that a continuing focus on the Holocaust could detract from understanding our own difficult history in Australia.

Our survey found, however, a strong relationship between Holocaust awareness and positive feelings towards religious minorities, refugees and asylum seekers and First Nations Australians. The findings suggest, though, more work needs to be done to make the connections between Australian history and the Holocaust explicit. This includes our history of colonial genocide and our treatment of asylum seekers and refugees.

This does not mean making simplistic comparisons, but acknowledging different histories and memories and how they interconnect. Our survey found, for instance, just over half the respondents agreed with the statement: “the Stolen Generations are an Australian example of genocide”.

Support for greater Holocaust education is high

Promisingly, our survey found higher levels of Holocaust awareness among those who had visited a Holocaust museum or taken part in specific Holocaust education. There was also strong support among our respondents (66%) for compulsory Holocaust education in schools.

There will soon be new or significantly redeveloped Holocaust museums in every state and territory in Australia. Australia also recently became a full member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which includes a commitment to include the Holocaust in school curriculums and institute a national day of commemoration (which Australia did last year).

The federal government has also supported pilot projects for a Holocaust Memorial Week in 2018 and 2022.

The Victorian government, meanwhile, has supported the development of specific resources to help educators teach the Holocaust in schools. And a growing number of Australian educators have graduated from Gandel Foundation’s intensive teaching programs at Yad Vashem, the world’s largest Holocaust memorial museum in Israel.

With the rise of anti-Semitism – including online hate and Holocaust denial and distortion – understanding the relationship between Holocaust awareness and efforts to combat racism today is more important than ever.

Read more:
We tracked antisemitic incidents in Australia over four years. This is when they are most likely to occur

Steven Cooke received funding from the Gandel Foundation to undertake this research. He is a member fo the Australian delegation to the Internatioanl Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Andrew Singleton receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Gandel Philanthropy

Dr Donna-Lee Frieze donna-lee.frieze@deakin.edu.au receives funding from the Gandel Foundation as a lead researcher for the Gandel Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Survey 2021, is a lead researcher on the project Holocaust Memorial Week 2022 with a grant from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment and a delegate for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. She is affiliated with Deakin University.

Matteo Vergani receives research funding from the Victorian government, Gandel Philanthropy, the Australian federal government, and the Canadian government.

– ref. New research shows few Australians know about our own connections to the Holocaust – https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-few-australians-know-about-our-own-connections-to-the-holocaust-175325

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natasha Hurley-Walker, Radio Astronomer, Curtin University

“Holy sharks, Batman, it’s periodic!”

I exclaimed on Slack.

It was the first lockdown of 2021 in Perth, and we were all working from home. And when astronomers look for something to distract themselves from looming existential dread, there’s nothing better than a new cosmic mystery.

In 2020 I gave an undergraduate student, Tyrone O’Doherty, a fun project: look for radio sources that are changing in a large radio survey I’m leading.

By the end of the year he’d found a particularly unusual source that was visible in data from early 2018, but had disappeared within a few months. The source was named GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504, after the survey it was found in and its position.

Sources that appear and disappear are called “radio transients” and are usually a sign of extreme physics at play.

The mystery begins

Earlier this year I started investigating the source, expecting it to be something we knew about – something that would change slowly over months and perhaps point to an exploded star, or a big collision in space.

To understand the physics, I wanted to measure how the source’s brightness relates to its frequency (in the electromagnetic spectrum). So I looked at observations of the same location, taken at different frequencies, before and after the detection, and it wasn’t there.

I was disappointed, as spurious signals do crop up occasionally due to telescope calibration errors, Earth’s ionosphere reflecting TV signals, or aircraft and satellites streaking overhead.

So I looked at more data. And in an observation taken 18 minutes later, there the source was again, in exactly the same place and at exactly the same frequency – like nothing astronomers had ever seen before.

At this point I broke out in a cold sweat. There is a worldwide research effort searching for repeating cosmic radio signals transmitted at a single frequency. It’s called the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Was this the moment we finally found that the truth is … out there?

The plot thickens

I rapidly downloaded more data and posted updates on Slack. This source was incredibly bright. It was outshining everything else in the observation, which is nothing to sniff at.

The brightest radio sources are supermassive black holes flaring huge jets of matter into space at nearly the speed of light. What had we found that could possibly be brighter than that?

Read more:
Experts solve the mystery of a giant X-shaped galaxy, with a monster black hole as its engine

Colleagues were beginning to take notice, posting:

It’s repeating too slowly to be a pulsar. But it’s too bright for a flare star. What is this? (alien emoji icon)???

Within a few hours, I breathed a sigh of relief: I had detected the source across a wide range of frequencies, so the power it would take to generate it could only come from a natural source; not artificial (and not aliens)!

Just like pulsars – highly magnetised rotating neutron stars that beam out radio waves from their poles – the radio waves repeated like clockwork about three times per hour. In fact, I could predict when they would appear to an accuracy of one ten-thousandth of a second.

So I turned to our enormous data archive: 40 petabytes of radio astronomy data recorded by the Murchison Widefield Array in Western Australia, during its eight years of operation. Using powerful supercomputers, I searched hundreds of observations and picked up 70 more detections spanning three months in 2018, but none before or after.

Read more:
Tuning in to cosmic radio from the dawn of time

The amazing thing about radio transients is that if you have enough frequency coverage, you can work out how far away they are. This is because lower radio frequencies arrive slightly later than higher ones depending on how much space they’ve traveled through.

Our new discovery lies about 4,000 light years away – very distant, but still in our galactic backyard.

We also found the radio pulses were almost completely polarised. In astrophysics this usually means their source is a strong magnetic field. The pulses were also changing shape in just half a second, so the source has to be less than half a light second across, much smaller than our Sun.

Sharing the result with colleagues across the world, everyone was excited, but no one knew for sure what it was.

The jury is still out

There were two leading explanations for this compact, rotating, and highly magnetic astrophysical object: a white dwarf, or a neutron star. These remain after stars run out of fuel and collapse, generating magnetic fields billions to quintillions times stronger than our Sun’s.

And while we’ve never found a neutron star that behaves quite this way, theorists have predicted such objects, called an “ultra-long period magnetars”, could exist. Even so, no one expected one could be so bright.

This is the first time we’ve ever seen a radio source that repeats every 20 minutes. But maybe the reason we never saw one before is that we weren’t looking.

When I first started trying to understand this source, I was biased by my expectations: transient radio sources either change quickly like pulsars, or slowly like the fading remnants of a supernova.

I wasn’t looking for sources repeating at 18-minute intervals – an unusual period for any known class of object. Nor was I searching for something that would appear for a few months and then disappear forever. No one was.

As astronomers build new telescopes that will collect vast quantities of data, it’s vital we keep our minds, and our search techniques, open to unexpected possibilities. The universe is full of wonders, should we only choose to look.

Natasha Hurley-Walker is supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (project number FT190100231) funded by the Australian Government.

– ref. This object in space flashed brilliantly for 3 months, then disappeared. Astronomers are intrigued – https://theconversation.com/this-object-in-space-flashed-brilliantly-for-3-months-then-disappeared-astronomers-are-intrigued-175240

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ashwin Swaminathan, Senior Lecturer, Australian National University

As Omicron surges through the community, getting the right answer from a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) is not as straightforward as reading one or two lines off the kit.

RATs are a convenient diagnostic tool to detect COVID virus fragments in nasal secretions or saliva. They are designed to be self-administered and give an answer in minutes. Detecting infection early is critical to preventing spread and allowing persons at risk of severe disease to get timely access to close monitoring and new life-saving therapies.

As governments plan to distribute tens of millions of RAT kits to schools and workplaces in coming weeks to help Australians work and study safely, it is important that we understand how to best use this diagnostic tool to reduce transmission and unnecessary disruptions to our lives and economy.

Read more:
Australia approves two new medicines in the fight against COVID. How can you get them and are they effective against Omicron?

Key concepts

There are three key concepts to understanding how accurate RATs (or any diagnostic test) are: sensitivity, specificity and pre-test probability.

Let’s imagine we line up 100 people who definitely have COVID infections. Applying a RAT kit with 80% sensitivity would lead to a positive result in 80 people – with 20 receiving a “false negative” result. So the term “sensitivity” refers to how well a test picks up the presence of a disease or condition.

If we line up 100 people who are definitely free of COVID infection, using a RAT test with 98% specificity would mean that 98 would test negative – and two people would have a “false positive”. So “specificity” is whether a test correctly identifies the absence of a disease or condition.

The “pre-test probability” of infection is the likelihood a person has COVID infection based on their clinical symptoms, exposure history and/or the background community rate of infection. The pre-test probability (otherwise known as “disease prevalence”) varies between households, workplaces and communities and provides context to a RAT kits sensitivity and specificity.

Read more:
How to look after your mental health if you’re at home with COVID

3 people, 3 tests

Let’s look at how we can apply the above concepts to three typical Australian scenarios. Let’s assume a TGA-approved self-test RAT kit with a minimum sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 98% was used. Probability calculations are performed using an online tool.

These scenarios are not intended as medical advice but as illustrations of key concepts only.

1. Ahmed is a 48 year-old office worker, double vaccinated and booked in for a booster shot

He lives in a household of four with two COVID-positive teenagers. He has developed a fever and sore throat. He has undertaken a RAT and has a positive result. What should he do next?

The pre-test probability of COVID for Ahmed is high (at least 80% – an educated estimate based on risk factors) given he is a household close contact, has developed typical symptoms and has not been boosted. In this situation, a positive RAT result is >99% likely to represent true infection. The best thing Ahmed can do is register the positive result, rest up, keep up his fluids, take paracetamol if required and quarantine for at least seven days.

2. Kim is 15 years old and lives in a capital city with her family

She recently received her second vaccination. She does not have COVID symptoms and has no known contacts. She self-tests with a RAT kit distributed by her school and returns a positive test. What does this mean?

The pre-test probability of COVID in Kim is low given her recent vaccination, lack of symptoms or exposure history. The current population rate of COVID in Canberra is around 2% based on reported cases and factoring in likely under-reporting. This prevalence is likely similar to that in Sydney or Melbourne. So Kim’s positive RAT result would only be 50% likely to represent true infection. In this instance, Kim should confirm the result by getting a PCR test. She should quarantine until she receives that result but a negative PCR result might mean she and her family avoid unnecessary isolation.

3. Margaret is a 63 year-old disability support worker who has received a booster vaccination

She is on medication for arthritis that affects her immune system. Three days ago, while intermittently wearing a surgical mask, she cared for a man in his home for six hours. He was later diagnosed with COVID. Margaret is asymptomatic and self-tests with a RAT kit that returns a negative result. What should she do?

Margaret’s pre-test probability of COVID is estimated to be moderate to high (~50%) given she was a close contact, had inadequate mask protection and her medication may reduce vaccine protection. A negative result is 83% likely to be accurate. Margaret should err on the side of caution by isolating then repeating the RAT 48 hours later. As it happens, she has developed a cough and runny nose within that time and returns a positive test.

How else can I improve my RAT accuracy?

The accuracy of RATs can be affected by factors such as how well the sample is taken, the timing of the sample (RATs are relatively insensitive early or late in infection) and the evidence particular brands have differing ability to detect the Omicron variant. The TGA is currently reviewing and reporting the evidence provided for kits on sale and how sensitive they are to specific COVID variants.

So, to get the most out of your RAT, do the following:

• follow the kit instructions closely

• time your test – don’t perform within 48 hours of exposure to COVID and preferably wait or repeat between 5–7 days post exposure

• if your test result is a surprise based on your assessment of pre-test probability (you think there is a good chance of a false positive or negative result), then take appropriate precautions and repeat the test 24–48 hours later or have a PCR test done.

Ashwin Swaminathan has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

– ref. How accurate is your RAT? 3 scenarios show it’s about more than looking for lines – https://theconversation.com/how-accurate-is-your-rat-3-scenarios-show-its-about-more-than-looking-for-lines-175515

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Preety Pratima Srivastava, Senior Lecturer, RMIT University

Children whose parents smoke have lower academic test scores and more behavioural issues than children of non-smokers.

These are the findings of our research published in the journal of Economics and Human Biology. Smoking is prevalent in lower socio-economic groups whose characteristics (such as lower IQ and poorer motivation on average) are correlated with lower academic scores and more behavioural issues in children. This can bias the results as the sample of children whose scores are lower is no longer random.

After addressing such concerns, our broad finding remained the same. Because of the model we used, this means there is a causal – rather than merely correlational – relationship between parental smoking and children’s academic scores and behavioural outcomes.

How we did our study

We used data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), which tracks children from birth to monitor their development and well-being. It also surveys them and their parents on a range of cognitive (such as academic) and non-cognitive (such as behavioural) performance measures, and records other data such as their NAPLAN test results.

We wanted to find the effects of parental smoking on children’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills in early life – from 4-14 years old.

We measured children’s cognitive skills using the given NAPLAN literacy and numeracy test scores in grades 3, 5, 7 and 9. We also used the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), which is designed to measure a child’s knowledge of the meaning of spoken words and his or her receptive vocabulary. The test is carried out as part of the LSAC survey when the children are 4-9 years old.

Non-cognitive skills include social behaviour, hyperactivity or inattention, and peer problems. We took the measures of these as reported by parents.

What we found

We found, across all measures of cognitive skills, children living with non-smoker parents had a higher average score than children living with at least one smoker parent. We found smoking can reduce academic scores by up to 3%.

Likewise, we found children with at least one parent who smokes are likely to experience more behavioural issues. We found smoking can reduce behavioural scores by up to 9%.

Our findings are consistent even when we look at mums’ and dads’ smoking behaviour separately. But the effect is stronger for mothers, as expected. Maternal smoking in pregnancy has direct effects on the child’s brain development and birth weight. Pre-natal ill-health and sickness in early childhood may affect cognitive, social and emotional outcomes through poorer mental well-being.

Second-hand smoke exposure at home can also cause numerous health problems in infants and children, such as asthma and ear infections. This could lead them to take more time out of school.

We used information on the number of school days missed because of health reasons and children’s physical health assessments in the LSAC survey to test whether parental smoking and absenteeism due to health were related.

We found children from households with at least one smoker were more likely to have lower school attendance and poorer physical health, both of which have adverse consequences on their cognitive and non-cognitive development.

Our findings did not change across various measures, such as the frequency or number of cigarettes parents smoked per day.

But we did find parental smoking had a stronger influence on boys than girls. This is consistent with growing evidence that girls are more resilient to environmental pressures than boys.

How parental smoking affects kids’ skills: the three pathways

There are three pathways through which parental smoking has an effect on children’s academic, social and emotional skills.

The first is that the child’s health may already have been affected before birth if the mother was a smoker. And some other negative effects of ill health come from exposure to second-hand smoke, as described above.

The second pathway for parental smoking affecting a child’s acquisition of cognitive and non-cognitive skills is through a reduction in household income. Tobacco spending can displace spending on food, education and health care.

The third pathway is that children’s ability to develop skills depends on their parents’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills, which are determined by their own health and education. Parental smoking can affect their own well-being, such as through impacting their respiratory health. This, in turn, can influence the way they parent.

Our findings highlight the role of the family environment in early childhood development, which sets the foundation for long-term health, as well as social and economic success. Campaigns, programs and policies aimed at reducing tobacco use should emphasise the inadvertent harm smoking habits can have on children’s present and future.

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

– ref. Children whose parents smoke have lower test scores and more behavioural issues than kids of non-smokers – https://theconversation.com/children-whose-parents-smoke-have-lower-test-scores-and-more-behavioural-issues-than-kids-of-non-smokers-172601

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Johanna Reidy, Lecturer, Department of Public Health, Wellington School of Medicine, University of Otago

As the start of a new school year looms, school uniforms are being dusted off or new ones bought. At the same time, age-old debates about the pros and cons of school uniforms are being dusted off, too.

But questions about practicality, cost or conformity tend to overshadow the bigger underlying issue of how uniforms – and rules about wearing them – actually affect educational outcomes.

In other words, does wearing (or not wearing) a uniform contribute to students being mentally well, physically comfortable, healthy and active – and therefore better equipped to learn?

After all, academic learning is a key reason children go to school in the first place. Given the heated arguments and the insistence on particular types of garments being worn, we might expect uniforms to directly enhance academic performance.

They don’t. There is no persuasive evidence that school uniforms are among the factors that directly improve learning. However, there is evidence uniforms might indirectly support classroom management – for example, by helping remove distractions so students settle more quickly to their tasks.

Instead of arguing about whether uniforms are good or bad, then, let’s refocus our energy on making better garment designs and fairer school uniform rules, with an eye to supporting educational outcomes.

From equality to equity

Since there’s no direct link between uniforms and academic achievement, why insist on dressing students the same? History provides some of the answer.

In the 19th century, when school uniforms became common alongside compulsory education, a kind of equality was achieved by treating all students the same. Uniforms provided “social camouflage” by removing outward signs of class differences.

One enduring benefit of school uniforms is that they reduce “competitive dressing” by students – the social pressure to wear certain clothes.

Read more:
Does wearing a school uniform improve student behavior?

Nowadays, however, the debate about uniforms sidesteps the issue of how treating students the same is not necessarily the same as treating them fairly. In fact, the research highlights a need for equity: to achieve more equal outcomes can require treating students differently.

Logically, if equality and sameness were directly correlated, school uniforms and school uniform policies should have a neutral or positive impact on all students. But this isn’t the case.

Garment design or policies about which garments can be worn when and by whom disadvantage poorer students, girls, religious minorities and gender-diverse students. Together, these student groups make up over half the school population.

Students are not uniform

We know uniforms are less expensive than non-uniform alternatives over a student’s total school career. But the high upfront cost of uniforms can be a significant burden for students from low-income families.

Some students even attend on alternate days because they share a uniform with a sibling, or skip school until they can buy a missing uniform item. It’s a sad irony that the very tool meant to encourage equal access to education has become a barrier for some even before they walk through the school gates.

But beyond the cost, uniform design and policy can directly affect girls’ ability to participate in physical activity or lunchtime play.

Read more:
Why do schools want all students to look the same?

At a basic level, boys simply don’t risk flashing their underwear if they bike to school in regulation uniform. By contrast, girls’ uniforms often restrict a full range of movement and inhibit playtime sports or the ability to enjoy the jungle gym.

Studies have shown girls are more active when wearing a sports uniform (over and above timetabled sport) than on ordinary uniform days, and are more willing to bike or choose active transport if they have a sports-style uniform.

For older girls, feeling comfortable and not exposed is a key factor in participating in sports or games at break times. Yet some schools still offer no alternative choice to a skirt. For overweight children, unflattering clothing can create a disincentive to participating in physical activity.

Religious minority groups, despite being members of the school community, are often not accommodated by school uniform design and policy. And inflexible school uniform policies routinely ignore the needs of transgender students.

Read more:
4 reasons schools should let students wear sports uniforms every day

Better uniforms for better learning

Clearly, same treatment no longer means fair treatment. We should rethink our approach to equity and allow for flexibility to achieve similar outcomes.

Indeed, all students could benefit from a general rethink, from ensuring uniform garments are sun-safe to allowing students to dress for the weather conditions. There’s no need to freeze during an unseasonable cold snap in November simply because it’s school policy that summer uniforms must be worn in summer months.

Ultimately, we should get beyond binary debates about whether school uniforms are good or bad, and focus on improving uniform garments and policies with equity, well-being and fairness in mind.

This means designing uniforms that are comfortable to wear, allow free movement, permit physical activity and encourage active transport choices to and from school.

Above all, uniform wearing should support mental and physical comfort and, most importantly, learning.

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

– ref. Once a form of ‘social camouflage’, school uniforms have become impractical and unfair. Why it’s time for a makeover – https://theconversation.com/once-a-form-of-social-camouflage-school-uniforms-have-become-impractical-and-unfair-why-its-time-for-a-makeover-175320

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeff Borland, Professor of Economics, The University of Melbourne

It would be nice to think Australia’s low unemployment rate – now 4.2%, the lowest since August 2008 – is here to stay.

We’ve been waiting a long time to see this. In the decade before the onset of COVID-19 the jobless rate hardly moved. In March 2010 it was 5.4%. Ten years later, in March 2020, it was 5.3%. In between the lowest the rate was to 4.9% – and then just for two months.

In 2021 the unemployment rate was under 5% in six out of 12 months.

A lower rate of unemployment makes us all better off. It means more of the nation’s productive resources are being put to work, and higher living standards for those extra people employed and their families.

Even with the effects of Omicron, there are good reasons to think the rate will fall further in 2022.

The bigger question is whether whatever lower rate we achieve can be sustained once all the effects of the pandemic are behind us. This will depend largely on how macroeconomic policy makers handle the transition.

High job vacancies

One reason to expect the rate to go lower in 2022 is recent employment growth – 365,000 in November, and 65,000 in December. With that pace of growth it’s likely there’s more to come, especially given the high level of job vacancies.

Had the vacancy rate at the end of 2021 been the same as before COVID-19, an extra 158,000 jobs would have been filled. Just half of those jobs going to the unemployed would have seen the December unemployment rate drop to 3.6%.

Read more:
Australia has record job vacancies, but don’t expect higher wages

Uncertainties make it difficult to predict exactly how much lower the jobless rate could go, or for how long. That will depend on macroeconomic policy – the reason the unemployment rate is where it is now.

Government action has been crucial

The big reason the unemployment rate has fallen is due to growth in the proportion of the population who are employed accelerating since mid-2021.

When you think about what changed in 2021 to make this happen, government policy has to be the main explanation.

Government spending on COVID-related programs has added considerably to gross domestic product, increasing employment.

Closed borders may also have added to GDP – by as much as 1.25% per annum, according to economist Saul Eslake – due to Australians redirecting spending from international travel to domestic consumption.

What follows is that a low rate of unemployment will depend on the policy makers being willing to continue to provide stimulus to economic activity.

An opposing force

One headwind blowing the unemployment rate higher may be faster growth in the labour-force participation rate, which measures the proportion of the population who want to work.

Before COVID-19 the participation rate had been increasing rapidly. With COVID-19 it slowed, due to reasons such as parents having to withdraw from the labour force to care for children.

Should growth in the labour-force participation rate return to its previous pace once the impact of COVID-19 recedes, the rate of unemployment will be pushed back up.

Read more:
Just 4.5% during lockdowns? The unemployment rate is now meaningless

Statistics for young workers

Issues to do with measurement may also be temporarily making the rate of unemployment artificially low.

The strongest employment growth from March 2020 to December 2021 was for those aged 15 to 24 years.

Younger workers were hardest hit during the 2020 downturns associated with COVID-19. But by December 2021 the proportion of young people employed was 3.5 percentage points higher than in March 2020. This compares with the employment rate being 1.2 percentage points higher than before the pandemic for those aged 25-64 years, and 0.9 percentage points higher for those 65 years and older.

The strength of employment growth for the young – given all we know about the increasing difficulties they faced in the labour market in the 2010s – is surprising.

My guess is it may in part be due to young Australian permanent residents taking over jobs previously held by international students and working holiday makers, and being more likely to be captured in official surveys.

Read more:
The economy can’t guarantee a job. It can guarantee a liveable income for other work

In that case,total employment of the young may not actually have changed by much, but the statistics show it increasing because of who is doing the work.

Before COVID-19 we could reasonably have expected the rate of unemployment today to be 5%. Instead, we’re at 4.2% and looking ahead in 2022 to further falls in unemployment. What lies beyond that is less certain.

Jeff Borland receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is a Board member of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.

– ref. An unemployment rate below 4% is possible. But for how long? – https://theconversation.com/an-unemployment-rate-below-4-is-possible-but-for-how-long-175618

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Mills, PhD Candidate, University of the Sunshine Coast

The internet allows us to check the surf, the news, traffic on the road, what our friends have been up to – all before getting out of bed. While this has made several aspects of life easier, it can also come at a cost.

The last decade has seen a growing number of Facebook groups and pages dedicated to revealing the locations of police traffic operations.

These Facebook communities rely on users to alert the group or page when they drive past a random breath testing or roadside drug testing operation, as well as speed and mobile phone cameras.

Our study, published recently in the journal Safety Science, aimed to find out more about how these sites were being used by a sample of 890 people who take drugs.

We found 25% of them reported using police location groups or pages on Facebook; of these people, 43% reported using the sites to avoid roadside drug testing operations (while others used the pages for other purposes, like traffic updates and avoiding speed cameras).

Our results suggest police location groups and pages on Facebook are helping drivers avoid detection for drug driving – a traffic offence recognised as contributing to 106 fatal injuries in 2019 in Australia.

Read more:
Speeding drivers keep breaking the law even after fines and crashes: new research

What we did

With increases in drug-related traffic fatalities across Australia in the last decade, we chose to focus our study on drug driving behaviours, and investigate how people use Facebook police location groups and pages to avoid roadside drug testing operations.

Our study involved 890 Queensland motorists who reported consuming either marijuana, MDMA and/or methamphetamines in the past 12 months. These are the three drugs tested for on roadside drug tests across all Australian states.

Participants were recruited through Facebook and completed an online survey.

We found:

• 59% of the sample (521 participants) reported at least one instance of drug driving in the previous 12 months
• 25% of the sample (219 participants) reported using Facebook police location communities
• of these 219 participants, almost two-thirds (142 participants) were drug drivers, however only 43% (94 participants) reported using the police location information to avoid roadside drug testing
• other reasons for using these sites included for traffic updates, viewing locations of speed and mobile phone cameras and to avoid random breath testing sites.

How drivers use police location sites is important

How drivers use police location sites is more important than whether they use them or not. Some drivers use them to actively avoid roadside drug testing, while others use them for different reasons (such as for traffic updates or information on speed cameras).

We found those who use these police location Facebook sites aren’t engaging in drug driving any more than people who don’t use these sites at all. And both groups considered it unlikely they would be caught if they were to drug drive.

A difference was found, however, when we compared those who reported using police location communities to avoid roadside drug testing and those who used the sites for a different reason (such as traffic updates or speed camera location information).

Those who used the police location Facebook sites to avoid roadside drug testing:

• offended more in the past (75 drug driving events on average, compared to 31 drug driving events)
• reported being more likely to offend again in the future
• viewed the Facebook police location posts more frequently (“few times a week” vs “few times per month”) and
• were more likely to believe the posts were accurate and reliable (a score of 6.57 out of 10 vs 5.20 out of 10).

What does this mean for road safety?

This study provides the first steps in exploring the use of police location sites on Facebook in relation to drug driving.

While not all offenders use these sites, there is a small proportion of drug drivers who do use the sites to actively avoid being detected.

This suggests the use of police location sites is a problematic area that needs more research to see how to further prevent drug driving.

Overall, participants considered it “unlikely” they would be caught for drug driving, regardless of whether they used Facebook police location groups and pages or not.

This is a significant problem as a core component of deterrence theory requires that for the legal punishment to effectively deter people, they need to believe the chance of being caught to be high.

Regardless of police location pages, there remains a fundamental need to increase motorists’ perceptions of being caught for drug driving.

This may be achieved through increasing awareness of drug testing operations when they are occurring on the roadside.

A recent study by the same research team found even just driving past a roadside drug testing operation two or more times within a year increased perceptions of being caught for drug driving.

Many motorists, however, are not aware that roadside drug testing often occurs alongside random breath testing.

Increasing roadside drug testing related signage during active operations may prove to be an important ingredient for enhancing the impact of roadside operations.

Taken together, while police location pages may prove to be a cause for concern, motorists’ already low estimations of being caught should not be overlooked.

Read more:
A new approach to cut death toll of young people in road accidents

Laura Mills receives funding from the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC).

James Freeman receives funding from the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC).

Verity Truelove receives funding from the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC).

– ref. Police location sites on Facebook are helping drivers avoid detection for drug driving – https://theconversation.com/police-location-sites-on-facebook-are-helping-drivers-avoid-detection-for-drug-driving-174869

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine R. M. Attard, Lecturer in Molecular Ecology, Flinders University

A trip into central Australia involves packing your 4WD to the brim with survival gear, water and food. Yet fish have managed to persist in that parched landscape for thousands of years – how do they do it?

We at the Flinders Molecular Ecology Lab went about finding out. Our recent research examined rainbowfish in Australia, to discover how they hold onto life in isolated pockets of water in the desert.

Pockets of water in the desert can only hold small fish populations. A small population means a small gene pool – which can lead to inbreeding and poor health, as we sometimes see in endangered species.

But we found even small populations can adapt to the harsh environments of water holes and small creeks. Life finds a way – even in one of the most extreme and unpredictable environments on Earth.

Prospering in central Australia

Native desert rainbowfish (Melanotaenia splendida tatei) live in the deserts of central Australia. They grow to about 9cm and are usually silver and iridescent, with a yellow and green chequered pattern on the fins.

Desert rainbowfish populations live in slow-flowing and still habitats, including impermanent rivers, waterholes, lakes, flowing bores and stock dams.

Their populations fluctuate during boom-bust cycles. During rare flooding events in the desert, rainbowfish breed in large numbers and spread along temporary streams and floodwaters.

Read more:
Australia’s smallest fish among 22 at risk of extinction within two decades

Our findings

Our research sought to determine how rainbowfish populations persist in desert regions of central Australia, and whether their genomes show evidence of adaptation to the local harsh conditions.

We collected 344 desert rainbowfish from 18 rivers and waterholes from across the vast and arid Lake Eyre Basin, and from semi-arid regions of the Murray-Darling Basin.

We then compared the variation in the genomes of these fish with data from satellite images about the presence of surface water in central Australia.

We found that natural selection in rainbowfish is stronger in regions of the desert that have drier conditions. Fish from the very arid western region of central Australia adapt differently to dry conditions than those from the semi-arid eastern region.

We also found these gene variations are carried by the fish as they disperse during the floods. The fish that were pre-adapted to very harsh conditions retreated with the floodwaters to wait out the often extended drought periods in small, isolated waterholes.

This suggests genes adapted to the most arid conditions may help small populations to persist in harsh environments. These adaptations might also help the species persist in future climates, which are expected to become drier and with more extreme events.

The most intriguing adaptive difference involved a mutation in a gene coding which leads to some fish producing a slightly different guanine nucleotide-binding protein. Fish use these proteins for taste and smell, to detect salinity and water flow, and to control light sensitivity for vision.

Rainbowfish in Central Australia may survive the harsh conditions because of this difference in the protein and other adaptations. This would improve their ability to sense the environment and how it varies across seasons.

The variation can be compared to the recent Omicron COVID-19 variant. Research has found mutations in the spike protein in some variants may aid its spread among humans.

Looking ahead

Our research found the genetic variation can be maintained in small rainbowfish populations to allow the species to survive in the desert.

The findings suggest that the population size of desert rainbowfish, at least during very dry periods of the year, is less than that commonly thought necessary in nature for species conservation and for adaptation to future climate changes. This turns on its head traditional thinking that small populations are evolutionary dead ends.

As climate change worsens, our findings highlight the importance of conserving natural river flows to enable freshwater species to respond and adapt.

Read more:
2021 was one of the hottest years on record – and it could also be the coldest we’ll ever see again

Catherine R. M. Attard has received funding from the Australian Government and other organisations. She is affiliated with organisations other than Flinders University.

Luciano Beheregaray receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Peter Unmack receives funding from Australian Research Council.

Chris Brauer, Jonathan Sandoval Castillo, and Louis Bernatchez 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. ‘Life finds a way’: here’s how rainbowfish survive in Australia’s scorching desert – https://theconversation.com/life-finds-a-way-heres-how-rainbowfish-survive-in-australias-scorching-desert-173590

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Dyer, Associate Professor, RMIT University

With a looming biodiversity crisis and concerns over food security and sustainability, bees are frequently making news headlines.

The importance of bees in our society as pollinators and honey producers appears to have led to their increased popularity in many artistic endeavours, such as film, social media, gaming and contemporary art.

Is this new fascination with bees a recent phenomenon? In our new study, we explored how bees are represented throughout different cultures, time periods and art mediums.

Their representation in art would tell us how people at different times perceived bees, which we also found has led to bees being a source of inspiration for different art forms.

Bee art throughout time and cultures

Bees have been depicted in carvings, jewellery, coins, songs, tools and sculptures for thousands of years. One of the first known depictions of bees is in the form of rock art from 8000 BCE in the Spider Caves (Cuevas de la araña) in Spain. It shows a person climbing a ladder to collect honey from a hive.

We examined the history of bees in culture and art from China, Central America, South America, and Australia. Centuries before the introduction of European honeybees, human societies in Central and South America had a close relationship with native stingless bees (Meliponini).

Advanced agricultural societies like the Mayans developed apicultural techniques (The raising and care of bees for commercial or agricultural purposes) and kept native bees in their homes. Some gods in their pantheon were consecrated as protectors of the hives, while others were often represented in postures resembling landing bees in sculptures adorning temples.

While Chinese art has a long history of representing plants, it was during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) that honeybees started to be represented in poetry and painting, when formal beekeeping and the use of bee products in traditional medicine increased.

Prior to the Tang Dynasty bees were regarded with suspicion due to the capacity of some bees to sting, revealing how a positive aesthetic representation of bees developed with an improved understanding of the value of bees to our environment and well-being.

Bee sounds in art culture and music

The buzzing sounds and signals bees make have intrigued humans for centuries. Indeed, the “drone” music style popularised by the Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows in name originates from Old English words representing male bees.

To the ear, ancient instruments like Australia’s First Nations Didgeridoo, Scottish Bagpipes, and India’s Tanpura resemble the rich and mesmerising drone sound of bees, and the ethnic communities of Southwestern China made special bee drums to celebrate cultural links to bees.

Bee-inspired music and song vary to accommodate the wide variety of experiences and emotions humans attempt to convey. In Britain during the 17th Century, Charles Butler scored the angelic Melissomelos from his keen observations of bee “voices” and their societal structure.

In popular music, bees have been called upon to express human emotions, and explore musical dynamics and mastery.

Today, co-species collaborations like “Into” by the music group Be directly employ honeybee sounds to present new ways of making music, while also promoting the plight of the precious providers.

Bees and architecture

Bees are some of nature’s best architects. The hexagonal structures in honeybee hives have inspired building design and architecture throughout the world, as well as futuristic designs for Mars. These bee-inspired buildings are evidenced across time and cultures, and represent different design goals. In some cases, bee inspired architecture forms the most stable and efficient structures.

Other buildings aim to highlight the importance of bees to humans. For example the New Zealand parliament’s “beehive” building pays homage to the efficiency and cooperation of bees, and the experimental architecture of The Hive, which is a 14 metre aluminium lattice cuboid built to bring attention to honeybee decline. Modern designs such as these reflect the perceived value of living or working like honeybees.

Bees in film and video games

Bees are increasingly represented in screen culture for both entertainment and environmental messaging like in the Bee Movie (2007). In the worldwide gaming phenomenon, Pokémon, the designs of a number of the imaginary creatures are based on bees, like female Combees that collect resources for their colony.

Our work reveals bees have long played an important role in human society as pollinators, sources of nutrition as well as artistic inspirations and muses.

However, as many bee species are not as common as they once were in the environment, there has never been a more important time to understand and communicate about bees.

Adrian Dyer receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Scarlett Howard receives funding from the Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.

Jair Garcia, Kit Prendergast, and Stuart McFarlane 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. From rock carvings to rock music – the prevalence of bees in art throughout human history – https://theconversation.com/from-rock-carvings-to-rock-music-the-prevalence-of-bees-in-art-throughout-human-history-173069

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jin Russell, Community and Developmental Paediatrician, University of Auckland

The Omicron variant has caused serious disruption to schooling overseas. As Aotearoa New Zealand prepares for an Omicron outbreak, we expect calls to close schools as case numbers rise.

In our research report, we assess the impacts of school closures on children and young people and make policy recommendations.

From a child-centred perspective, the goal should be to protect children from both direct and indirect harms from the pandemic. Direct harms refer to COVID-19 illness among children and their whānau. Indirect harms include educational impacts, social isolation and loneliness, financial strain and family stress – all of which children can experience during isolation or school closures.

It’s important to protect children from both types of harm.

It’s helpful to understand that children have consistently experienced less severe illness compared to older age groups. Infection in children typically resembles a cold, with cough, fever, sore throat and gastrointestinal symptoms that can be managed at home.

Many children have no symptoms at all. Of the 4,960 children who had COVID-19 in the Auckland Delta outbreak in August, between 1% to 2% were hospitalised. One child was admitted to an intensive care unit.

Hospitalisations will be much less common with vaccinations now available for all school-aged children. More than 90% of 12-18 year olds have already had two Pfizer doses.

Read more:
Should my child have a COVID vaccine? Here’s what can happen when parents disagree

The Omicron variant appears to cause less severe illness, including for children, than previous variants. Vaccinations are effective at protecting children from serious illness and are very safe.

In adolescents, two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are 94% protective against hospitalisation, 98% against ICU admission and 91% against the rarer complication of multisystem inflammatory syndrome. It is reasonable to expect similar vaccine protection for 5-11-year-olds.

Vaccines for primary school children need to be rolled out rapidly and equitably, especially for Māori and Pacific children who have borne a larger burden of illness and hospitalisation.

As vaccination coverage for 5-11-year-olds rises and adults are increasingly vaccinated and boosted, it’s time to pay more attention to protecting children from the indirect harms of the pandemic.

Prolonged closures are not a sustainable strategy

During the first 18 months of the pandemic, Aotearoa New Zealand topped the OECD for the number of days schools remained fully open. The successful elimination strategy used lockdowns, including school closures, to stamp out community transmission. This resulted in schools being fully open for long periods.

In a post-elimination context, with a highly vaccinated population and vaccines available for all school children, prolonged school closures are not an optimal or sustainable strategy.

Schools have not been major drivers of community transmission, compared to churches, gyms, restaurants and bars, probably due to protective measures in schools to prevent transmission. A systematic review was inconclusive as to whether school closures significantly affected community transmission.

It does not make sense to close schools while allowing other higher-risk indoor venues to stay open. School closures should be a last resort to control community transmission.

Schools should be considered as “essential services” for children and young people. Beyond formal education, they provide friendships, meals, social support, and therapists for children with disabilities.

Due to educational disadvantages, Māori and Pacific children are more affected by school closures and have the most to gain from ongoing in-person learning.

Lost learning from school closures can be considerable. While catch-up learning can occur, students from disadvantaged backgrounds can continue to lag behind, exacerbating existing inequities, with potentially life-long occupational impacts.

Children’s mental health

School closures also affect children’s emotional and mental health. Many children are resilient, but a substantial proportion experience poorer mental health and behavioural problems.

Social isolation, financial stress and divided attention at home can also contribute to worsening parental mental health and family violence. One in ten New Zealanders surveyed during the 2020 national lockdown reported directly experiencing some form of family violence. In all of these, disadvantaged children are disproportionately affected.

These indirect impacts are harder to quantify than case counts and hospitalisations but they are very real. Toxic stress – prolonged, stressful experiences in childhood – can lead to permanent changes in the architecture of the developing brain and stress-hormone systems, with life-long impacts on health and development.

Ventilation, masks and outdoor learning

We need to optimise the multi-layered approach to reducing COVID-19 transmission in schools in light of Omicron’s increased transmissibility.

Improving natural ventilation, maximising outdoor learning, using well-fitted masks and avoiding high-risk activities such as singing indoors are all known to reduce transmission within schools, particularly when these preventative measures are layered.

Natural ventilation is easier in summer through opening windows and doors. Carbon dioxide monitors can identify where ventilation needs to be improved and portable HEPA air cleaners for hard-to-ventilate rooms will be part of a clean-air strategy for schools.

Read more:
Schools need to know classrooms’ air quality to protect against COVID. But governments aren’t measuring it properly

Schools also need a robust mask strategy and teachers would benefit from access to strong mask protection. Booster vaccines for teachers are mandated and provide another strong layer of protection.

We also need to understand whether using rapid antigen tests to reduce the number of infected children attending schools is workable, as using these can be difficult to implement successfully. Surveillance testing, where students and staff are tested at home regularly, and test-to-stay policies, where students and staff who are close contacts test daily and only attend school if they test negative, are based on sound public health principles and deserve careful consideration.

Read more:
How to help your child get the most protection out of their face mask

We are calling for school closures to be a last resort to control community transmission. But this does not mean we believe schools should remain open for onsite learning at all costs.

Despite best efforts, schools may need to close temporarily during significant outbreaks or if large numbers of staff fall ill or isolate. But even if a school needs to revert to online learning, this doesn’t mean all in-person learning has to end.

Regular outdoor sessions could continue for all students even if indoor learning pauses, such as physical education classes, games for primary schoolers, and small group learning sessions. Such opportunities for interacting with friends and teachers would maintain relationships and bring many benefits for children at very low risk.

Doing our best for children and young people in 2022 means thinking about their health holistically. As vaccination coverage rises, keeping schools open as safely as possible is the most equitable plan for children.

This article was co-authored by public health physicians Dr Subha Rajanaidu (Auckland and Waitemata District Health Boards) and Dr Philippa Anderson (Counties Manukau DHB), and paediatricians Dr Danny de Lore (Ngāti Tuwharetoa, chair Royal Australasian College of Physicians’ Indigenous Child Health working group), Dr Emma Best, Dr Alison Leversha and Dr Rachel Webb (all at the University of Auckland).

Jin Russell 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. Despite Omicron arriving, keeping schools open as safely as possible should be the goal – https://theconversation.com/despite-omicron-arriving-keeping-schools-open-as-safely-as-possible-should-be-the-goal-175512

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matteo Bonotti, Senior lecturer, Monash University

On Australia Day each year, thousands of people become Australian citizens at ceremonies around the country.

Prospective citizens have to meet a number of eligibility criteria, including passing a citizenship test to show they have a reasonable knowledge of Australia and basic English.

But there are persistent suggestions those applying to be citizens should also pass a separate formal English test to prove their language skills.

In a newly published article with colleague Louisa Willoughby, we explain why this poses a range of problems and why it would not boost English proficiency among new Australians.

What do other countries do?

Language tests for citizenship have become increasingly common overseas: for example, 33 of 40 Council of Europe member states surveyed in 2018 had one.

In 2017, the Australian government also proposed adding a language test to the citizenship requirements. It backed away from the idea following a public backlash, although it continues to put a strong emphasis on the importance of English ability across the visa system.

Proponents of language tests for citizenship see them as promoting migrant integration and social inclusion. Requiring prospective citizens to pass an English test seems like an easy way to ensure they can be educated, employed and participate in society more generally.

But there are some real issues with this approach.

Why language tests don’t work

Language testing scholars have repeatedly criticised the tests, saying there is no evidence they help people integrate.

Read more:
The new Australian citizenship test: can you really test ‘values’ via multiple choice?

Furthermore, it is not clear what kind of language skills a citizenship language test should include.

As our article notes, language tests for jobs or entry to higher education have been developed by experts to reflect the linguistic demands of the relevant discipline or profession.

For example, doctors are tested on medical language and their ability to communicate respectfully and empathetically with patients, prospective university students on their academic reading and writing abilities, and so on.

But what are the language skills required to be a good citizen? We might think skills like being able to follow a political debate are a good starting point, but this is a very high bar that would exclude many people – including, potentially, some native English speakers.

What about testing basic skills?

And even if – like many European countries – we set the bar lower and asked for more basic, conversational language skills, this would still raise a number of problems. We know many factors beyond people’s control influence their ability to learn a second language after migration.

Among those who find it particularly difficult are older people, those with limited education or who are illiterate in their first language, and those who have experienced significant trauma (such as refugees and asylum seekers). Language tests risk putting citizenship out of reach for these vulnerable groups, an outcome that seems inequitable at best, discriminatory at worst.

This is complicated by the huge variation in the way people around the globe speak English, and how we avoid situations where those who speak English with particular accents (including, sometimes, well-educated native speakers), fail English tests because their accents are deemed too different from what the test thinks is “normal” or “standard”.

Tests as an incentive to learn English

What of the idea that tests motivate prospective citizens to learn the language of their new society?

Migrants’ motivation to learn the language of their new country cannot be assessed independently of contextual factors, especially incentives and rewards. Furthermore, migrants often face barriers around eligibility, scheduling, transport, work and childcare commitments, or lack of good quality classes.

Moreover, there is no guarantee tests actually work as an incentive. The Netherlands, for example, introduced a tough system that fines new migrants if they do not pass a Dutch test within three years of their arrival. Despite this, around one in four migrants still fails to pass the test within the required time.

Older migrants, especially those from countries where schooling is commonly interrupted (such as Afghanistan and Somalia), are particularly likely to fail the test. This reinforces the view that social and cognitive factors are more reliable predictors of language learning than lack of motivation.

What to do instead

Forcing people to pass an English test in order to become Australian citizens creates a range of practical and ethical problems, while producing little benefit for migrants and their host society.

Read more:
Australian values are hardly unique when compared to other cultures

Instead, the federal government should use other measures – such as extending eligibility for its adult migrant English program – to support English learning.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 has reinforced the importance of migrant language media and migrant associations. To better support and include this part of our population, we also need to ensure people with lower English skills are able to get the information they need and fulfil the expectations and duties of citizenship.

Matteo Bonetti 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.

Louisa Willoughby was co-author of the original research article. She is Associate Professor in linguistics at Monash University and the Greens candidate for Hotham at the upcoming federal election.

– ref. Should new Australians have to pass an English test to become citizens? – https://theconversation.com/should-new-australians-have-to-pass-an-english-test-to-become-citizens-175324

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tiffany Kosch, Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne

Around the world, populations of many beloved species are declining at increasing rates. According to one grim projection, as many as 40% of the world’s species may be extinct by 2050. Alarmingly, many of these declines are caused by threats for which few solutions exist.

Numerous species now depend on conservation breeding programs for their survival. But these programs typically do not encourage species to adapt and survive in the wild alongside intractable threats such as climate change and disease.

This means some species can no longer exist in the wild, which causes major downstream effects on the ecosystem. Consider, for example, how a coral reef would struggle to function without corals.

What if there was another way? My colleagues and I have developed an intervention method that aims to give endangered species the genetic features they need to survive in the wild.

Bringing theory into practice

Over generations, natural selection enables species to adapt to threats. But in many instances today, the speed at which threats are developing is outpacing species’ ability to adapt.

This problem is especially apparent in wildlife threatened by newly emerging infectious diseases such as chytridiomycosis in amphibians, and in climate-affected species such as corals.

The toolkit my colleagues and I developed is called “targeted genetic intervention” or TGI. It works by increasing the occurrence or frequency of genetic features that impact an organism’s fitness in the presence of the threat. We outline the method in a recent research paper.

The toolkit involves artificial selection and synthetic biology. These tools are well established in agriculture and medicine but relatively untested as conservation tools. We explain them in more detail below.

Many tools in our TGI toolkit have been discussed in theory in conservation literature in recent decades. But rapid developments in genome sequencing and synthetic biology mean some are now possible in practice.

The developments have made it easier to understand the genetic basis of features which enable a species to adapt, and to manipulate them.

Read more:
We name the 26 Australian frogs at greatest risk of extinction by 2040 — and how to save them

What is artificial selection?

Humans have long used artificial (or phenotypic) selection to promote desirable characteristics in animals and plants raised for companionship or food. This genetic alteration has led to organisms, such as domestic dogs and maize, that are dramatically different from their wild progenitors.

Traditional artificial selection can lead to outcomes, such as high inbreeding rates, that affect the health and resilience of the organism and are undesirable for conservation. If you’ve ever owned a purebred dog, you might be aware of some of these genetic disorders.

And when it comes to conservation, determining which individuals from a species are resistant to, say, a deadly pathogen would involve exposing the animal to the threat – clearly not in the interests of species preservation.

Scientists in the livestock industry have developed a new approach to circumvent these problems. Called genomic selection, it combines data from laboratory work (such as a disease trial) with the genetic information of the animals to predict which individuals bear genetic features conducive to adaptation.

These individuals are then chosen for breeding. Over subsequent generations, a population’s ability to survive alongside pervasive threats increases.

Genomic selection has led to disease-resistant salmon and livestock that produce more milk and better tolerate heat. But it is yet to be tested in conservation.

Read more:
How this little marsupial’s poo nurtures urban gardens and bushland (and how you can help protect them)

What is synthetic biology?

Synthetic biology is a toolkit for promoting change in organisms. It includes methods such as transgenesis and gene editing, which can be used to introduce lost or novel genes or tweak specific genetic features.

Recent synthetic biology tools such as CRISPR-Cas9 have created a buzz in the medical world, and are also starting to gain the attention of conservation biologists.

Such tools can accurately tweak targeted genetic features in an individual organism – making it more able to adapt – while leaving the rest of the genome untouched. The genetic modifications are then passed on to subsequent generations.

The method reduces the likelihood of unintended genetic changes that can occur with artificial selection.

Synthetic biology methods are currently being trialled for conservation in multiple species around the world. These include the chestnut tree and black-footed ferrets in the United States, and corals in Australia.

I am working with researchers at the University of Melbourne to develop TGI approaches in Australian frogs. We are trialling these approaches in the iconic southern corroboree frog, and plan to extend them to other species if they prove effective.

Worldwide, the disease chytridiomycosis is devastating frog populations. Caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, it has led to the extinction of about 90 frog species and declines in as many as 500 others.

Many frog species now rely on conservation breeding for their continued survival. No effective solution for restoring chytrid-susceptible frogs to the wild exists, because the fungus cannot be eradicated.

Looking ahead

As with many conservation approaches, targeted genetic intervention is likely to involve trade-offs. For example, genetic features that make a species resistant to one disease may make it more susceptible to another.

But the rapid rate of species declines means we should trial such potential solutions before it’s too late. The longer species are absent from an ecosystem, the greater the chance of irreversible environmental changes.

Any genetic intervention of this type should involve all stakeholders, including Indigenous peoples and local communities. And caution should be taken to ensure species are fit for release and pose no risk to the environment.

By bringing the concept of TGI to the attention of the public, government, and other scientists, we hope we will spur discussion and encourage research on its risks and benefits.

Read more:
5 major heatwaves in 30 years have turned the Great Barrier Reef into a bleached checkerboard

Tiffany Kosch is a member of One Health Research Group at the University of Melbourne. Her research is currently funded by the Australian Research Council (grants FT190100462 and LP200301370). Additionally, the genome of their target species, the Southern Corroboree frog is currently being sequenced at no cost to the group by the Vertebrate Genomes Project.

– ref. Some endangered species can no longer survive in the wild. So should we alter their genes? – https://theconversation.com/some-endangered-species-can-no-longer-survive-in-the-wild-so-should-we-alter-their-genes-175226

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Danaher, Lecturer in Nutrition, RMIT University

Insects are sustainable, nutritious and delicious. They’re eaten by more than two billion people worldwide, mostly in the tropics, and have been a staple in Indigenous Australians’ diets for tens of thousands of years.

Yet eating insects isn’t mainstream in Australia. Why?

We surveyed 601 Australians on their experience with, and attitude towards, edible insects. Our findings offer insight into which factors might convince people to add edible insects to their diet.

Importantly, we found Australians are not deterred by the “ick” factor of eating insects, and would be willing to try them as a protein alternative if not for a “lack of opportunity”.

Of the adults we surveyed, 56.2% reported they would be “likely” to eat insects in the future (a much more promising result than that from a recent European Union survey) – and this figure increased to 82.2% among those who had already tried them.

Missed opportunities

Although insects don’t commonly feature on Aussie menus, there are 60 insect species which have been recorded as a traditional food source for Indigenous Australians, including witjuti grubs, bogong moths and honey pot ants.

The ancient Romans and Greeks ate insects, too. It’s thought Westernised countries may have lost their taste for edible insects during the shift from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture and urbanisation.

Insects went from fulfilling the role of a staple food to being pests that destroy crops, and this may have prompted a shift in our attitudes towards eating them.

Research conducted with older Australians has revealed a tendency to view the practise as disgusting and incompatible with their personal beliefs, raising concern there may be reluctance for edible insects to return to being a normalised and viable protein alternative.

As it turns out, most people aren’t that squeamish

But our research (mainly with participants aged 25 to 44 years) shows Aussies have begun to adopt a more positive outlook towards insect-based foods.

Of those surveyed, 35% had previously tried insects, most commonly crickets and grasshoppers. And people who had already tried them were also more open to eating them again, which suggests a “taste” for bugs can be developed. Of those who hadn’t tried insects, only 16% reported “disgust” was holding them back.

This paradigm shift may be linked to people expressing more concern for the environmental cost of their food, and a greater interest in adopting healthy dietary habits.

Participants also reported they would be willing to eat insect-based products if it was easier to find out how such foods are beneficial, both from a nutrition and sustainability standpoint.

They said endorsements from governing bodies, as well as more prominence of edible insects in mainstream media, would boost their interest in eating insects – as well as “try before you buy” promotions.

For those willing to give insects a go, insect-based flours (such as bread and biscuits), chocolate-coated ants and crickets were the top choices. Not all species were received the same way, however, with moths and fly larvae not generating such a buzz.

Still, the shift towards a willingness to try insects is promising for Australia’s growing edible insect market.

Embracing future foods

With the global population still growing, we will need alternative sources of protein to sustainably meet future food production requirements.

The demand for protein is on the rise and, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, will have to increase by 76% by 2050. But production is restricted due to Earth’s finite resources.

Edible insects have potential as an important future food, offering a nutritious protein source that’s more sustainable to produce – using less land, energy and water.

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. We asked hundreds of Aussies whether they’d eat insects, and most said yes – so what’s holding people back? – https://theconversation.com/we-asked-hundreds-of-aussies-whether-theyd-eat-insects-and-most-said-yes-so-whats-holding-people-back-173595

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Neil Tuttle, Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist & Senior Lecturer, University of Tasmania

Some people habitually crack their joints, others can’t, and many are irritated by those who do.

So what’s going on? Why do people do it, is it harmful, what makes the noises, and what would happen if our joints weren’t able to crack?

Before going on, it’s important to note we’re talking here about people cracking their own joints. This is also known as “self-manipulation”. But when a physiotherapist or chiropractor cracks (or manipulates) your spine, what makes the noises is the same, but the implications can be very different than what’s being discussed here.

Although it may irritate friends and family, self-manipulating our joints is probably neither useful nor harmful for the individual.

Why do we crack our joints?

People crack their joints because they feel better, looser, or less stiff afterwards.

The relief is temporary and they typically repeat it at some point after 20 minutes, when the effects wear off.

While joint cracking may seem incomprehensible to us non-crackers, we all do similar behaviours.

“Pandiculation” is the nearly universal type of stretching we do after being inactive – even dogs, cats, elephants, spiders and unborn sheep do it.

The drive to “pandiculate” and it’s transient effects are similar to joint cracking. However, pandiculation is thought to have positive effects on the body, by restoring and resetting the structural and functional equilibrium. The same is not the case for cracking joints.

It doesn’t cause arthritis

Probably everyone who self-manipulates has been told – usually by someone irritated by the behaviour – not to do it because it will cause arthritis.

It’s now clear this isn’t the case.

American doctor Donald Unger famously cracked knuckles only on one hand for over 50 years, and found no sign of increased arthritis compared to the other hand. For this he received an IgNoble Prize in Medicine in 2009, an award for unusual achievements in research.

Read more:
Monday’s medical myth: cracking your knuckles causes arthritis

In another study, knuckle cracking was not found to increase the incidence of arthritis in an elderly population who had cracked their knuckles compared to those who didn’t. Also, the incidence of arthritis was not greater in the knuckles they did crack, compared to the other joints of the hand that weren’t cracked.

There are a few reports of injury from knuckle cracking, but these are probably too minor and infrequent to be of much concern.

Put simply, there don’t appear to be significant adverse effects to cracking your joints.

What makes the noise?

When people crack their knuckles they separate the joint surfaces and the pressure within the joint decreases. At a certain point the surfaces suddenly separate and a bubble forms by a process known as cavitation.

A similar effect can also occur with a simulated joint, as in the video above.

It’s not entirely clear however which part of the process causes the actual cracking noise in humans. One theory is the noise is produced by the formation of the bubble itself. Another theory suggests it’s the breaking of the fluid “adhesive seal” between the joint surfaces as occurs with pulling a suction cup off of a wall.

Why have our joints evolved to crack?

Perhaps the most interesting question is why our joints developed in such a way that they’re able to crack.

I had a conversation recently with Jerome Fryer, a Canadian researcher who was involved in the above study with the simulated joint. He raised an interesting idea which hasn’t been published. Could the ability of our joints to crack actually serve a useful purpose?

When the simulated joints in his study were filled with normal water, the joint surfaces separated easily, which formed bubbles but didn’t produce the cracking sound.

But when the water was treated to remove all of the dissolved gasses and microscopic bubbles, the simulated joint performed more like a real joint. That is, much more force was needed to separate the surfaces, and only then did it produce a cracking sound.

Perhaps the fact it requires a large force to separate our joints, which happens to also produce a cracking sound, may be very useful by assisting in joint stability and thereby providing protection from our joints being damaged.

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

– ref. Cracking joints isn’t bad for you and could even serve a useful purpose – https://theconversation.com/cracking-joints-isnt-bad-for-you-and-could-even-serve-a-useful-purpose-162437

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Violetta Wilk, Lecturer & Researcher in Digital Marketing, Edith Cowan University

If you’re a parent, chances are that, like me, you are frantically trying to get a head start on the new school year. In coping with the stress of COVID-19 lockdowns, restrictions, empty shelves in stores, working from home and minimal communications by schools over the holidays, we’ve turned to our virtual community of friends for help.

Let’s face it, most of us probably don’t have the time to or simply can’t pop in for a cuppa with one of the other parents to just have a chat. And there are pressing things to discuss, such as the school book list that has gone missing over the holidays, where to get the best deal on a headset with a microphone suitable for an eight-year-old, which brand of white sport shoes will last more than a week in the dusty schoolyard, or where to get the two boxes of facial tissues the teacher asked children to supply when there are none at the shops!

This is where our online friends can help.

Our digital ‘tribes’

People have formed tribes since the dawn of time. We are no different in this digital age. Members of a tribe typically share some similarities, which are like glue that holds the group together. Our online groups, or digital “tribes”, connect us based on a common interest, topic, location or school. They include:

• mum groups – for example, Australian School Mums, School Mums Australia, Organised Mums Australia

• location-based groups – 6009 and 6010 Community Notice Board, Mansfield and District Community Noticeboard, Brunswick Heads Community

• consumer groups – Second Hand School Uniforms and School Uniforms and Books Buy Swap and Sell

• school-based groups.

The pandemic has fuelled the rise in online tribes, as people have been restricted in their movement, locked down in their homes and limited in their access to family and friends. They now rely on their online connections for information, advice, help and friendship.

My team’s recent research into online communities suggests these are rife with “prosumers”. Proactive consumers (“prosumers”) create and share online content, which makes them influential members of social networks. Our prosumer-friends are well informed, quick to respond and supportive when the school-work-life juggling act overwhelms us.

These are people like us. The digital tribe is much bigger than our real, physical community. We don’t have to know each member personally to be able to connect with them digitally.

And as our lives are so digitally integrated, we no longer differentiate between our real and virtual friends. Linda Thomas, who has two primary school-aged children, says:

“As a full-time working mum, I’m often unable to keep in touch with my friends in person, which can be quite isolating, especially now during COVID. Facebook and WhatsApp groups have been so important to me in maintaining contact and community support by networking with parents similar to me.”

Online marketplaces help with the budget

With the rise in online groups comes a rise in online consumer marketplaces. Facebook groups, such as Sustainable School Shop and Perth Buy and Sell, can help parents manage the return-to-school budget.

Items that are no longer needed or unused, such as uniforms, books, electronics and stationery, are often given away, swapped or sold at a fraction of the original cost. An example is a Facebook local community group post by a mum giving away a spare laptop to someone who needs it for school.

In our research, my colleagues and I found social media users’ exchanges have not been all negative during the pandemic – there has been a lot of positivity. The support, information and advice that social media users provide one another in these online groups have been invaluable for navigating purchasing at stores affected by supply disruptions.

Such positivity often reflects online brand advocacy (OBA), with online group members recommending brands they have tried to others. This sort of advocacy is authentic as it is freely given and based on online group member’s actual experience with the brand. It is also influential as it is trusted more than brand-generated content, such as when a parent suggests trying Officeworks to find that headset for our eight-year-old.

Interestingly, targeted advertising is also rife online. When you interact with content on a school-related topic, be it kids’ shoes, school labels, tutoring or kids sports, the platform’s algorithm will serve you ads that mirror your engagement. Such advertising is not necessarily a nuisance as it can help us in deciding what to buy.

As parents, we are in this “get our child ready for school” mission together. Online groups provide support, information and friendships beyond what we have access to in real life during these trying times.

So, if you haven’t already, join a digital tribe! It might make the start of the new school year that little bit easier.

Violetta Wilk 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 online groups are parents’ best friends in getting ready for the school year – https://theconversation.com/why-online-groups-are-parents-best-friends-in-getting-ready-for-the-school-year-175434

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa French, Professor & Dean, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University

On the Australia Day weekend in 1952, a group of die-hard film buffs put on a film festival. They had selected the leafy hills of Olinda in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges for the event. They expected 80 people – but more than 600 turned up!

In the 1950s, very few Australian films were being made. Those that were produced were largely documentaries, with narrative features extremely rare. Despite this, an avid film culture flourished through local film societies.

Australian film buffs were thirsty to see international films from Europe and Asia, but local cinemas only screened Hollywood fare. Australian authorities would, however, allow international films to enter the country for exhibition at a film festival.

So a festival in Melbourne was excitedly planned.

That first event, as ambitious as it was popular, is now celebrating its 70th anniversary. It grew into the internationally renowned Melbourne International Film Festival, which will commemorate its 70th anniversary in August this year, making it one of the world’s oldest film festivals.

Sleeping in a church hall

The Australian Council of Film Societies, who convened the festival, chose Olinda because it was a popular tourist destination with plenty of accommodation.

Due to the numbers of film buffs who flocked there, the guest houses were fully booked. Many locals threw open their doors to accommodate the influx, but it was not enough.

My mother was one of many who went along and had to bed down in a church hall.

The appeal of the film festival was so great that some people travelled back and forth from Melbourne daily.

Among the attendees were many who would become prominent Australian filmmakers, like Tim Burstall, John Heyer and Stanley Hawes.

Interviewed in the documentary Birth of a Film Festival, Burstall remembered making the journey to Olinda with artist Arthur Boyd. They packed their families into Boyd’s 1929 Dodge and headed for the hills.

The large attendance forced the organisers to arrange additional screening venues. They set up a makeshift screen under the stars, and borrowed another hall in a neighbouring town.

Frank Nicholls, who was president of the Australian Council of Film Societies, had to rush reels from the hall in Olinda to another in Sassafras by car, causing a delay mid-screening if he was late with the next reel.

Organisers invited national and international luminaries including Australian filmmaker Charles Chauvel. Although Chauvel did not attend, his telegram was included in the “programme alterations”:

My best wishes to all and my regrets not being able to be present.

Prime Minister Robert Menzies was invited but in a letter to Nicholls (kept in a scrapbook by volunteer Mary Heintz), he delegated the invitation to the Minister for the Interior, Mr W.S. Kent Hughes.

Hughes presented the Juilee Awards for films made in Australia. He gave a speech outlining government plans to support documentary and independent producers, and stayed to watch the opening night under a canopy of stars.

Read more:
Australian cinema for Australia Day

The first film festival program

Jean Cocteau’s famous 1946 film Beauty and the Beast opened the festival to great acclaim. Others screened included Robert J. Flaherty’s Louisiana Story (1948), as well as many Australian documentaries, clips from early Australian films, and some historic French short works by Georges Méliès.

One of the local highlights was a film made for the Department of Immigration titled Mike and Stefani (1952), directed by Ron Maslyn Williams. It won a prize for its depiction of two war-broken refugees granted visas to come to Australia.

The festival weekend also included talks and an exhibition of film stills at the local school.

The press picked up on the vigorous debate swirling around the festival that weekend. On January 31, the Adelaide News reported attendees expressed dismay at censors banning films like Roberto Rossellini’s The Miracle (1948), which was deemed sacrilegious.

Read more:
The great movie scenes: Rome, Open City – fascism, tragedy and the birth of Italian neo-realism

Success – and suspicion

The Olinda Film Festival was a huge success.

Nicholls described Olinda in The Sun of January 29 1952 as “the most comprehensive” film festival ever held in Australia, screening “hundreds of Continental, English, Australian and Oriential films and even a Russian propaganda production”.

But not everyone celebrated the festival’s success. Even with Menzies’ support, it was discovered after the event that, while cinema enthusiasts were enjoying the event, ASIO was watching. Evidently the Australian government regarded the film festival as a prime draw-card for subversive characters intent on overthrowing authority.

Still, the success of Olinda – far greater than anyone could have foreseen – earned the festival a permanent place in Australian and international screen culture. It demonstrated that non-commercial films could interest large audiences, and Australian films could do the same.

Nicholls went on to become the first chairperson of the Melbourne Film Festival and later of The Australian Film Institute. At the 50th celebration of the 1952 event, Nicholls said:

The festival was a goer, and it’s still going strong. But there was never quite one like Olinda.

Material in this article was sourced in interviews and research for Birth of a Film Festival (directed by Mark Poole and produced by Lisa French in 2003), about the first festival and it’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Lisa French is the producer of the film mentioned in this article ‘Birth of a Film Festival’ 2003.

– ref. Makeshift screens, censored films and ASIO: how the Melbourne International Film Festival began 70 years ago – https://theconversation.com/makeshift-screens-censored-films-and-asio-how-the-melbourne-international-film-festival-began-70-years-ago-175440

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

Dylan Alcott, wheelchair tennis star and leading advocate for people with a disability, is the 2022 Australian of the Year.

With 23 quad wheelchair Grand Slam titles, including singles and doubles, Alcott, from Melbourne, last year became the first man, in any form of tennis, to win a Golden Slam.

He won the singles titles at the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. He also won the singles gold medal at the  Tokyo Paralympics.

On Thursday Alcott, 31, competes to his eighth straight Australian Open quad wheelchair singles final, playing Dutchman Sam Schröder. He has said he will retire from professional tennis after the Australian Open.

In earlier years he played in the Australian men’s national wheelchair basketball team, The Rollers. He was a member of the Rollers team that won gold at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

Alcott, a motivational speaker, founded the Dylan Alcott Foundation to provide scholarships and grant funding to marginalised Australians with a disability, and co-founded Get Skilled Access.

Ability Fest, Australia’s only completely inclusive and fully accessible music festival, was his brainchild. He has a widely-based media profile.

Alcott made a flying visit to receive the award from Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Canberra on Tuesday night.

This is the first time in the 62 years of the award that a person with a disability has been named Australian on the Year.

Chair of the National Australia Day Council Danielle Roche said: “Dylan is an inspirational Australian on and off the tennis court. Through the Dylan Alcott Foundation, he is giving young Australians facing disadvantage the promise of a better future.”

Receiving the award, Alcott said that as Australia opened up from the pandemic, “we’ve got to think about and prioritise people with disability – some of the most vulnerable people in our community. We’ve got to get them the vaccines and the tests and whatever else they need so they can get out there and start living their life.

“If a person with a disability needs a free daily RAT test so they feel confident going out and doing things that we all might take for granted, they’ve got to get that RAT test. We’ve got to keep improving more employment opportunities for people with a disability as well.”

Earlier on Tuesday, at a morning tea for finalists at The Lodge, Grace Tame, outgoing Australian of the Year and passionate advocate for victims of sexual abuse, set off an intense social media debate when she delivered a very deliberate snub to Morrison.

Her face was grimly unsmiling as she posed with Morrison and his wife Jenny, with her side-eying of the PM clear in the photos. Tame has been highly critical of Morrison at times over the past year.

The Senior Australian of the Year is Val Dempsey, 71, from Canberra, a St John Ambulance volunteer for more than half a century, starting as a cadet volunteer while at primary school.

Young Australian of the Year is Dr Daniel Nour, 26, from Sydney, founder of Street Side Medics, a not-for-profit, GP-led mobile medical service for homeless people. It has 145 volunteers and four clinics across NSW.

The 2022 Australia’s Local Hero is founder and CEO of Sober in the County, Shanna Whan, 47, of Narrabri, NSW.

Michelle Grattan 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. Tennis champ Dylan Alcott is 2022 Australian of the Year – https://theconversation.com/tennis-champ-dylan-alcott-is-2022-australian-of-the-year-175657

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Indigenous Studies and Director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, Macquarie University

Today we woke to the news the Australian government has negotiated with the designer of the Aboriginal flag Harold Thomas, and copyright for the flag will be transferred to the Commonwealth. The government has now stated the flag is freely available for public use. Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated:

We’ve freed the Aboriginal flag for Australians.

While many Indigenous people are celebrating today and rejoicing in the idea the flag has been “freed,” I am not so sure.

I think we should all take a moment to pause and consider what this new “ownership” might represent.

A brief history of the flag

The flag was first flown at Victoria Square on Kaurna Country, on National Aborigines Day in July in 1971.

In 1972, it became the official flag for the Aboriginal Tent Embassy which was established on Ngunnawal Country.

In 1995, William Hayden, Governor General of Australia proclaimed both the Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag (designed by the late Bernard Manok as) “Flags of Australia” under the Flags Act 1953.

But the truth is the Aboriginal flag has always been our flag. We didn’t need an act of parliament to recognise its significance.

A national flag?

National flags are seen as sacred objects by many: in many countries, to desecrate the flag carries penalties. As citizens, we are expected to revere the national flag and to be proud of what it represents.

But the Australian national flag represents white sovereignty and a belief in national unity.

The national flag symbolises both patriotism and nationalism. Nowhere was this more evident than when Morrison wore a mask sporting the design of the flag. The flag/mask drapes his face with the most prominent national symbol for all to see. When wearing this mask, the prime minister literally embodies the symbolism of nation and all that stands for.

The national flag is flown at schools and all prominent government buildings. It is, for many Australians, a site of heightened emotion where the main response is a sense of belonging to what Benedict Anderson called an “imagined community”.

Of course, the Union Jack is another nation’s flag. It belongs to the United Kingdom. It represents our dispossession and is a constant reminder of our forced and continued colonisation.

The Union Jack does not represent us, our history or our future aspirations.

A symbol of strength

The Aboriginal flag is a symbol of our strength as an ancient people who preceded the symbolic and real effects of national borders.

The Aboriginal flag does not belong to all Australians. It belongs, like the land, to us as a symbol of our sovereignty. Morrision’s statement about having “freed” the flag for all is offensive.

It is ours; he has no authority to “free” it. The Aboriginal flag cannot just be “freed”. It is an emblem of our emotion, our loves and losses. It holds our faith, our hope and our future.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s. When I saw the Aboriginal flag, I felt a sense of pride and belonging. As a young person, I wasn‘t aware there were any copyright issues or that there were legalities that needed to be considered.

I always knew I belonged to what the flag stood for: our survival, our resilience as Indigenous people, and our steadfastness in the face of the on-going and omnipresent colonial struggles that continue to affect us today.

Our sorrows and our unity

On Australia Day, we see the Australian national flag waving take place. There is both banality and symbolism to this ritual.

For some, the flag is waved without thought as to what it might mean to others: it is just part of the ritual of the national holiday. For many, it is emotionally charged and can generate fervour and national pride. I am not sure many people stop to think about the flag’s design, its history or what it might mean to some non-white Australians.

But the design of the Aboriginal flag is intimately connected to our struggle for land rights.

The red represents the land, the yellow the life-giving sun and the black Aboriginal people.

The flag is a symbol of our unceded sovereignty of our lands. It represents a powerful symbol of resistance in our ongoing battle with the Crown in terms of the unlawful claiming of our lands as terra nullius.

Read more:
Henry Reynolds: Australia was founded on a hypocrisy that haunts us to this day

How is it possible it can be so seamlessly hijacked in order to be incorporated – “freed” – into another set of meanings? Allowed onto the market for anyone to use? I see this act of “freeing” our flag as an act of arrogance at the very least.

One could also say it is a violent appropriation of what Aboriginal people deem to be a symbol of reverence.

Our flag contains our sorrows and our unity as a colonised people. It is not a “free-for-all” symbol. Nor is it a symbol that can be neatly injected into the national psyche as a means of expressing some kind of racial unity that overshadows the injustice and inequality Aboriginal people experience on a daily basis.

It is the fabric of our souls. When it flies, we can see ourselves in flight as we once were, free nations.

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

– ref. Don’t say the Aboriginal flag was ‘freed’ – it belongs to us, not the Commonwealth – https://theconversation.com/dont-say-the-aboriginal-flag-was-freed-it-belongs-to-us-not-the-commonwealth-175623