Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Hoar, Senior Lecturer, School of Communications Studies, Auckland University of Technology

Eighty-one years ago, a broadcast of Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds supposedly caused mass hysteria in America, as listeners thought martians had invaded New Jersey.

There are varying accounts of the controversial incident, and it remains a topic of fascination, even today.

Back when Welles’s fictional martians attacked, broadcast radio was considered a state-of-the-art technology.

And since the first transatlantic radio signal was transmitted in 1901 by Guglielmo Marconi, radio has greatly innovated the way we communicate.

Dots and dashes

Before Marconi, German physicist Heinrich Hertz discovered and transmitted the first radio waves in 1886. Other individuals later developed technologies that could send radio waves across the seas.

At the start of the 20th century, Marconi’s system dominated radio wave-based media. Radio was called “wireless telegraphy” as it was considered a telegraph without the wires, and did what telegraphs had done globally since 1844.

Messages were sent in Morse code as dots and dashes from one point to another via radio waves. At the time, receiving radio required specialists to translate the dots and dashes into words.

Read more: Nazis pressed ham radio hobbyists to serve the Third Reich – but surviving came at a price

The more refined technology underpinning broadcast radio was developed during the first world war, with “broadcast” referring to the use of radio waves to transmit audio from one point to many listeners.

This year, organised broadcast radio turns 100. These days it’s considered a basic technology, but that may be why it remains such a vital medium.

SOS: the Titanic sinks

By 1912, radio was used to run economies, empires and armed forces.

Its importance for shipping was obvious – battleships, merchant ships and passenger ships were all equipped with it. People had faith in technological progress and radio provided proof of how modern machines benefited humans.

However, the sinking of the Titanic that year caused a crisis in the world’s relationship with technology, by revealing its fallibility. Not even the newest technologies such as radio could avoid disaster.

Some argue radio use may have increased the ship’s death toll, as the Titanic’s radio was outdated and wasn’t intended to be used in an emergency. There were also accusations that amateur “ham radio” operators had hogged the bandwidth, adding to an already confusing and dire situation.

Nonetheless, the Titanic’s SOS signal managed to reach another ship, which led to the rescue of hundreds of passengers. Radio remains the go-to medium when disasters strike.

Making masts and networks

Broadcast radio got traction in the early 1920s and spread like a virus. Governments, companies and consumers started investing in the amazing new technology that brought the sounds of the world into the home.

Huge networks of transmitting towers and radio stations popped-up across continents, and factories churned out millions of radio receivers to meet demand.

Some countries started major public broadcasting networks, including the BBC.

Read more: NPR is still expanding the range of what authority sounds like after 50 years

Radio stations sought ways around regulations and, by the mid 1930s, some broadcasters were operating stations that generated up to 500,000 watts.

One Mexican station, XERA, could be heard in New Zealand.

Hearing the Hindenburg

On May 6, 1937, journalist Herbert Morrison was experimenting with recording news bulletins for radio when the Hindenburg airship burst into flames.

His famous commentary, “Oh the humanity”, is often mistaken for a live broadcast, but it was actually a recording.

Recording technologies such as transcription discs, and later magnetic tape and digital storage, revolutionised radio.

Broadcasts could now be stored and heard repeatedly at different places instead of disappearing into the ether.

Transistors and FM

In 1953 radios got smaller, as the first all transistor radio was built.

Transistor circuits replaced valves and made radios very cheap and portable.

Along with being portable, radio sound quality improved after the rise of FM broadcasting in the 1960s. While both FM and AM are effective ways to modulate carrier waves, FM (frequency modulation) offers better audio quality and less noise compared to AM (amplitude modulation).

Music on FM radio sounded as good as on a home stereo. Rock and roll and the revolutionary changes of the 1960s started to spread via the medium.

AM radio was reserved for talkback, news and sport.

Beeps in space

In 1957, radio experienced lift-off when the USSR launched the world’s first satellite.

Sputnik 1 didn’t do much other than broadcast a regular “beep” sound by radio.

But this still shocked the world, especially the USA, which didn’t think the USSR was so technologically advanced.

Sputnik’s beeps were propaganda heard all round the world, and they heralded the age of space exploration.

Today, radio is still used to communicate with astronauts and robots in space.

Radio astronomy, which uses radio waves, has also revealed a lot about the universe to astronomers.

Digital, and beyond

Meanwhile on Earth, radio stations continue to use the internet to extend their reach beyond that of analogue technologies.

Social media helps broadcasters generate and spread content, and digital editing tools have boosted the possibilities of what can be done with podcasts and radio documentaries.

Read more: Radio as a form of struggle: scenes from late colonial Angola

The radio industry has learnt to use digital plenitude to the max, with broadcasters building archives and producing an endless flood of material beyond what they broadcast.

This year marks a century of organised broadcast radio around the world.

Media such as movies, television, the internet and podcasts were expected to sound its death knell. But radio embraces new technology. It survives, and advances.

– ref. Broadcast turns 100: from the Hindenburg disaster to the Hottest 100, here’s how radio shaped the world – http://theconversation.com/broadcast-turns-100-from-the-hindenburg-disaster-to-the-hottest-100-heres-how-radio-shaped-the-world-125717

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Associate Professor, Queensland University of Technology

For many young people, pornography has become the default sex educator. Children and young people are encountering pornography in greater numbers, at younger ages, and with a wider variety of content, influencing young people’s sexual lives.

Research evidence from around the world shows porn has harmful impacts on young people and adults alike. Some impacts are deeply troubling, particularly pornography’s contribution to sexual violence.

Read more: How male ‘porn superfans’ really view women

But with sexually explicit material still so easy to access online, there are ways we can minimise its harms among young people, from providing better education at school to developing more ethical porn.

The effects of porn: what the research says

Pornography can shift sexual interests, behaviours and relationships. It shapes “sexual scripts”, providing models of behaviour and guiding sexual expectations, with studies finding links between watching pornography and heterosexual anal intercourse, unsafe sex and more.

Watching pornography can lower men’s relationship satisfaction. And for women, male partners’ pornography use can reduce intimacy, feed self-objectification and body shame, or involve coercion into sexual acts.

But these next areas of impact concern me most.

Pornography teaches sexist and sexually objectifying understandings of gender and sexuality. For instance, in a randomised experimental study among young men in Denmark, exposure to (nonviolent) pornography led to less egalitarian attitudes and higher levels of hostile sexism. And in a longitudinal study among US adolescents, increased use of pornography predicted more sexist attitudes for girls two years later.

Pornography also teaches violent attitudes and behaviours to both adolescents and adults.

Read more: Many young women find pleasure in sexually explicit material but it still reinforces gender inequality

What’s more, meta-analyses – systematic research that synthesises multiple studies – from 2000 and 2015 have found associations between watching pornography and actual violent behaviours.

Aggression, largely by males and overwhelmingly against females, is common in pornography: an analysis of top-selling and top-renting titles found 88% of scenes showed aggression.

Men who use pornography more often are more likely to practise or desire dominant, degrading practices, such as gagging and choking. And women who use pornography are more likely to practise or desire submissive practices.

In fact, longitudinal studies among adolescents find watching pornography is linked to sexually violent behaviour later in life. In a US study, people who watched violent pornography were more than six times as likely to engage in sexually aggressive behaviour. In another, it predicted more frequent sexual harassment perpetration two years later.

Read more: We need a new definition of pornography – with consent at the centre

But while pornography use is an important risk factor for sexual violence, its risks are greater for some users than others. Four factors mediate the impacts of porn: the user’s attitudes and personality, their engagement with the material, its content, and the context of watching it.

So what can we do to minimise the harms of pornography on children and youths?

Ethical porn and better education

Comprehensive sexuality education in schools is vital for providing alternative, age-appropriate content on sexuality.

Parents may worry that teaching in schools about pornography will encourage students to seek it out for the first time, but there is no sign this actually happens.

Curriculums on pornography can teach young people to respond more critically, helping them assess and respond to pornography’s influence. “In The Picture”, for instance, is a great resource for schools to help support young people navigate the seemingly ubiquitous sexually explicit material online.

Such efforts do work. In a Dutch longitudinal study, the more a young person had learned about the use of pornography from their school sex education, the less likely they were to see women as sex objects.

And in a US evaluation of a five-session curriculum, students showed positive changes in their pornography-related knowledge, attitudes and intended behaviours.

Read more: Hold pornography to account – not education programs – for children’s harmful sexual behaviour

Other than education, we need better pornography. Some call this “ethical pornography” – ethical in its production, use and distribution, and content.

First, participants should have consented to their involvement and not be harmed. The unethical production of porn is common: 12% of males and 6.2% of females in Australia have taken a nude or sexual image of another person without their consent.

Ethical pornography also involves ethical use and distribution. People consent to its viewing, and cannot be distributed without participants’ consent.

But discussions of “ethical pornography” have largely ignored the issue of content – physical and verbal aggression is routine in pornography.

So we must also hold the pornography industries to account. They must produce better pornography, which eroticises consent, respect, and intimacy rather than sexist hostility.

Parents have asked me:

My son is looking at porn. What kind of porn should he be looking at?

Maybe we need a ratings system – the “Healthy Sex Tick of Approval”?

Even depictions of consensual sex may still perpetuate the sexual objectification of women and reinforce other sexist social norms. And in a sexist culture, even the most ethical images of sex may be understood in ways that affirm that wider culture.

Still, it seems pragmatic to give attention to what might comprise “better”, or at least “less worse”, pornography.

– ref. Pornography has deeply troubling effects on young people, but there are ways we can minimise the harm – http://theconversation.com/pornography-has-deeply-troubling-effects-on-young-people-but-there-are-ways-we-can-minimise-the-harm-127319

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Lee, Research assistant, The University of Queensland

Many Australians are reluctant to use sunscreen, even though it’s an important element in preventing the skin cancers that affect about two in three of us at some time in our lives.

The Cancer Council says myths about sunscreens contribute to this reluctance.

Here are 4½ sunscreen myths and what the evidence really says. Confused about the ½? Well, it’s a myth most of the time, but sometimes it’s true.

Myth #1. It’s bad for my bones

Many Australians are concerned using sunscreen might lead to vitamin D deficiency. The idea is that sunscreen would block the UV light the skin needs to make vitamin D, critical for bone health.

However, you need far less UV than you think to make the vitamin D you need: only one-third of the UV that causes a sunburn, and less than you need to tan.

Tests on humans going about their daily business generally show no vitamin D differences between people who use sunscreen and those who don’t.

Read more: Monday’s medical myth: we’re not getting enough sun

Myth #2. Its ingredients are toxic

If you google “toxic sunscreen”, you get more than eight million results. So people are clearly worried if it’s safe.

However, there’s little evidence of harm compared to the large benefits of sunscreens, which are highly regulated in Australia.

There is evidence large amounts of some sunscreen components can act as hormone disruptors. But the amounts needed far outstrip the amount sunscreen users are actually exposed to.

Some people have also been alarmed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcing further testing of the sunscreen ingredients avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene and ecamsule. This was after a study showed their concentrations could reach over 0.5 nanograms/mL in the blood.

This experiment involved people thickly applying sunscreen to parts of the body not covered by a swimsuit, four times a day for four days in a row. In other words, this is the maximum amount you might apply on a beach holiday, and considerably more than you would wear on a day-to-day basis (unless you work in your budgie smugglers).

However, there’s no evidence these concentrations are harmful and the further testing is just a precaution.

Read more: Research Check: should we be worried that the chemicals from sunscreen can get into our blood?

The FDA recommends people continue using sunscreen. If you still feel uneasy, you can stick to zinc oxide and titanium dioxide sunscreens, which the FDA says are “generally recognised as safe and effective”.

How about nanoparticles?

That leads us to another common concern: nano-sized zinc oxide or titanium dioxide in sunscreens. Nanoparticle forms of these UV filters are designed to make them invisible on the skin while still keeping UV rays out.

Human studies show they either do not penetrate or minimally penetrate the stratum corneum. This is the upper-most layer of the skin, where the cells are already dead and tightly packed together to protect the living cells below. This suggests absorption and movement through the body, hence toxicity, is highly unlikely.

Myth #3. It’s pointless. I already have skin cancer in my family

Genetics and family history do play a role in many melanomas in Australia. For instance, mutations in genes such as CDKN2A substantially increase a person’s melanoma risk.

However, sun exposure increases melanoma risk on top of any existing genetic risk. So whatever your baseline risk, everyone can take steps to lower the additional risks that come with sun exposure.

Myth #4. I’m already middle-aged. It’s too late

It’s true that sunburns in childhood seem to have a disproportionate effect on the risk of melanomas and basal cell carcinomas. But squamous cell carcinomas are more affected by sun exposure over the years.

Ongoing sunscreen use also reduces the number new actinic keratoses, a pre-cancerous skin lesion, and reduces the number of existing keratoses in Australians over 40 years old.

Regular sunscreen use also puts the brakes on skin ageing, helping to reduce skin thinness, easy bruising and poor healing that older skin can be prone to. And of course, getting burnt feels terrible at any age.

Read more: Explainer: what happens to your skin when you get sunburnt?

Myth #4½. I’m allergic to sunscreen

This one’s only half a myth. Many people say they have an allergic reaction to sunscreen but only about 3% really do.

Often, people are just sunburned. They thought they were well-protected but simply stayed out in the sun too long, or didn’t reapply sunscreen often enough.

Your sunscreen might also be out of date. Sunscreen eventually breaks down and loses its effectiveness, faster if you store it somewhere very hot, like a car.

Alternatively, you may have polymorphic light eruption, a condition where UV light alters a skin compound, resulting in a rash. This can be itchy or burning, small pink or red bumps, flat, dry red patches, blisters, or even itchy patches with no visible signs.

Fortunately, this condition often occurs only on the first exposure during spring or early summer. Keep out of the sun for a few days and the rash should settle by itself.

If none of those causes fit the bill, you may indeed have an allergy to some component of your sunscreen (allergic contact dermatitis), which a dermatologist can confirm.

– ref. 4½ myths about sunscreen and why they’re wrong – http://theconversation.com/4-myths-about-sunscreen-and-why-theyre-wrong-125879

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zara Bending, Associate, Centre for Environmental Law, Macquarie University

Limbani the chimpanzee has about 650,000 Instagram followers. In recent months the account has featured viral photos and videos of the captive young ape playing the guitar, bouncing on a trampoline and wearing a giant banana costume.

Fans are also offered real-life encounters with the chimp at a Miami facility, paying US$700 for a ten-minute session.

Experts, including renowned primatologist Dr Jane Goodall, have raised concerns about Limbani’s care. They question why he is not in the company of other chimpanzees, and say his exposure to humans could cause stress and other health issues.

So before you click on or share wildlife content online, it’s worth considering how you might affect a species’ welfare and conservation in the wild.

Smiling chimps are actually stressed

Chimpanzees are frequently depicted in greeting cards, advertisements, film, television and internet images. They are often clothed, in human-like poses and settings. These performing animals are usually taken from their mothers as infants, physically disciplined in training, and can spend their retirement in poorly regulated roadside attractions or breeding facilities.

For example the chimpanzee, who appeared with Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street has reportedly since been kept in a roadside zoo, dragged around by the neck and forced to perform circus tricks.

Read more: Yes, you can adopt a pet as a Christmas gift – so long as you do it correctly

Primates are complex social animals, and the trauma they suffer when forced to perform is often clear. Research has shown the “cheeky chimp grins” we associate with happiness are actually a sign of fear or submission.

But it’s not just primates who are suffering. Earlier this year US banking giant JPMorgan Chase suspended an advertising campaign featuring captive elephants. The move followed an outcry from conservationists, who explained that elephants are often trained “using harsh and cruel methods” to perform unnatural behaviours and interact directly with people.

Endangered in the wild

Images of wildlife in human-like poses and environments can also skew public perception about their status in the wild.

For example, the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies chimpazees as endangered. In the last century their numbers have decreased from some 1-2 million to as few as 350,000.

However research has shown that the prevalence of chimpanzees in media and entertainment can lull viewers into believing wild populations are thriving. This undermines both the need and urgency for in-situ conservation.

A 2008 article published in Science reported on the findings of two surveys where participants were asked to identify which of three great apes were endangered. In the first, 66% of respondents thought chimpanzees were endangered (compared with 95% for gorillas, and 91% for orangutans). In the second, 72% believed chimpanzees to be endangered (compared with 94% for gorillas and 92% for orangutans).

Participants in both studies said the prevalence of chimpanzees in television, advertisements and movies meant they must not be in jeopardy in the wild.

Suitability as pets

Images of animals in close proximity with humans also affects their perceived desirability as exotic pets. Such images include “wildlife selfies” shared on social media by tourists, pet collectors and celebrities.

The demand for exotic pets drives the illicit trade in live animals. In Japan, unprecedented demand for otters as pets is likely fuelled by an increase in the visibility of pet otters in social and mass media. The pet trade has been identified as a pressing threat to the survival of otters.

Read more: Is it ethical to keep pets and other animals? It depends on where you keep them

Social media provides an easy way for traffickers and buyers to connect. Over six weeks in 2017 in France, Germany, Russia and the UK, the International Fund for Animal Welfare identified more than 11,000 protected wildlife specimens for sale via more than 5,000 advertisements and posts. They included live otters, tortoises, parrots, owls, primates and big cats.

Facebook is also allegedly profiting from advertisements on pages illicitly selling parts and derivatives of threatened animals, including elephant ivory, rhino horn and tiger teeth.

Slow progress

Social media giants have gone some way to recognising the harmful impact of their wildlife content.

Facebook and Instagram are partners of the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online which aims to reduce wildlife trafficking online by 80% by 2020. Both platforms also banned the sale of animals in 2017 – however it is not well policed, and the advertisements persist.

In 2017, Instagram encouraged users not to harm plants or animals in pursuit of a selfie, and consider the potential animal abuse behind photo opportunities with exotic animals.

Read more: ACT’s new animal sentience law recognises an animal’s psychological pain and pleasure, and may lead to better protections

But there are persistent claims these measures aren’t proactive or effective enough.

There is cause for cautious optimism. Researchers and social media platforms are collaborating to develop artificial intelligence to help in wildlife trafficking investigations and facial recognition technology is being used to track individual animals.

Social media users are also key in promoting respect and safety for wildlife. To find out more, you can access resources on “responsible tagging”, “wildlife selfie codes”, ethically sourcing footage, and how to research wildlife attractions.

– ref. Before you hit ‘share’ on that cute animal photo, consider the harm it can cause – http://theconversation.com/before-you-hit-share-on-that-cute-animal-photo-consider-the-harm-it-can-cause-126182

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Davina Jackson, Honorary Academic, School of Architecture, University of Kent

Al Gore’s 1992 forecast of a Digital Earth — where satellites beam data to reveal all the planet’s environmental dynamics – has gained momentum with the publication of the Manual of Digital Earth last month. The major anthology is sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It’s a mark of the importance China attaches to what is now a United Nations-led project named the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).

GEOSS seems like medical science’s worldwide collaborations to map the human genome and the human brain – but at a much bigger magnitude. Scientists want to data-visualise the whole Earth. The project’s scope ranges from deep subterranean core samples, volcanic tremors, ocean surface temperatures, flooding and solar storms to urban populations, migrations and sprawls.

A recent Australian contribution to the Digital Earth vision is the online mapping of bushfires. This includes the Digital Earth Australia Hotspots map run by Geoscience Australia and the New South Wales Rural Fire Service’s Fire Map.

Read more: Digital Earth: the paradigm now shaping our world’s data cities

GEOSS began operating in 2005 (the same year as Google Earth) and is accelerating with the most tumultuous technology revolution in the history of cartography. It goes way beyond the satellite mapping we see on TV weather reports. And it relies on the grid of globally networked computers to access and crunch massive lakes and banks of geotagged data stored in high-security bunkers.

China’s digital ‘religion’

China’s support for the Digital Earth and GEOSS movement has become entwined with its foreign policy. Chinese authors wrote many papers in the 26-chapter manual. And the Chinese Academy of Sciences operates the secretariat and journal of the International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE).

Recent ISDE conferences have included invitation-only workshops on how to evolve China’s Digital Belt and Road program. It’s the high-tech aspect of China’s Belt and Road Initiative to expand its historical Silk Road trading links. China’s map of desired international paths and connections now includes non-Silk Road destinations, including the Malaysian peninsula, Ukraine, Germany, England, Portugal and Morocco.

A Geneva-based Australian pioneer of supercomputing and environmental simulations, Bob Bishop, welcomed the Manual of Digital Earth. He suggested to me it “somewhat proves” that:

the religion of China in the 21st century is ‘science’ and their particular denomination is ‘digital’. China made Buddhism universal by documenting a previously oral philosophy coming from India. It seems China could make Digital Earth universal by documenting fragmented ideas coming from the US and the rest of the world.

The manual explains, in more than 250,000 illustrated words, what has been done, and what needs to be done, to develop different parts of Gore’s vast ambition. Science now has all the basic capabilities to deliver a GEOSS/Digital Earth. These include:

• grid computing
• ubiquitous sensors to monitor environmental variables
• machine learning and robotics to automate processes
• good expertise with remote sensing data and imagery
• broadband networks to enable citizen scientists to add and access information
• international protocols and standards for writing, using and storing metadata and for exchanging data across different hardware and software systems.

Challenges remain

Read more: The planner’s new best friend: we can now track land-use changes on a scale of centimetres

More questionable is whether there is enough processing speed and data-storage capacity to deliver the vision yet. Bishop has suggested we probably will need to look beyond still-nascent quantum computing to far-ahead neuromorphic engineering (imitating the human nervous system at a very large scale) to evolve an effective sim-planet system. That’s because, as Gore predicted, vast amounts of environmental data will need to be processed in real time.

The intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO) secretariat in the World Meteorological Organisation tower on the UN campus in Geneva is co-ordinating GEOSS. Leading space, meteorological, geoscience, surveying and UN technical agencies are among its more than 200 member organisations.

The Manual of Digital Earth is the world’s first comprehensive book of scholarly papers about Digital Earth/GEOSS theories, technologies, advances and applications. (It builds on a 2013 GEO-sponsored report edited by ISDE members.)

The book summarises recent advances and the current status of many relevant technologies. It highlights the challenge of how to smoothly transition scales during continuous zooming. It also discusses applications (including climate change, disaster mitigation and the UN Sustainable Development Goals); regional and national development (in Europe, Russia, China and Australia); and education and ethics.

Read more: Collecting satellite data Australia wants: a new direction for Earth observation

Who’s who in Digital Earth studies?

More than 100 experts from 18 countries contributed to the anthology. It was edited by three leaders of the International Society for Digital Earth: Huadong Guo of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who is a professor at its Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI); Michael F. Goodchild, emeritus professor of geography at the University of California Santa Barbara; and Alessandro Annoni, head of the Digital Economy Unit at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy.

Annoni is the ISDE’s president, Guo is the honorary president and Goodchild is an ISDE founder and a lead author of its most influential papers – including a next-generation Digital Earth vision statement in 2012.

The ISDE secretariat is based at the RADI in Beijing, although its presidents and senior members work in various countries. It’s closely involved with the GEOSS in Europe and with the UN’s Global Geospatial Information Management group in New York.

A 2019 European Union report, China: Challenges and Prospects from an Industrial and Innovation Powerhouse, examined China’s escalating industrial capabilities and international ambitions. Annoni and other senior European policy leaders were authors. The report said Europe and the United States needed to boost their industrial, research and innovation performances to compete with China in key high-tech sectors.

– ref. As Digital Earth gains momentum, China is setting the pace – http://theconversation.com/as-digital-earth-gains-momentum-china-is-setting-the-pace-127802

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Beirman, Senior Lecturer, Tourism, University of Technology Sydney

Holidaying in a disaster zone might seem crazy, but “volunteer tourism” can actually help communities recover from natural disasters.

And if can offer a unique and rewarding experience for volunteers, if done carefully.

When disaster hits a tourist destination – whether fire, flood, cyclone or earthquake – tourists usually stay away, leaving communities to deal with a loss of income on top of the costs of repair and recovery.

On the other hand, people who feel a natural curiosity, as well as a natural desire to help, are keen for experiences where they can interact with locals and make a difference.

This “volunteer tourism” should not be confused with “disaster tourism” in which tourists immediately travel to a scene not to help but to look.

Nepal shows what can be done

We examined volunteer tourism in Nepal in the wake of the April 2015 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people and injured nearly 22,000.

We found that when it was done in an ethical manner that considered local conditions and the community, it could aid recovery and resilience.

It is important that the process be controlled locally and that the invitation from locals be genuine. It is also important that volunteer tourists be prepared to engage in work that mainstream tourists would not.

Our study, Engaging volunteer tourism in post-disaster recovery in Nepal, has just been published in the Annals of Tourism Research.

Read more: Danger in paradise: resurrecting tourism after natural disasters

In the four months that followed the Nepal earthquake, international tourism more than halved.

Initially most relief organisations asked international volunteers not to come unless they had specific expertise, such as medical skills, building skills, or experience responding to emergencies.

Then the Pacific Asia Travel Association and Nepalese tourism industry leaders worked together to produce the report of the Nepal Rapid Recovery Task Force, running workshops with more than 200 tourism industry leaders and professionals.

Volunteer tourism led the way back

The strategy they came up with prioritised potential tourism regrowth markets, including volunteer tourism.

Nepal relaxed conditions to allow international tourists to volunteer on a wide range of projects including rebuilding homes and schools, interning in hospitals, supporting non-government organisations and reestablishing sustainable agriculture.

It helped that Nepal was set up for it. It had already hosted organisations offering short-term travellers the opportunity to teach English and to work on health projects.

In 2015 and 2016 it hosted three global celebrities whose widely-publicised visits raised the profile and popular appeal of Nepal, especially to volunteer tourists.

In May 2015, Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon visited Nepal and actively promoted volunteer tourism to the North American market.

In mid-2015 Hong Kong based actor Jackie Chan visited and encouraged Chinese tourists and volunteers to come to Nepal.

In March 2016, Prince Harry (the younger son of Prince Charles) spent two weeks in Nepal engaged in volunteer programs.

Nepal’s tourism recovery since then has been remarkable.

In 2015, the year of the earthquake, just under 600,000 international tourists visited.

By 2018 the number had reached an all time record of almost 1.2 million. In 2019 it grew further. Volunteer tourism drove the recovery.

The Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents says almost one third of the tours booked to Nepal in the two years after the earthquake comprised groups who combined tourism experiences with volunteering or philanthropy.

It needs to meet local needs

In times of national crisis, the priority of a government has to be restoring the welfare of its people. However, the process by which that happens is multifaceted. In destinations that rely on tourism as a primary source of foreign investment, it can make sense to build tourism into the recovery process.

A focus on tourism need not detract from other critical processes such as providing health care and emergency services, clearing debris and construction.

Read more: Volunteer tourism: what’s wrong with it and how it can be changed

But that’s easier said than done. Natural disasters by their very nature sow confusion, severely damage infrastructure and impose great strains on emergency management and administration.

Volunteer tourism won’t work everywhere, but where conditions are right, international visitors can speed rather than slow recovery.

– ref. Holidaying in a disaster zone isn’t as crazy as it might seem – http://theconversation.com/holidaying-in-a-disaster-zone-isnt-as-crazy-as-it-might-seem-128841

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania

For 40 years I have studied bushfires in Australia. It has been my life’s work to try to better understand Australian landscapes and the interaction of humans and landscape fire.

As we contemplate a future where catastrophes like the one currently engulfing Australia become increasingly frequent, there’s an idea to which I keep returning: maybe it’s time to say goodbye to the typical summer Australian holiday.

Perhaps it’s time to rearrange Australian calendar and reschedule the peak holiday period to March or April, instead of December and January.

It’s easy to dismiss this idea as stupid but that’s the nature of adaptation. Things that once seemed absurd will now need serious consideration.

What’s truly absurd is the business-as-usual approach that sees thousands of holidaymakers heading directly into forests and national parks right in the middle of peak bushfire season.

Read more: Friday essay: living with fire and facing our fears

All of the indications are that we are galloping into changing fire regimes. We can certainly see that with what’s occurred in the Australian alps (the snow country in southeastern Australia, near Mount Kosciuszko). There were incredibly intense fires there around the early 2000s and now those areas are re-burning.

To me, as a fire researcher, that’s an astonishing thought.

Yes, there have been very large fires in the past but they weren’t followed up with yet more very large fires a mere 15 years later. Normally, you’d be expecting a gap of 50 or 100 years. So the ecology is telling us that we are seeing the intervals between the fires shrinking. That is a really big warning sign.

And this increasingly frequent fire activity is completely consistent with what climate modelling was suggesting. The whole system is moving to a world that is hotter, drier, and with more frequent fire activity. It’s what was forecast and it’s what is now happening.

Big holidays in peak fire season

One of the great exacerbating factors of this crisis is the fact that it’s occurring in a holiday period. It makes things incredibly difficult for emergency management. The fact is that it would be a lot easier for firefighters to focus on stemming fires if they didn’t also have to manage mass evacuations, and deal with populations that are dispersed and far from home.

Scheduling the major Australian holiday at the same time as bushfire season also makes things extremely difficult for the enterprises that depend on the holiday trade. You need certainty to run a business and timing the major annual Australian holiday period with bushfire season strips certainty away from these business owners.

It’s also really terrible for holidaymakers themselves. People are in desperate need of a break, to spend time with family. Instead of returning to work rested and re-energised, many will be stressed, tired, perhaps even traumatised. (And let’s not forget the firefighters themselves, also denied a break with friends and family over the holidays).

And having the major holiday right in the middle of bushfire season also means that many people are denied a chance to experience national parks, as authorities close them off to reduce risk.

Adaptation means change, and change is hard

The old idea was that we can head off the crisis by reducing our emissions through decarbonisation. We had an opportunity to do that and we didn’t take it. We still have to decarbonise but now we also have to adapt.

And the sort of adaptation needed is not just about infrastructure, it’s also about the way we shape our lifestyle, our culture and traditions.

Climate change adaptation will nearly always be met with political, social and cultural resistance. It is not easy. But something like completely rearranging the Australian calendar around increased risks – it’s not even the biggest change required of us.

Some of the other things we are going to have to do will at first seem absurd, will be unbelievably painful economically and will require major adjustments.

Read more: How to monitor the bushfires raging across Australia

There’s going to need to be a systematic change in behaviour and lifestyle as we adapt.

This crisis occurring in peak holiday time is highlighting the fact that the assumptions of normality we have got are being challenged by climate change.

It is confronting, but adaptation also brings with it great benefits – less loss of life, greater certainty and opportunity for businesses and holidaymakers, and smoother handling of fire crises as they emerge.

We need to put some serious thought into what future life will be like under climate change. Perhaps shifting peak holiday season to the cooler months is is the place to start.

– ref. As bushfire and holiday seasons converge, it may be time to say goodbye to the typical Australian summer holiday – http://theconversation.com/as-bushfire-and-holiday-seasons-converge-it-may-be-time-to-say-goodbye-to-the-typical-australian-summer-holiday-129337

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland

Where 2019 was a disappointing year for meteor showers, with two of the big three (the Quadrantids, Perseids and Geminids) lost mainly to moonlight, 2020 promises to be much better.

The year starts with a bang with the Quadrantids providing a treat for northern hemisphere viewers. The Perseids, in August, provide another highlight for those in the northern hemisphere, while the December Geminids round the year off for observers all around the world.

Read more: Explainer: why meteors light up the night sky

But the big three aren’t the only meteor showers that will put on a show this year. So when should you look up to see the meteoric highlights of the coming year?

Here’s our pick of the showers to watch. We have the time each shower is forecast to peak, finder charts showing you where best to look, and the theoretical peak rates you could see under ideal observing conditions. This is a number known as the Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR).

Because the ZHR is the theoretical maximum rate you could see per hour, it is likely that the rates you observe will be lower.

For any meteor shower, if you want to give yourself the best chance to see a good display, it is worth trying to find a good dark site, as far from light polluted skies as possible. Once you’re outside give yourself plenty of time to adapt to the darkness, at least half an hour. Then just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

Showers that can only really be seen from either the northern or southern hemisphere are denoted by [N] or [S], whilst those that can be seen from both are marked by [N/S].

You can download a ICS file of this guide to add to your favourite calender.

Quadrantids [N]

Parent: It’s complicated… (Comet 96P/Macholz and asteroid 2003 EH1)

The Quadrantids are the first of the big three meteor showers of the year – the three showers that give fabulous displays with ZHRs in excess of 100, year in, year out.

For most of the fortnight over which the Quadrantids are active, rates are low – just a few meteors per hour. In the hours approaching their peak, rates climb rapidly, before falling away just as rapidly once the peak is past. In total, rates exceed a quarter of their maximum value for just eight hours, centred on the peak.

The Quadrantid radiant is circumpolar (never sets) for locations north of 40 degrees north. As a result, the shower can be observed throughout the hours of darkness for most locations in Europe and many in North America.

The radiant lies in the constellation Boötes, the Herdsman, relatively near the tail of Ursa Major, the Plough or Great Bear.

The radiant rises highest in the sky in the early hours of the morning, so this is when the best rates can be seen. In 2020, the shower’s peak favours observers in the east of North America, though those in northern Europe should see a good display in the hours before dawn on the morning of January 4.

If skies are clear it is definitely worth wrapping up warm and heading out to observe the most elusive of the year’s big three.

Lyrids [N/S; N preferred]

Parent: Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher

The Lyrids are a shower with a long and storied history – with records reporting their activity tracing back for millennia. Researchers have even suggested the Lyrids may have been active on Earth for more than a million years.

In the distant past, there are reports the Lyrids produced some spectacular displays – meteor storms, with thousands of meteors visible per hour.

The modern Lyrids are usually more sedate, with peak rates rarely exceeding ~18 meteors per hour. But they do sometimes throw up the odd surprise. An outburst of the Lyrids in 1982 yielded rates of ~90 meteors per hour for a short period.

While no such outburst is forecast this year, the peak of the shower will occur just a day before a new Moon, so skies will be dark and viewing conditions ideal.

Although the Lyrids are best seen from the northern hemisphere, their radiant can reach a useful altitude for observers in the northern half of Australia. Keen observers might be tempted to head out in the early hours of the morning to watch.

The radiant rises during the night so the best rates are seen in the early hours of the morning, before dawn. From northern hemisphere sites, reasonable rates can be seen after about 10:30pm, local time -– but for those at southern hemisphere latitudes, the radiant fails to reach a reasonable altitude until well after midnight.

Lyrid meteors tend to be relatively fast and are often bright. Despite the relatively low rates (at least, compared to the big three) they are well worth a watch, especially as conditions this year will be as close to perfect as possible.

Eta Aquariids [S]

Parent: Comet 1P/Halley

While not counted as one of the big three, in many ways the Eta Aquariids stand clear of the pack as the best of the rest.

Only really visible to observers in the tropics and the southern hemisphere, the Eta Aquariids are fragments of the most famous of comets –- Halley’s comet. They mark the first (and best) of two passages made by the Earth through the debris laid down by that comet over thousands of years –- with the other being the Orionids, in October.

The radiant only rises a few hours before dawn, even at southern altitudes, and the further north you go, the closer to sunrise the radiant appears. This is what prevents northern hemisphere observers from taking advantage of the Eta Aquariids –- the Sun has risen by the time the radiant is high enough for the shower to put on a decent show.

The meteors are fast and often bright, and the brighter ones have a reputation for leaving behind noticeable smoky trains. The maximum of the shower is broad, with rates remaining above ~30 meteors per hour for the week around the date of the maximum.

It is well worth getting out to observe the Eta Aquariids at around the time their radiant rises. This gives the maximum amount of time to observe the shower before dawn, but in addition, those few meteors you observe when the radiant is sitting just above the horizon can be spectacular.

Known as Earthgrazers, such meteors enter the atmosphere at a very shallow angle, with the result that they can streak all the way across the sky, from horizon to horizon.

The Eta Aquariids reach their peak in 2020 a couple of days before the full Moon. That the radiant does not rise until a few hours before sunrise works to our advantage this year –- the shower’s radiant will rise at around the same time the Moon sets, so the shower can be observed in Moon-free skies, despite the proximity of the Full Moon.

Perseids [N]

Parent: Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle

For northern hemisphere observers, the Perseids are perhaps the famous and reliable shower of the year.

While the Geminids offer higher rates, the Perseids fall during the middle of the northern summer, when families are often holidaying and the weather is warm and pleasant. As a result, the Perseids are the most widely observed of all meteor showers, and never fail to put on a spectacular show.

The parent comet of the Perseid meteor shower, 109P/Swift-Tuttle, was last at perihelion (closest to the Sun) in 1991. As a result, during the 1990s, the Perseids offered enhanced rates –- often displaying multiple peaks through the two or three days around their traditional maximum.

Those individual peaks were the result of the Earth passing through individual trails of material, laid down at past perihelion passages of the comet, which have not yet had time to fully disperse into the background of the shower as a whole.

It is now three decades since the comet’s last perihelion passage, but astronomers predict the Earth could well pass through one of those debris trails this year, at around 10am UTC (midnight Hawaii time, 3am Vancouver time), three hours before the normal forecast maximum for the shower.

As a result, peak rates should last for longer, and potentially reach higher values than would normally be expected from a typical Perseid return.

The radiant rises in the mid-evening from northern latitudes, which means the shower can be observed from around 10pm or 11pm, local time. The later in the night you look, the higher the radiant will be, and so the more meteors will be visible.

Unfortunately, the peak of the Perseids in 2020 falls two days after the last quarter Moon, which means moonlight will begin to interfere with the display in the early hours of the morning. The best views of the shower will likely be seen between ~10pm or 11pm local time and ~2am the following morning.

If you can only observe in the hours before dawn, all is not lost. The Perseids are famed for producing plenty of bright meteors. They are worth observing even when the Moon is above the horizon, particularly on the nights around the forecast peak.

Orionids [N/S]

Parent: 1P/Halley

The Orionid meteor shower marks the second occasion the Earth encounters the stream of debris left behind by Halley’s comet each year.

In October, Earth passes farther from the centre of Halley’s debris stream than in May, with the result the observed rates for the Orionids are lower than for the Eta Aquariids. Despite this, the Orionids remain a treat for meteor enthusiasts in the northern autumn and southern spring.

The Orionids peak on October 21 but that maximum is often quite broad with activity hovering close to the peak rates for as much as a week around the maximum.

There is some evidence the peak rates vary over time, with a roughly 12 year periodicity, as a result of perturbations by the giant planet Jupiter (which orbits the Sun once every 12 years).

In the final years of the first decade of the 21st Century, the Orionids were markedly more active than expected, with maximum rates in the range 40-70. If the periodicity is real, then 12 years on from the peak of activity it is possible the Orionids will again put on a better than expected show.

So 2020 might well be an ideal year to look up and watch for fragments of Halley’s Comet vapourising high overhead.

The radiant rises just before local midnight, meaning the meteors are best observed in the early hours of the morning. The radiant reaches its highest altitude in the hours before dawn. The Moon will not interfere this year, setting in the early evening, long before the radiant rises.

Observers watching the Orionids are in for an extra treat. While the Orionids are active, so too are the Northern and Southern Taurid meteor showers. Where the Orionids are fast meteors, Taurids are slow, and often bright and spectacular.

Although the rates of both the Northern and Southern Taurids are lower than those of the Orionids (typically just ~5 per hour), their activity makes observations of the Orionids even more productive and exciting.

Geminids [N/S]

Parent: Asteroid 3200 Phaethon

The Geminids, which peak in mid-December, are truly a case of saving the best until last. The biggest of the year’s big three, the Geminids have, over the past few decades, been growing ever more active and spectacular, with recent years seeing rates in excess of 150 per hour.

For observers in northern Europe, the radiant is above the horizon relatively soon after sunset, meaning that the Geminids can readily be observed from around 8pm onwards.

The further south you travel, the later in the evening the radiant rises. For observers in Australia, the times at which the radiant appears above the horizon can be seen below.

As with all showers, the higher the radiant in the sky, the better the observed rates from the Geminids will be. The longer you watch, the better things will get.

Geminid meteors are of medium speed and often bright so they put on a spectacular show even in those years when moonlight interferes.

In 2020 the Moon will be new around this time so it will be possible to spend the entire night watching the Geminids without any interference from our nearest celestial neighbour.

The radiant reaches its highest at around 2am local time making the hours just after midnight the ideal time to catch the Geminids at their best.

The Geminid peak is relatively broad -– with rates remaining high for at least 24 hours around the forecast maximum. Observers across the globe will be treated to a spectacular display from the shower in 2020.

So find a dark site, wrap up warm, and treat yourself to a night spent watching the year’s most spectacular display of natural fireworks.

– ref. Look up! Your guide to some of the best meteor showers for 2020 – http://theconversation.com/look-up-your-guide-to-some-of-the-best-meteor-showers-for-2020-125936

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Baker, Lecturer in Big History, Macquarie University

What will happen in the 2020s? If history is any guide (and there’s good reason to think it is), the outlook isn’t great.

Here are some big-picture predictions: stagnant real wages, faltering standard of living for the lower and middle classes, worsening wealth inequality, more riots and uprisings, ongoing political polarisation, more elites competing for limited positions of power, and elites co-opting radical movements.

Thanks to globalisation, all this won’t just happen in one country but in the majority of countries in the world. We will also see geopolitical realignment, dividing the world into new alliances and blocs.

There is also a low to moderate chance of a “trigger event” – a shock like an environmental crisis, plague, or economic meltdown – that will kick off a period of extreme violence. And there is a much lower chance we will see a technological breakthrough on par with the industrial revolution that can ease the pressure in the 2020s and reverse the trends above.

These aren’t just guesses. They are predictions made with the tools of cliodynamics, which uses dozens of case studies of civilisations over the past 5,000 years to look for mathematical patterns in human history.

Read more: Cliodynamics: can science decode the laws of history?

Cycles of growth and decline

One area where cliodynamics has borne fruit is “demographic-structural theory”, which explains common cycles of prosperity and decline.

Here’s an example of a full cycle, taken from Roman history. After the second Punic war in 201 BCE, the Roman republic enjoyed a period of extreme growth and prosperity. There was a relatively small divide between the richest and poorest, and fewer members of elites.

As the population grew, smallholders had to sell off their farms. Land coalesced into larger plantations run by elites mostly with slave labour. Elite numbers ballooned, wealth inequality became extreme, the common people felt pinched, and numerous wealthy people found themselves shut out of power.

The rich resisted calls for land reform, and eventually the elites split into two factions called the Optimates and the Populares. The following century involved slave revolts and two massive civil wars.

Stability only returned when Augustus defeated all other rivals in 30 BCE – and ended the republic, making himself emperor. So began a new cycle of growth.

Booms and busts

Demographic-structural theory looks at things like the economic and political strength of the state, the ages and wages of the population, and the size and wealth of the elite to diagnose a society’s health – and work out where it’s heading.

Historically, some things we see today are bad signs: shrinking real wages, a growing gap between the richest and the poorest, rising numbers of wealthy and influential people who are becoming more competitive and factionalised.

Another bad sign is if previous generations witnessed periods of growth and plenty. It might mean that your society is about to hit a wall – unless a great deal of innovation and good policy relieves the pressure once again.

The modern global system has experienced a period of growth unprecedented in human history since 1945, often referred to as the “Great Acceleration”. Yet in country after country today, we see stagnant wages, rising inequality, and wealthy elites jousting for control.

Historically, periods of strain and “elite overpopulation” are followed by a crisis (environmental or economic), which is in turn followed by years of sociopolitical instability and violence.

Elite competition makes crises worse

Factional warring after a disaster in a top-heavy society makes things much worse. It can keep the population low for decades after the initial catastrophe, and may only end when elites are exhausted or killed off.

This underlying cycle fed the Wars of the Roses between the Lancastrians and Yorkists in 15th century England, the struggle between the Optimates and Populares in the Roman Republic, and countless other conflicts in history.

Read more: Computer simulations reveal war drove the rise of civilisations

In a period of growth and expansion these dynastic, political, and religious animosities would be less pronounced – as there is more of everything to go around – but in a period of decline they become incendiary.

In different regions and time periods, the factions vary widely, but the ideological merits or faults of any particular faction have literally no bearing on the pattern.

We always massacre each other on the downward side of a cycle. Remember that fact as we embark on the pattern again in the 2020s, and you find yourself becoming blindingly angry while watching the news or reading what someone said on Twitter.

A connected world

Because the world’s societies and economies are more unified than ever before, the increasing political division we see in Australia or the United States also manifests itself around the world.

Violence between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress in Bengal, political polarisation in Brazil following the election of Jair Bolsonaro, and less public conflicts within China’s ruling party are all part of a global trend.

Trigger events

We can expect this decline to continue steadily in the next decade, unless a trigger event kicks off a crisis and a long period – perhaps decades – of extreme violence.

Here’s a dramatic historical example: in the 12th century, Europe’s population was growing and living standards were rising. The late 13th century ushered in a period of strain. Then the Great Famine of 1315–17 set off a time of strife and increasing violence. Next came an even bigger disaster, the Black Death of 1347–51.

After these two trigger events, elites fighting over the wreckage led to a century of slaughter across Europe.

From my own studies, these “depression phases” kill an average of 20% of the population. On a global scale, today, that would mean 1.6 to 1.7 billion people dead.

There is, of course, only a low to moderate probability that such a trigger event will occur in the 2020s. It may happen decades later. But the kindling for such a conflagration is already being laid.

Read more: Big gods came after the rise of civilisations, not before, finds study using huge historical database

Technology to the rescue?

One thing that could reverse this cycle would be a major technological breakthrough. Innovation has temporarily warded off decline in the past.

In mid-11th century Europe, for example, new land-clearing and agricultural methods allowed a dramatic increase in production which led to relative prosperity and stability in the 12th century. Or in the mid-17th century, high-yield crops from the Americas raised carrying capacities in some parts of China.

In our current situation, something like nuclear fusion – which could provide abundant, cheap, clean energy – might change the situation drastically.

The probability of this occurring in the 2020s is low. Nevertheless, innovation remains our best hope, and the sooner it happens the better.

This could be a guiding policy for public and private investment in the 2020s. It is a time for generous funding, monumental projects, and bold ventures to lift humanity out of a potential abyss.

Sunlit uplands of the distant future

Cheer up. All is not lost. The further we project into the future the brighter human prospects become again, as great advances in technology do occur on a long enough timescale.

Given the acceleration of the frequency of such advances over the past 5,000 years of history, we can expect something profound on the scale of the invention of agriculture or the advent of heavy industry to occur within the next 100 years.

That is why humanity’s task in the 2020s – and much of the 21st century – is simply to survive it.

– ref. History repeats itself. That’s bad news for the 2020s – http://theconversation.com/history-repeats-itself-thats-bad-news-for-the-2020s-127116

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Maynard, Director/Chair of Aboriginal History – The Wollotuka Institute, University of Newcastle

When one reads the Uluru Statement of the Heart – and its call for a Voice to Parliament – it is important to recognise this is not a new fight. In fact, Aboriginal people began making demands for a political voice nearly a century ago.

The first Aboriginal political organisation, the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA), was formed in Sydney in 1924 and advocated several key changes aimed at protecting the rights of Aboriginal people.

These centred on basic rights such as land for every Aboriginal family and protecting Aboriginal children from being taken from their families. The AAPA also called for genuine Aboriginal self-determination and an Aboriginal board to sit under the Commonwealth government.

A number of these points were later resurfaced in the Uluru Statement – most notably, the establishment of a First Nations Voice.

The launch of organised Aboriginal political protest

The AAPA’s statements, manifestos, speeches and correspondence set a clear path for guaranteeing Indigenous rights.

Fred Maynard, my grandfather, was the president of the AAPA in the 1920s. In his inaugural address to the organisation in 1925, he said,

Our people have not had the courage in the past to stand together but now we are united to fight for all of the things that are near and dear to us. We want to be in charge of our own destiny.

More than 200 people gathered for this first-ever Aboriginal rights convention. The event became front-page news, with banner headlines proclaiming, “Aborigines demand self determination” and “Self determination is their aim”.

Two years later, the AAPA produced a manifesto that was delivered to all sections of government – both state and federal – and published widely across NSW, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland.

One of the most significant points was for an Aboriginal board to be established under the Commonwealth government, and for state control over Aboriginal lives to be abolished.

The control of Aboriginal affairs, apart from common law rights shall be vested in a board of management comprised of capable educated Aboriginals under a chairman to be appointed by the government.

Having a Voice in Parliament

This was just the beginning of the fight for self-determination.

In 1927, Dorothy Moloney, a fervent non-Indigenous supporter of the AAPA, voiced her public support for the organisation’s push for a royal commission into the state-controlled Aborigines Protection Boards. This was a direct challenge to decades of mismanagement and Aboriginal suffering.

In a newspaper column, Moloney emphasised the importance of Aboriginal recognition and giving Aboriginal people the right to vote:

The founders of the Commonwealth Parliament … excluded the native population from the franchise. The Royal Commission which will sit in the near future to make suggestions regarding the amendment of the Constitution will be asked to reverse this unfortunate flaw, since it is our boast that the people of this Country have a say in making the laws which they are expected to obey.

Prime Minister Stanley Bruce contacted NSW Premier Jack Lang to inform him that a request had been made for an “extra-parliamentary” royal commission into

the present status and general conditions of the Aborigines.

Lang, in turn, referred the matter to the Aborigines Protection Board. Its response was both negative and misinformed. And it sits as a reminder of the organisation’s sinister impact on Aboriginal lives for the greater part of the 20th century.

The Board doubts that the appointment for a Commission to inquire into the matter is called for, so far as New South Wales is concerned.

Maynard was outraged and wrote a powerful three-page response to Lang.

I wish to make it perfectly clear on behalf of our people, that we accept no condition of inferiority as compared with the European people.

That the European people by the arts of war destroyed our more ancient civilisation is freely admitted, and that by their vices and diseases our people have been decimated is also patent, but neither of these facts are evidence of superiority. Quite the contrary is the case.

Aboriginal control over their own affairs

In early 1928, the Royal Commission into the Constitution was finally established in Canberra to discuss, among other issues, the future of Aboriginal policy-making.

Maynard and missionary activist Elizabeth McKenzie-Hatton wrote a joint response to the commission asserting the Commonwealth government was better equipped, more capable and more accountable to manage Aboriginal affairs than the states.

AAPA Secretary Ben Roundtree also sent a letter to the commission strongly arguing the Aboriginal demands for Commonwealth action.

He reiterated this position in a piece for the South Australian newspaper The Daylight:

our unswerving loyalty is with you, to solidify the whole of the [A]boriginal position throughout Australia, also for the abolition of the state control as constituted which we claim is against the best interest of our people.

Sadly, though, the commission refused to take responsibility for Aboriginal affairs away from the states and hand its oversight to an Aboriginal board to sit under the Commonwealth government. The hopes of the AAPA and its supporters were dashed.

But Maynard didn’t stop pressing his cause. In early 1929, he spoke to the Chatswood Willoughby Labour League in NSW on Aboriginal issues. A newspaper report mentioned his call for an Aboriginal representative

in the Federal Parliament, or failing it, to have an [A]boriginal ambassador appointed to live in Canberra to watch over his people’s interests and advise the Federal authorities.

Important legacy of the AAPA

The AAPA disappeared from public view later that year. There is strong evidence the organisation was effectively broken up through the combined efforts of the NSW Aborigines Protection Board, missionaries and the police.

But the AAPA’s mission lived on. Two years later, Joe Anderson, one of the first Aboriginal people to use film to voice demands for Aboriginal recognition, famously delivered a nationwide address on the Cinesound News broadcast as the self-proclaimed “King Burraga”. He declared:

All the black man wants is representation in Federal Parliament.

Nearly a century later, we need to mobilise support to embrace the Uluru Statement and its ideals of finally seeking to heal from the past and provide a platform that is just and equitable for all Australians.

As the legacy of the AAPA illustrates, this recognition is long overdue.

– ref. The Voice to Parliament isn’t a new idea – Indigenous activists called for it nearly a century ago – http://theconversation.com/the-voice-to-parliament-isnt-a-new-idea-indigenous-activists-called-for-it-nearly-a-century-ago-122272

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda Sweet, Professor, Chair in Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery Deakin University and Western Health Partnership, Deakin University

The summer months are upon us and with them we’re getting the usual food safety reminders. Be careful handling raw meat when preparing for your backyard barbecue, refrigerate the potato salad, and so on. These tips are designed to protect us from food poisoning, an unwanted addition to anyone’s summer holiday.

But few people are likely to consider the issue of food handling for babies: in particular, of expressed breast milk. Parents who use expressed breast milk are routinely transferring it between containers, defrosting it, and reheating it.

Breast milk is a raw animal food product. It contains live cells, proteins, carbohydrates, fatty acids, micronutrients, probiotics, and more. But the health-giving properties of breast milk decrease over time. And while breast milk has properties which inhibit the growth of some harmful bacteria, factors such as heat and time can enable these harmful bacteria to grow.

Read more: Want to breastfeed? These five things will make it easier

From breast, to bottle, to bub

The World Health Organisation recommends feeding babies breast milk exclusively for the first six months of life. So for many babies, this is their only source of food.

Up to 98% of breastfeeding women will express milk at some stage. Mothers may express milk if they are leaving their babies with partners, relatives, or babysitters. Planning to drink alcohol is another common reason women express milk ahead of time.

Some mothers only express and never directly feed: around 4% of breastfeeding women in Australia and up to 18% elsewhere. Mothers may exclusively express if their baby is not able to feed (because of a mouth malformation, poor latching, or breast refusal), if returning to work, or for other reasons.

If you’re using expressed breast milk to feed your baby – whether you do it all the time or it’s just a once off – here’s what to keep in mind.

Read more: The National Breastfeeding Strategy is a start, but if we really valued breast milk we’d put it in the GDP

Preparation for expressing

• Wash hands with soap and water (or hand sanitiser) every time, and dry on a clean cloth (or paper towel)

• equipment and storage containers should be washed with warm soapy water and air dried (or dried with a paper towel).

Storage

Like other food products, the length of time for which you can safely store breast milk will depend on where you store it – whether at room temperature, in the fridge, or in the freezer.

Storage guidelines based on the most up-to-date evidence are published by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

We’ve summarised this information in the table below, where the “ideal limit” will ensure the milk keeps its nutritional value, and the “maximum limit” is the time period which should not be exceeded for safety reasons.

The advice for room temperature does not apply for environmental conditions over 26℃. It’s important to immediately refrigerate or freeze any expressed milk in temperatures above 26℃.

One study looked at storing breast milk in ice-packed coolers, for example a small styrofoam box packed with “blue ice” (the ice packs designed to keep food cold). This study found breast milk could be safely stored in this way for a maximum limit of 24 hours. This may be useful when parents need to store breast milk on the go, but this method of storage requires further research.

Read more: Evacuating with a baby? Here’s what to put in your emergency kit

Feeding

• Ideally, thaw breast milk in the fridge and use it within 24 hours (you can also thaw it in a container of warm water for immediate use)

• nutrients are best maintained under 37℃. Warm the breast milk by putting the bottle in lukewarm water (less than 40℃) for up to 20 minutes. Avoid the microwave for heating because it has the risk of hot spots (overheated sections of the liquid, like when you microwave a meal and some bits are hotter than others)

• you can offer cool, room temperature, or warmed milk to the baby

• discard any unused remains after a feed.

The guidelines aren’t always clear

In our recently published research, we reviewed the online guidelines around handling and storage of expressed breast milk accessible to Australian women. We found a lot of conflicting advice, which can be confusing for mothers.

Considering breast milk is the only source of food for many young babies, the number of mothers who express, and the future trend toward milk banking, more research needs to be done into the physical properties of breast milk, and its safe handling and storage.

Read more: Breast milk banking continues an ancient human tradition and can save lives

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of fellow team members Hayley Scott and Leah Strauch.

– ref. Expressing breast milk this summer? Storing it safely will protect your baby’s health – http://theconversation.com/expressing-breast-milk-this-summer-storing-it-safely-will-protect-your-babys-health-125819

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Sheppard-Simms, PhD Candidate, School of Technology, Environments and Design, University of Tasmania

In Australia, interment in a cemetery or a churchyard has been the most common choices for in-ground burial. Over the past 20 years, though, burial has become a less accessible and more costly option for many people. This is because increasing numbers of deaths have created a boom in demand for burial plots and cemeteries are fast running out of space.

Since the 1950s, cremation has gained in popularity. But, although a majority of Australians who died last year were cremated, it is far from sustainable. Each cremation releases about 50 kilograms of CO₂ as well as toxins into the atmosphere.

Read more: Housing the dead: what happens when a city runs out of space?

The Australian way of death clearly needs to change, but arriving at solutions is a far more complicated matter.

Some people believe composting burial might provide one answer. Also known as “natural organic reduction”, composting burial is the brainchild of Katrina Spade, CEO of alternative burial company Recompose. The process involves decomposition of the corpse in soil — but not within a traditional cemetery.

How does it work?

The first step in the process of composting burial is to place the body into a vessel containing a mix of soil, wood chips, straw and alfalfa. As decomposition begins, microbial activity creates heat. This speeds things up and eliminates germs from the mix.

Over time the body is transformed into soil – around 760 litres of it. A portion of this soil will be returned to relatives for scattering, to make a memorial garden, or to use in public greening projects.

Read more: Buried beneath the trees: a plan to solve our shortage of cemetery space

A pilot interment program conducted by Washington State University showed the process takes about four weeks. This is a big difference to traditional burial. It can take up to hundreds of years before a grave can be reused.

The state of Washington recently legalised composting burial. The next step is implementation and Recompose has paired with architecture firm Olson Kundig to design the world’s first facility for composting burial in Seattle. It has 75 vessels. If these are reused every four weeks, the facility could process about 900 burials per year.

How does the cost compare?

These recent developments pave the way for its possible introduction in Australia. However, many questions remain to be answered. Is it really a more affordable or sustainable option than traditional modes of bodily disposal?

In 2019, Australian Seniors’ Cost of Death Report found the average cost of a basic burial is $8,048. A basic cremation costs $3,108 on average.

However, the cost of an individual burial depends on where you live. Exclusive beachside locales command the highest prices for burial real estate.

Read more: Losing the plot: death is permanent, but your grave isn’t

And, if you’re an Australian pensioner with no savings who has lived your whole life in the inner city, you’re going to struggle to afford a burial plot in your neighbourhood.

When the Recompose facility opens in 2021 in Seattle, composting burial will be on offer for about USD$5,500 (A$8,000) — about the same as a basic traditional burial in Australia. The costs might come down if the practice becomes widespread.

However, the technology is likely to be covered by patent. This means licensing agreements would limit its adoption. So, in the short term at least, composting burial is likely to be marketed towards those on average to high incomes.

Honouring the dead

Perhaps the main benefit of composting burial is the flexibility of having remains that are not attached to a traditional grave site. If you want to be buried in a particular place that holds personal meaning for you, but don’t mind being decomposed in a building, composting burial may allow this to happen.

Of course, local bylaws that govern the disposal of human remains in public places will continue to play an important role.

Related to this is an underexplored potential for composting burial businesses to partner with government, private industry, nonprofit organisations and local councils to create memorial parks where “human soils” might be interred. A drawback to this could be squeamishness in the community about playing frisbee on top of grandpa.

A greener alternative

Another potential benefit of composting burial is its sustainability. Founder Katrina Spade claims a metric ton of CO₂ will be saved every time someone chooses composting burial over traditional burial or cremation.

When seen in this light, composting burial makes more environmental sense than cremation. But, just like buying organic fruit, sustainability comes at a premium.

Beneath the practical considerations of space, cost and sustainability are the less visible questions about change and community resistance to burial practices that are new and confronting. It will take a lot to abandon traditional mourning practices that celebrate ideas of permanence, attachment to the grave and the notion of the loved one resting in an earthbound coffin.

There is hope, though, that composting burial will gain in appeal as a way of maintaining these important connections to traditional burial. By respecting each person’s desire to be returned after death to a place of their choosing, composting burial offers an intriguing and sensitive alternative.

– ref. Ashes to ashes, dust to … compost? An eco-friendly burial in just 4 weeks – http://theconversation.com/ashes-to-ashes-dust-to-compost-an-eco-friendly-burial-in-just-4-weeks-127794

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hassan, Professor, School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne

A survey this year revealed that Australians, on average, spend 10.2 hours a day with interactive digital technologies. And this figure goes up every year.

This is time we don’t get back. And our analogue lives, which include everything not digital, shrink in direct proportion.

I recently decided to spend four weeks at sea without access to my phone or the internet, and here’s what I learnt about myself, and the digital rat race I was caught in.

Cold turkey

Until a year or so ago, I was a 10.2 hours a day person. Over the years, dependence on technology and stress had destroyed any semblance of balance in my life – between work and home, or pleasure and obligation.

I wanted to quit, or cut down, at least. Tech “detox” apps such as the time-limiting Screen Time were useless. Even with these, I was still “on”, and just a click away from unblocking Instagram.

Read more: More of us are opting for ‘digital detox’ holidays

So I thought: what about going cold turkey? No screen time at all, 24/7. Was that possible, and what would it feel like?

My commute to work passed the Footscray docks, where container-ships come and go. Passing one day, I wondered if it was possible to go on one of those ships and travel from Melbourne to … somewhere?

Turns out it was. You can book a cabin online and just go. And in what was probably an impulse, I went.

For about four weeks I had no devices, as I sailed solo from West Melbourne to Singapore.

I wanted to experiment, to see what it felt like to take a digital detox, and whether I could change my habits when I returned home.

What I learnt

Cold turkey withdrawal is difficult. Even in prison, many inmates have access of some kind of device.

The time on that ship taught me there is a whole other side to life, the non-digital side, that gets pushed aside by the ubiquitous screen.

Real life contains people, conversations, flesh and textures that are not glass or plastic.

It also contains whole worlds that exist inside your head, and these can be summoned when we have the time, and devote a bit of effort to it.

These are worlds of memory and imagination. Worlds of reflection and thought. Worlds you see differently to the pallid glare of a screen.

I took four books with me and read them in a way I hadn’t before: slower, deeper and with more contemplation. The words were finite (and therefore precious).

I’d never spent time like this in my whole life, and was inspired to write about it in detail.

Read more: Waiting: rediscovering boredom in the age of the smartphone

Of course, we all have our own commitments and can’t always do something like this.

But away from the screen, I learned a lot about our digital world and about myself, and have tried to adapt these lessons to “normal” life.

Since I’ve been back, it feels like some sense of balance has been restored. Part of this came from seeing the smartphone as a slightly alien thing (which it is).

And instead of being something that always prompts me, I flipped the power dynamic around, to make it something I choose to use – and choose when to use. Meaning sometimes it’s OK to leave it at home, or switch it off.

If you can persist with these little changes, you might find even when you have your phone in your pocket, you can go hours without thinking about it. Hours spent doing precious, finite, analogue things.

How to get started

You could begin by deleting most of your apps.

You’ll be surprised by how many you won’t miss. Then, slowly flip the power dynamic between you and your device around. Put it in a drawer once a week – for a morning, then for a day – increasing this over time.

Read more: Do you ‘zombie check’ your phone? How new tools can help you control technology over-use

If this sounds a bit like commercial digital detox self-care, then so be it. But this is minus the self-care gurus and websites. Forget those.

No one (and no app) is really going to help you take back your agency. You need to do it yourself, or organise it with friends. Perhaps try seeing who can go the furthest.

After a few weeks, you might reflect on how it feels: what’s the texture of the analogue world you got back? Because, more likely than not, you will get it back.

For some, it might be a quieter and more subjective pre-digital world they half remember.

For others, it might be something quite new, which maybe feels a bit like freedom.

– ref. A month at sea with no technology taught me how to steal my life back from my phone – http://theconversation.com/a-month-at-sea-with-no-technology-taught-me-how-to-steal-my-life-back-from-my-phone-127501

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia

This article contains explicit language.

Is it ever OK to swear? Yes. Swearing can be quite acceptable when delivered to drive home a particular point to a specific audience, enhance a comedic presentation, or deal with pain.

I am sure, in that last context, that midwives and partners have heard it all, many times over. And no-one would begrudge the delivering mother that opportunity. But in my experience, the use of profanity is usually gratuitous, repeatedly designed to offend and, to my mind, frequently just a sign of laziness in speech.

In fact, when delivered to an unsuspecting group, especially where children are present, it can amount to a criminal offence.

So what does the law say about letting fly with a few well-chosen expletives?

Don’t say f*ck in front of children

Public profanity is an offence in every jurisdiction in Australia. The South Australian Summary Offences Act is one good example of this type of prohibition:

A person who uses indecent or profane language or sings any indecent or profane song or ballad in a public place; or in a police station; or which is audible from a public place; or which is audible in neighbouring or adjoining occupied premises; or with intent to offend or insult any person is guilty of an offence. Maximum penalty $250.

But context is everything. Saying “fuck” in front of families at the local sports ground would likely lead to a fine if someone complained to the local police. But the same words used by a comedian at a performance for paying patrons later that night will incur no such sanctioning.

Anyone who has regularly attended live theatre in the past decade, or who watches late night television or listens to late night radio, would know that, over the years, the use of profane language has become widespread.

Read more: The ‘c-word’ may be the last swearing taboo, but doesn’t shock like it used to

Indeed, language is forever evolving. Words that used to be uttered sparingly are now deployed in media conversations as a matter of course. They’re subject to “language warnings” informed by the various radio and television codes of conduct, with television codes being particularly cognisant of the likelihood of children viewers.

Norm and Ahmed

Any modern history of the law of profanity in Australia must begin with the story of Alex Buzo’s 1968 play, “Norm and Ahmed”, which was destined to be seen only by adult audiences.

Read more: Foul-mouthed Minions? Some myths about children and swearing

In the play, Buzo presents racial prejudice as profoundly irrational in the behaviour of ordinary Australians. The play script originally ended with the line “fuckin’ boong”. For its debut production in 1968, “fuckin’” became “bloody”. But the following year in Brisbane, Buzo’s original line was used.

After one performance, Norman Staines, the actor who said the line, was arrested. But it was not the use of the dreadful racial slur that had attracted the attention of the two police who mounted the stage, but rather the use of the word “fuckin’”.

The magistrate’s conviction of Staines was later overturned by the Supreme Court of Queensland on the grounds the word was not obscene in the context of the play. The High Court later agreed.

There is little doubt the judgements of these courts set a precedent. Swearing was now acceptable if employed in the context of adult entertainment.

Racist arrests

There are some interesting socio-legal writings on this subject, too. Criminologist Paul Wilson discovered in the New South Wales outback town of Moree in the late 1970s that the police were using the word “fuck” liberally in their banter with each other, while regularly arresting Aboriginal men in the street for using the same word on the basis it was “offensive”.

Wilson concluded from his research experience that rule-makers are often the most flagrant rule-breakers.

Read more: We need evidence-based law reform to reduce rates of Indigenous incarceration

What’s more, practising criminal lawyers know police regularly use the offensive language law to give them the widest possible range of excuses to arrest someone giving them grief.

It’s difficult to say how many people today around Australia are charged with using offensive, profane or insulting language in any one year, but you could safely surmise it’s in the thousands.

What we can say from evidence in NSW is that Indigenous people, who comprise 3% of the population, make up approximately one-third of those charged and taken to court on account of their use of language deemed by police to be offensive.

Read more: FactCheck Q&A: are Indigenous Australians the most incarcerated people on Earth?

More recently, in 2015, a political activist wore a sandwich board sign that linked former Prime Minister Tony Abbott with the “c” word. The activist was arrested and charged with offensive conduct.

The matter then wound its way through the courts. Two years later, magistrate Jacqueline Milledge concluded the law was concerned with what would offend the “hypothetical reasonable person”, saying:

It’s not someone who is thin-skinned, who is easily offended […] It’s someone who can ride out some of the crudities of life. [The sign is] provocative and cheeky but it is not offensive.

So where does all of this leave us? Can we use profanities? Yes, of course, but one should choose one’s audience carefully, lest the long arm of the law take an interest in our public utterances.

– ref. Swearing in public is still illegal, but you probably won’t be charged if you’re white – http://theconversation.com/swearing-in-public-is-still-illegal-but-you-probably-wont-be-charged-if-youre-white-127512

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leanne Cutcher, Professor, University of Sydney Business School, University of Sydney

Evocative images of volunteer firefighters fill our newspapers and television screens. As we look with gratitude into their ash-stained faces, we want to see a modern-day hero looking back at us.

But firefighters don’t want us to see heroes, because calling them heroes overstates their ability to control fires and downplays the long-term psychological impacts of fighting fires.

That’s what we’ve learned after interviewing Black Saturday firefighters ten years after the tragedy, as part of an ongoing research project exploring the role of memory and commemoration in organisational planning.

Read more: As bushfires intensify, we need to acknowledge the strain on our volunteers

As we listen to their recollections of that day, there is no doubt they engaged in heroic acts and need to be remembered for their bravery. But when we laud firefighters as heroes, we fail to acknowledge the ongoing impact of the fires. As one firefighter told us:

Each year on the Black Saturday anniversary every community group wanted to have a thank you event and they were getting frustrated by the firefighters not turning up.

What they couldn’t understand was what the firefighters were physically and mentally going through at that time.

Memorials do the remembering for us

Government funding for firefighting needs to make provision for counselling services for firefighters dealing with the long-term psychological effects of fighting fires.

Several firefighters talked about “deliberately trying not to remember because it is so difficult”. For others, remembering together was part of the healing process.

After the 10th anniversary, I had a bit of a meltdown. We’d arranged a gathering of that group of people who were very close on the day and I wasn’t going to go. I just had a picture of myself sitting in the corner crying my eyes out all night and it’s the first time that group had come together since the first anniversary and as it turned out it was brilliant.

It was exactly what we needed. It was a very close group of people who had a lot of trust in each other.

Over the past decade, memorials have been erected in communities affected by the Black Saturday fires. But firefighters we spoke to were concerned that creating memorials allowed communities and authorities to relegate the fires and their impact to the past.

Scholars of commemoration have observed that giving monumental form to memory can enable us to divest ourselves of the obligation to remember. It’s as if the memorial does the remembering for us.

Rather than building memorials, firefighting organisations need to commemorate through forms of collective communing, where knowledge is shared by older, experienced hands with new firefighters.

This communal commemoration could build on the informal forms of commemoration that firefighters told us they prefer – sitting around the fire truck, sharing stories. Staff rides, for instance, a tactical walk retracing the steps of those involved in a major fire, is an effective way of passing on knowledge while also remembering and honouring the work of firefighters.

Making sure it never happens again

Black Saturday firefighters we spoke to urged memorialisation to elicit a call to action.

Memorials do have a profound effect. The Kinglake memorial for me is extremely powerful in terms of reminding us of the scale of the tragedy, the names – I can still picture the faces. It is deeply emotional and powerful.

But how we can translate that powerful emotion into a resilience and a determination to make sure it never happens again?

Firefighters don’t want a roll call of heroes, but for communities to remember the lessons we have learnt from past fires and to ensure they have a bushfire plan and to heed warnings to leave.

As one firefighter said about the Black Saturday anniversary:

It should have been an opportunity to remind people of the dangers of bushfires and what can happen and the limitations of an organisation like ours, and to use that in a positive way to reinforce future preparedness rather than constantly looking back at the tragedy and not learning anything from it.

It was a national tragedy owned by everybody and we should be able to build up a cultural memory.

Collective memory carries an ethical obligation. In commemorating firefighters as heroes, we can fall into the danger of overstating their ability to control fires, absolving ourselves of responsibility.

Read more: 70 years before Black Saturday, the birth of the Victorian CFA was a sad tale of politics as usual

Rather than simply valorising and memorialising firefighters as heroes, all levels of governments need to accept responsibility for their role in mitigating future bushfire impacts.

This means ensuring the landscape is managed appropriately, that our firefighters have the resources to fight fires, and that there is effective, science-based climate policy.

– ref. ‘I can still picture the faces’: Black Saturday firefighters want you to listen to them, not call them ‘heroes’ – http://theconversation.com/i-can-still-picture-the-faces-black-saturday-firefighters-want-you-to-listen-to-them-not-call-them-heroes-128632

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Margot Hillel, Professor, Children’s Literature, Australian Catholic University

An Australian summer can be a holiday by the beach, recovering from exams, or anticipating the next stage of schooling. The summer break can also offer a wonderful opportunity to catch up on some reading.

Award-winning author and illustrator Shaun Tan wrote the

lessons we learn from […] stories are best applied to a similar study of life in general […] At its most successful, fiction offers us devices for interpreting reality.

(If you aren’t familiar with Tan’s work, look out for The Arrival, Cicada and Tales from the Inner City, among others).

Research from New Zealand suggests young adults like to read books which make them laugh, “let them use their imagination, have a mystery or problem to solve, have characters they wish they could be like”.

Based on this, here are some recommendations your teen could read this summer.

For teens in years 10-12

Living on Hope Street (2017)

Man Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton said:

When I was a young adult I cherished those books that took me seriously, that acknowledged the world was a complicated and often troubled place.

Living on Hope Street by Demet Divaroren does just that. Hope Street is a fictional Australian street with a diverse population.

This diversity is replicated in the book’s multiple-voice narrative structure.

The voices are initially separate but come together in a way that reflects the development of the community.

The characters range in age from school children to a Vietnam war veteran and include a refugee family. Hope Street has messages of tolerance, love, courage, friendship and the importance of family.

Read more: 5 reasons I always get children picture books for Christmas

The Things That Will Not Stand (2018)

Novels invite the reader to imagine themselves as the characters and understand other people’s situations.

In The Things That Will Not Stand, by Michael Gerard Bauer, two teenagers, Sebastian and Tolly, attend a university open day together.

They meet a girl who is not quite what she seems but who so intrigues Sebastian, he stays on long after Tolly has gone home and the open day activities have finished, just so he can see her again.

There are some very funny scenes throughout the book, usually involving Tolly.

The action takes place on just one day, a day which both boys will remember for ever.

This book will particularly appeal to readers at the upper levels of secondary school, inviting them to imagine themselves in the place of the characters.

All the Crooked Saints (2017)

Maggie Stiefvater sets this book in a remote Colorado town, Bicho Raro, where a most unusual family lives – a family that appears to perform miracles. Into this tiny town comes Pete, whose application to join the army has been rejected and he is seeking to come to terms with that disappointment by hitchhiking.

He has been picked up by Tony, a DJ trying to escape fame and heading to Bicho Raro because he has heard about the family that can perform miracles.

Their visit changes both of them for the better. There is a lot here for older teenage readers as the book involves romance and humour, and has touches of magic and fantasy.

Stiefvaster also explores concepts of good and bad and the importance of knowing ourselves.

Read more: Young adult fiction’s dark themes give the hope to cope

Words in Deep Blue (2016)

This novel by Cath Crowley is largely set in the delightfully-named secondhand bookshop, Howling Books.

It is a paean of praise to books, the important part they can play in our lives and helping us come to terms with grief.

This is also a celebration of words and friendship, with characters older readers will relate to.

For teens in years 7-9

Dragonfly Song (2016)

Ancient Crete is the setting for Wendy Orr’s Dragonfly Song. The book tells of those chosen to be the tribute to the Bull King (he chooses a tribute every year).

The outcast girl, called No-Name by everyone, seizes the opportunity to become one of the tributes, a task she knows to be demanding and often dangerous. She will have to brave the bloody bull dances in his royal court.

Will she actually survive the test?

The book is inspired by the legend of the Minotaur. It is thoroughly researched, lyrically written and invites readers to imagine themselves in No-name’s place.

His Name was Walter (2018)

A group of students and their teacher, separated from the others on a school excursion, find an odd-looking book in a deserted house. Emily Rodda beautifully uses the device of a story within a story in His Name Was Walter.

What happens next is mysterious and intriguing as past and present combine. The ending is both poignant and satisfying.

Hatchet (1986)

Imagine finding yourself stranded in an unknown wilderness without a mobile phone. This is exactly what happens to Brian in Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet.

It’s a kind of modern Robinson Crusoe story, first published in 1986 before the proliferation of mobile phones.

In this adventure, Brian has to be inventive and resilient to survive. The book is the first in a series of five. One review suggested, for many readers, Hatchet was “the first school-assigned book they fell in love with”.

How to Bee (2017)

How would life be without bees? How would the pollination of plants, so essential to life on earth, happen?

This intriguing story, by Bren MacDibble, explores that idea and sets up a scenario where children do the pollinating – but only the bravest and quickest.

Penny longs to be one of these, but can she, especially when it looks as though she might be taken away from the life she has known?

Read more: Honest and subtle: writing about sex in young adult literature

– ref. Love, laughter, adventure and fantasy: a summer reading list for teens – http://theconversation.com/love-laughter-adventure-and-fantasy-a-summer-reading-list-for-teens-126928

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zoe Myers, Lecturer, Australian Urban Design Research Centre, University of Western Australia

Mental health in our cities is an increasingly urgent issue. Rates of disorders such as anxiety and depression are high. Urban design and planning can promote mental health by refocusing on spaces we use in our everyday lives in light of what research tells us about the benefits of exposure to nature and biodiversity.

Mental health issues have many causes. However, the changing and unpredictable elements of our physical and sensory environments have a profound impact on risk, experiences and recovery.

Read more: Green for wellbeing – science tells us how to design urban spaces that heal us

Physical activity is still the mainstay of urban planning efforts to enable healthy behaviours. Mental well-being is then a hoped-for byproduct of opportunities for exercise and social interaction.

Neuroscientific research and tools now allow us to examine more deeply some of the ways in which individuals experience spaces and natural elements. This knowledge can greatly add to, and shift, the priorities and direction of urban design and planning.

What do we mean by ‘nature’?

A large body of research has compellingly shown that “nature” in its many forms and contexts can have direct benefits on mental health. Unfortunately, the extent and diversity of natural habitats in our cities are decreasing rapidly.

Too often “nature” – by way of green space and “POS” (Public Open Space) – is still seen as something separate from other parts of our urban neighbourhoods. Regeneration efforts often focus on large green corridors. But even small patches of genuinely biodiverse nature can re-invite and sustain multitudes of plant and animal species, as urban ecologists have shown.

Read more: The small patch of bush over your back fence might be key to a species’ survival

It has also been widely demonstrated that nature does not effect us in uniform or universal ways. Sometimes it can be confronting or dangerous. That is particularly true if nature is isolated or uninviting, or has unwritten rules around who should be there or what activities are appropriate.

These factors complicate the desire for a “nature pill” to treat urban ills.

We need to be far more specific about what “nature” we are talking about in design and planning to assist with mental health.

Read more: Increasing tree cover may be like a ‘superfood’ for community mental health

Why does biodiversity matter?

The exponential accessibility and affordability of lab and mobile technologies, such as fMRI and EEG measuring brain activity, have vastly widened the scope of studies of mental health and nature. Researchers are able, for example, to analyse responses to images of urban streetscapes versus forests. They can also track people’s perceptions “on the move”.

Research shows us biodiverse nature has particular positive benefit for mental well-being. Multi-sensory elements such as bird or frog sounds or wildflower smells have well-documented beneficial effects on mental restoration, calm and creativity.

Other senses – such as our sense of ourselves in space, our balance and equilibrium and temperature – can also contribute to us feeling restored by nature.

Acknowledging the crucial role all these senses play shifts the focus of urban design and planning from visual aesthetics and functional activity to how we experience natural spaces. This is particularly important in ensuring we create places for people of all abilities, mobilities and neurodiversities.

Neuroscientific research also shows an “enriched” environment – one with multiple diverse elements of interest – can prompt movement and engagement. This helps keep our brains cognitively healthy, and us happier.

Read more: Reducing stress at work is a walk in the park

Beyond brain imaging of experiences in nature, there is growing and compelling evidence that contact with diverse microbiomes in the soil and air has a profound effect on depression and anxiety. Increasing our interaction with natural elements through touch – literally getting dirt under our nails – is both psychologically therapeutic and neurologically nourishing.

We also have increasing evidence that air, noise and soil pollution increase risk of mental health disorders in cities.

What does this mean for urban neighbourhoods?

These converging illustrations suggest biodiverse urban nature is a priority for promoting mental health. Our job as designers and planners is therefore to multiply opportunities to interact with these areas in tangible ways.

The concept of “biophilia” isn’t new. But a focus on incidental and authentic biodiversity helps us apply this very broad, at times unwieldy and non-contextual, concept to the local environment. This grounds efforts in real-time, achievable interventions.

Using novel technologies and interdisciplinary research expands our understanding of the ways our environments affect our mental well-being. This knowledge challenges the standardised planning of nature spaces and monocultured plantings in our cities. Neuroscience can therefore support urban designers and planners in allowing for more flexibility and authenticity of nature in urban areas.

Neuroscientific evidence of our sensory encounters with biodiverse nature points us towards the ultimate win-win (-win) for ecology, mental health and cities.

Dr Zoe Myers is the author of Wildness and Wellbeing: Nature, Neuroscience, and Urban Designn (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

– ref. Biodiversity and our brains: how ecology and mental health go together in our cities – http://theconversation.com/biodiversity-and-our-brains-how-ecology-and-mental-health-go-together-in-our-cities-126760

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Lecturer, General Dentist & PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland

Hooray it’s the holidays! Time to organise the pet sitter, mail and dentist. Wait, what? It might be worth squeezing a trip to the dentist before you go.

One in 12 travel insurance claims are for dental emergencies. And of those emergencies, three out of four treatments could be prevented by making a timely dentist visit.

Here’s how to avoid an emergency dentist visit while on holiday. But life happens, and there are ways to help yourself if you get into trouble.

Read more: Prepare for a healthy holiday with this A-to-E guide

Book that check-up before check-in

The Australian Dental Association recommends a check-up at least three months before you travel. If it’s too late for this break, you might want to add a dental visit to your “must do” list before your next trip.

At best, an early check-up will include only a scale and clean. However, if you need major work, such as dental implants and wisdom teeth removed, you will have ample time to complete treatment before you go away.

Read more: How often should I get my teeth cleaned?

If you have dentures, allow enough time with a dentist or dental prosthetist to organise spare plate(s) in case you lose or break your regular ones while you’re away.

Avoid surgery just before flying

A planned dental visit before flying can help avoid complications, particularly related to surgical procedures, such as removing your wisdom teeth.

It’s generally wise to have your wisdom teeth removed well ahead of travel as you might need a hospital stay. It can also take at least two days for the extraction site to heal well enough to fly. That’s because the dry air and pressure can disturb the blood clot that forms where you’ve had your teeth removed.

Molar teeth (including some wisdom teeth) removed from your top jaw can cause other complications when you fly. If you fly too soon after surgery, changes in air pressure could lead to complications related to your sinuses that could see you dribbling your food and drink out of your nose. Not only is this annoying and embarrassing, it can be quite painful. You may also need further surgery to fix this.

People can also experience toothache when flying, or even diving. That’s because of a condition called barodontalgia that’s triggered by changes in air pressure, such as when a plane takes off or lands. Often, this pain is a symptom of a loose or leaking filling, a deep cavity close to the nerve inside the tooth, recent dental treatment or sinusitis.

Read more: Explainer: what are wisdom teeth and should I get mine out?

If going overseas, have your travel insurance in order

If you’re going overseas, before leaving the country, make sure:

• you have finished any outstanding dental work, as some travel insurers don’t cover pre-existing conditions

• your travel insurance covers emergency dental care

• you keep your travel insurer’s contact numbers handy (local and international numbers)

• you nominate a friend or family member to contact your insurer on your behalf (just in case you are unable to do so yourself).

Read more: Going travelling? Don’t forget insurance (and to read the fine print)

Other tips to avoid an emergency dental visit

Here are some practical tips to avoid harming your teeth, braces and crowns over summer:

• use scissors, not your teeth, to open packaging

• avoid chewing very hard foods such as ice, popcorn kernels, pork crackling, and crunchy candies. This is particularly important if you have braces, or large fillings or crowns as they can easily come unstuck or fracture

• if you play contact sport, protect your teeth by wearing a custom fitted mouth guard.

I’m in pain. What do I do?

Here’s what you can do until you get to a dentist, if you:

• have toothache — if you have spontaneous, radiating pain or a constant dull ache and/or pain and swelling, over-the-counter pain medication may help. But try to find a dentist as soon as reasonably possible

• chip or break a tooth or filling — avoid running your tongue over the site and try to get to a dentist as soon as possible

• knock out an adult (not baby) tooth — hold the tooth by the crown (not the root) and rinse with milk if it is dirty, then try to place the tooth back in the socket. If this is not possible, store the tooth in milk or inside your cheek and find a dentist as soon as possible

• have a dislodged crown/cap — store the crown in a container; a dentist may be able to glue it back on.

• have problems with your braces — shift loose wire that sticks out to make it more comfortable, then see an orthodontist or dentist as soon as possible

• get an abscess — seek immediate dental care, and if this not possible, find a doctor or seek emergency hospital care. An abscess can become life-threatening very quickly

• suffer trauma to your gums, mouth or face — apply firm pressure to the bleeding site with a clean bandage and seek dental or medical care

• crack or break your denture — never try to glue the broken pieces back together, but store the lose parts in a container and seek help from a dental prosthetist or dentist as soon as possible.

I’m away from home. How do I find a dentist?

If you are holidaying in Australia, but away from home, ask a local person to recommend a dentist, or if that’s not possible, search online.

Then call. Although most dental practices close over the public holidays, they usually leave a message with contact numbers in case of an after-hours emergency.

If you need after-hours care, be prepared to pay a call-out fee of A$100-500. Often, the call-out fee is used to separate the real emergencies from those that can wait another day before the practice opens. If no help is at hand, the hospital emergency department may be able to help.

I’m overseas. How can I get help?

If you have a dental emergency while overseas:

• contact your travel insurer to understand what documentation is required to make a claim

• contact the Australian embassy, high commission or consulate to help you navigate the health system in the country you’re visiting

• if there is no Australian service, the Canadian embassy, high commission or consulate will help you find a dentist.

Don’t forget

After emergency treatment, ask for a copy of your treatment notes, images and x-rays to be sent to your regular dentist. This is particularly important if you need follow-up care when you return home.

And in the unlikely event you’ll need some emergency dental work, don’t forget to enjoy the rest of your break. Happy holidays!

– ref. How to avoid the dentist this holiday (and what to do if you need one in an emergency) – http://theconversation.com/how-to-avoid-the-dentist-this-holiday-and-what-to-do-if-you-need-one-in-an-emergency-124276

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Page, Associate professor, Southern Cross University

Public space is all around us, from bustling town and city squares to the iconic beaches and wide-open national parks on our doorsteps. In its more mundane forms – such as roads, footpaths, or cycle ways – it’s critical in getting us from A to B.

But the line between what is considered true public space and what is publicly accessible private space is often blurred.

For example, we can enjoy the outdoor plazas of privately owned shopping centres – provided we follow the rules, dress appropriately and consume.

Read more: Don’t forget the footpath – it’s vital public space

But no protests or large gatherings would be tolerated in such plazas whereas these activities are a common use of our public spaces.

These privately owned public spaces (POPS) are on the increase (New York encourages these spaces and even has a map of them).

So we need to be clear what we mean by public spaces and protect them, where possible.

The ‘public’ private spaces in our cities

Our cities are complex mixes of public and private property. Consider the short walk from Brisbane’s CBD to South Bank to illustrate this patchwork.

We can walk on footpaths, cross roads, bisect the square at Queens Gardens and finally cross the river at the Goodwill Bridge, all on public property, and all the while skirting private boundaries.

We then arrive at South Bank, with its hybrid mix of open swimming pool, parklands, public institutions and private retail, food outlets and busy markets.

This green, subtropical space is actually owned by the South Bank Corporation, a statutory entity given powers similar to those of a private owner.

Under the South Bank Corporation Act 1989, public land was transferred to the corporation, which has the powers of a private owner to exclude or even remove people from the area if they are deemed a nuisance.

Mostly, it’s an inclusive sort of owner – provided we don’t cause disturbance. But South Bank exemplifies this public-private overlap and the spatial ambiguity this engenders.

Cross the boundaries

This public-private meander is replicated in cities across the globe. They highlight the blurred and porous boundaries that demarcate public and private property.

We navigate these boundaries surprisingly well, alert to the subtle and not-so-subtle lines of property.

For example, high fences, no trespassing signs, or strategic CCTV cameras tell us “keep out”, versus the marked footpaths, well-trodden grassy shortcuts, or stiles that say it’s okay to enter.

In England, books are published that help ramblers (hikers and walkers) spot what they can access. Guides to the subtle signs of rural landscapes help citizens legitimately enjoy their rights to roam the countryside and coastal margin – public property rights that often exist over private land.

In the United States, the public trust doctrine” protects inherently public property“.

In New Zealand, what’s called the Queen’s Chain is said to protect access to the beach and other waterways, although it’s not always that clear.

In Australia, access to the beach – in status both public space and public property – is a given, but little explored. For example, access to the beach can be impaired where private owners of foreshore make it difficult.

There is much law on beaches in the United States, but little in Australia. This issue has been a confused area of law for many since Roman times.

Read more: Contested spaces: we shall fight on the beaches…

Sometimes we resolutely defend our threatened public property. In San Francisco, a trial to allow people to pay a fee to reserve exclusive sections of grass at the city’s Dolores Park was short-lived after a public outcry.

Along the California coast, citizens challenged billionaires denying public access to beaches.

Yet, at other times, we are inconsistent in the lines we draw or, worse, the lines we don’t draw at all.

Such inconsistency means the public estate is mostly in retreat. It has been for centuries, marginalised since the enclosure period in Europe when large swathes of common lands were privatised.

Private public spaces

This enclosure is ongoing with the so-called privately owned public spaces that masquerade as something they’re not. A good example is the “public” plazas of office buildings, where we grab a quick lunch. They’re privately owned and not true public spaces at all.

In better appreciating the publicness of public property we can better grasp what’s at stake, the importance of public property to the social and democratic fabric.

Read more: How to turn Auckland’s inner city streets into public spaces people can enjoy

Public lands are the forums where we sociably mix with strangers. They serve a public purpose and define public values. They are the conduits that connect us, that permit us to pass and re-pass.

Importantly, public property is where we go to protest and defend the public square, whether in the camps of Occupy Wall Street in New York, the streets of Hong Kong, or the public forests of Tasmania, part of what the Australian High Court calls our “public forest estate”.

That’s why I believe we need to pay more attention to what are our public spaces, how they’re defined and the need to defend them where necessary. Public-private spaces may have their uses, but they’re not the same as true public space.

– ref. Explainer: What is public space and why does it need protecting? – http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-public-space-and-why-does-it-need-protecting-121692

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

Twice the goods and services tax had been rejected, the first time by Labor, which came close to introducing something similar in 1985 and then by the Australian electorate, which rejected the Coalition’s Fightback tax reform package in 1993.

It had been recommended to the government by the Asprey Tax Review, which reported to Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975 after being set up by Prime Minister William McMahon in 1972.

By the end of the 1990s, there was a GST in almost every other developed country, including New Zealand, which had introduced it at 10% in 1996 and increased it to 12.5% in 1989.

The cabinet records for 1998 and 1999 released this morning by the National Archives don’t give us much of an idea about what made Prime Minister John Howard try one more time, within a year or so of being elected on a promise that there is “no way a GST will ever be part of our policy”.

“Never ever?” the interviewer asked Howard. “Never ever. It’s dead. It was killed by voters at the last election,” Howard replied.

Some of the momentum came from a series of High Court decisions in 1997 that made it illegal for Australia’s states to continue taxing petrol, alcohol and tobacco.

The Commonwealth had to step in. And according to cabinet historian Paul Strangio, who has reviewed the papers released this morning, part of it came from a feeling the government had lost its way, amid “rumblings about the security of the prime minister’s leadership”.

But the papers do give us a good idea of how the momentum became unstoppable.

Once Howard set up a taskforce in August 1997 and asked it to come up with a plan to cut income tax, introduce a broad-based indirect tax and reconfigure Commonwealth-state financial relations, he had a sense of direction.

He called an election a fortnight after announcing the GST on August 13 1998, which he only narrowly won.

His ministers found themselves sidelined, being reduced to offering suggestions for presentation, given that the direction of the policy was already public.

“Were there doubters in the cabinet? Of course there were,” Howard’s treasurer, Peter Costello, said today’s release. “But by that stage we had said several times we were doing it, there was no point in saying let’s not do it.”

So I’d walk out of cabinet meetings with lists of suggestions, one goes on for several pages, instructing the treasurer to do better in explaining the role of the tax on this sector, do better on explaining the exemption for diesel fuel, it went on and on.

Costello made history by presenting to the cabinet on PowerPoint, using slides that have long-since been lost. He also displayed computer modelling of the effect of every income group and family type of every proposed variation in rates and thresholds. He said:

You’ll find one minute in there that says the treasurer presented a proposal for tax reform, which was adopted. That’s the minute of a meeting that went on for seven hours saying how every group would be in front or behind. I became the government’s PowerPoint guy.

As we were coming out of that cabinet meeting after seven hours I asked one of my senior colleagues, how do you think this is going to go? He said he didn’t know, but he liked the colours.

The cabinet made a momentous and expensive decision; that on average no income group of family type would be made worse off.

It lifted pensions and other payments by 4% in order to “overcompensate”, and found itself overcompensating even more when fresh food was excluded from GST in order seal a deal with the Australian Democrats.

Costello had been determined to get the tax in by July 1 2000, just before the Sydney 2000 Olympics. This would allow him to tax hoards of overseas visitors, most of them from countries that already had goods and services taxes.

He admits to nervousness in the lead-up to the date when almost every price in Australia had to change, some coming down as higher wholesale taxes were revoked, and some going up by as much as 10% which was to be the new standard rate. By design, the GST was to be hidden from consumers, incorporated in new prices.

I remember having having a meeting in the cabinet room. We called in (Chief Executives) Peter Bartels from Coles Myer and Roger Corbett from Woolworths. One of them I think it was Roger, said to me: ‘you are telling us to change one billion prices on June 30. One price at a minute to midnight, another on the stroke of midnight. How we do that?’

I had never thought of it in those terms, I began to wonder whether it was a good idea.

The GST created millions of tax collection points, making it far more complex than other attempts at reforming taxes such as the Rudd governments mining tax and the Gillard government’s carbon price.

Each had to be issued with an Australian Business Number.

We thought there were 800,000 businesses in Australia. By the time we finished, we had issued two million Australian Business Numbers, including many businesses that had never been known before.

It didn’t go smoothly at first. Businesses, like the cabinet, were new to computerisation. But by the time Labor’s Kim Beazley was defeated in the 2001 election on a platform that included a “rollback” of the GST, it had come to be accepted as part of the Australian way of paying our way.

Costello’s biggest surprise is that it didn’t go up. It remains at 10%, in part because of a deal that lacks legal force requiring every state to agree before it does.

He says he thought the deal would hold for a while because there would usually be a state going into an election that would veto an increase. He never thought it would hold for 20 years.

Read more: FactCheck: is the GST as efficient but less equitable than income tax?

Today’s release of archival documents contains lessons for Howard and Costello’s successors. One is that over time, almost any change will come to be accepted as normal. In the language of tax veterans, and “old tax is a good tax”.

It’s what Costello’s predecessor Paul Keating discovered when he introduced the capital gains tax and the fringe benefits tax. After a while, they become normal.

The other lesson is that it pays to buy off likely losers. It also pays to bring in a change that at first loses more than it brings in. Overcompensation is expensive, but if the change is a good one, it can be worthwhile.

It sometimes isn’t enough, though, as Gillard discovered when she brought in the carbon price and overcompensated almost everybody.

Another secret ingredient might have been the broad support from groups that were normally opposed.

Business backed it as a way of getting taxes off incomes and the welfare lobby backed it as a guaranteed stream of money the government could use to provide social services.

It’s an agreement about means, if not ends, that doesn’t come along often.

– ref. Cabinet papers 1998-99: how the GST became unstoppable – http://theconversation.com/cabinet-papers-1998-99-how-the-gst-became-unstoppable-128844

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamin Kooyman, Learning Adviser, Australian National University

January 1 1990, Mr Bean debuted on ITV to an audience of 13.45 million. The brainchild of Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, the pilot episode marked the birth of a major comedy character.

Bean has become so familiar, so comfortably part of our pop-culture tapestry, that it’s easy to miss how striking a creation he is.

At the time, the talented Atkinson was best known for his four incarnations of Blackadder.

After a slapsticky first iteration, Blackadder traded heavily on acidic and acerbic dialogue and Atkinson’s knack for delivering it. Even the most lethargic line delivery (“To you Baldrick, the Renaissance was just something that happened to other people.”) dripped with disdain and venomous wit.

In sharp contrast, Bean was a largely silent character – arguably the last great predominantly silent comic creation, extending a genealogy including Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Harpo Marx and Jacques Tati.

While not to all tastes, Bean is widely recognised and beloved. The absence of dialogue helped the show become a global hit, transcending language and cultural differences to screen in almost 250 countries.

So what is it that makes Mr Bean such an adored creation?

A matter of size

Think of the most iconic images of silent comedy: Lloyd hanging from a clock tower, Keaton commandeering trains for the Confederacy, Chaplin body surfing through a network of oversized mechanical gears.

Now think of the most iconic Mr Bean vignettes: Bean at the swimming pool, in the dentist’s chair, entertaining a sick child on a plane, eating lunch at the park. All exquisite comedic scenes, shot on unflattering videotape in familiar environments.

The smaller sketches hold up stronger on repeat viewing, while more elaborate high jinks — Bean playing mini-golf across a whole county, Bean looking after a lost infant at a carnival — have not aged as well and tend to pale in charm and dilute the purity of the concept.

Bean is best when he works on a small scale.

Child – or alien?

Mr Bean has a child-like nature. Silent comedy stars typically played moderately functional adults. Even Harpo Marx, the most overtly childlike of them, had a predatory edge.

In contrast, Bean is, as Atkinson notes, “a child in a grown man’s body”.

The series’ opening credits, in which Bean falls to the ground with a splat from a spaceship, conjure other possible backstories. Is Bean an abductee returned to Earth minus some crucial grey matter? Or an alien attempting (poorly) to pass for human?

Fully formed from the start

Most of the characteristics that made Bean an indelible creation were introduced in the very first episode.

As he sits for an exam, reads the wrong test paper and attempts to cheat his way through it in the first sketch, we see his idiot savant status (he does know trigonometry), his competitiveness and compulsive one-upmanship, and his cruel sense of humour.

In the next sketch, Bean goes to the beach and changes into his bathers in the most complicated way possible.

The sketch introduces Bean’s imbecilic ingenuity — finding inordinately convoluted solutions for basic predicaments — as well as his tendency to generate his own complications and desperation to avoid social humiliation (it is British comedy, after all).

In the third and best sketch — a tour de force showcasing Atkinson’s rubbery complexion and virtuoso gangly physicality — Bean attends a church service, where he struggles to stay awake and clandestinely eat some candy under the admirably straight and puritanical eye of Richard Briers.

The sketch introduces the motif of Bean attempting to imitate human behaviour and everyday rituals and failing, earning the ire of others in the process.

The Bean legacy

Bean headlined 14 television episodes from 1990–1995, two feature films and an animated series, and appeared in various shorts, sketches and the 2012 Olympics.

The films and cartoon somewhat diluted the brand, and the character has endured the wear and tear that comes with longevity and cultural omnipresence: parents getting sick of their children watching Bean, adolescents thinking they’re too cool for Bean.

However, Mr Bean’s worldwide audience speaks loudly to the genius of the character and Atkinson’s performance. By returning to this first episode, 30 years on, we can re-experience the birth of this remarkable comic creation.

A line delivered by Groucho Marx in Duck Soup nicely encapsulates the simple core of Bean’s widespread appeal. He “may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you: he really is an idiot”.

– ref. Happy birthday, Mr Bean! Celebrating 30 years of a major comedy character – http://theconversation.com/happy-birthday-mr-bean-celebrating-30-years-of-a-major-comedy-character-124593

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carla Pascoe Leahy, Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne

It would be easy to believe, if you pay attention to the media, that Australian children are in poor shape.

Kids, we are told, have too much screen time, too little exercise, too many scheduled activities and not enough risk and freedom. Earnest commentators constantly critique “helicopter parenting”, “tiger mothers”, “intensive mothering” and “bubble-wrapped children”.

There is certainly some basis to these fears. But it’s also instructive to take an historical perspective, because while childhood has changed in important respects since the second world war, there are surprising continuities.

Every generation of elders has worried about “young people of today”, from the 1950s to the 2010s. Some of the changes to childhood and parenthood could even be characterised as positive. So how has the idea of childhood, and the relationship between children and parents, changed since the 1950s?

The boomers’ parents worried about them too

From its earliest days, a baby of the 1950s usually had a single maternal figure as primary caregiver. Women were expected to become mothers and homemakers, whereas men were expected to be breadwinners and less involved in childcare.

Some valued this gendered division of labour, while some mothers felt restricted by cultural expectations, and some fathers possibly regretted their limited role in their children’s upbringing.

The women’s liberation movement overturned such assumptions, stimulating increased maternal workforce participation. By the 21st century, expectations reversed, from a presumption that mothers didn’t work to an expectation that they did. In addition to their paid workload, contemporary women’s caring and domestic work increases dramatically after having children. The domestic division of labour is still far from equal.

Read more: Women aren’t better multitaskers than men – they’re just doing more work

Many fathers today want to be more involved in their children’s lives but feel constrained by cultural expectations and financial pressures. Australian families have also diversified, embracing new structures including single parents by choice, same-sex parents, blended families and more.

Child-rearing philosophies have certainly changed. Parents of the 1950s relied on informal advice from relatives and friends, whereas today parents can feel overwhelmed by the volume and contradictions of child-raising advice, delivered by health professionals and “experts” of more dubious qualifications.

In parallel to the women’s liberation movement, children’s rights began to be taken more seriously in Australia from the 1970s and were given international legal status under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child in 1989. Such shifts led to a greater interest in children’s perspectives and emotions. For example, corporal punishment is now widely frowned on and has been banned in schools.

Whereas post-war child-rearing emphasised discipline and routine, parent-child relationships in 2020 are more emotionally expressive, relational and intense.

With the popularisation of psychology, childhood became viewed as the critical phase for emotional growth. Parents, particularly mothers, continue to bear a weighty responsibility for healthy child development.

Despite changes in child-rearing approaches, every generation of Australian parents has tried to do their best for their children. Parental love is constant.

We also expect more emotionally from children. Many post-war children rarely left their mother’s care until kindergarten, whereas today many Australian preschoolers experience some non-maternal care. In 2011, three-quarters of Australian mothers returned to paid work by the time their child was 13 months old, on average resuming when their child was 6.5 months old.

From being a rarity in the 1950s, childcare centres have multiplied. Shifts in caregivers represent rising emotional expectations of preschool children: that they should be able to tolerate separation from their primary caregiver and behave appropriately in a social and learning setting.

As children have gradually spent more time in childcare, preschool, primary school and secondary school, adults outside the family have a greater influence in a child’s life.

Childhood freedom shrinks?

Remembering their postwar childhoods, baby boomers emphasise their freedom to roam as long as they were “home by dark”. Children’s independent roaming has shrunk in urbanised societies across the world since the mid-20th century. But there is plenty of evidence that post-war adults still feared for children’s safety, worrying about poisonous chemicals around the home, and teachers were concerned about “stranger danger”, traffic accidents and dangerous toys.

Baby boomers also recall “making their own fun” without elaborate toys or adult-organised activities. They remember playing scratch footy with a paper ball, swimming in ponds and creeks, and exploring wilder areas. But, simultaneously, store-bought toys became more affordable to less-privileged families in the 1950s, as new materials and mass production reduced prices. And while kids today doubtless have more “stuff”, they still enjoy constructing sandcastles, climbing trees and creating cubbies with sticks and leaves.

The dangers of screen time for young children and the risks of online bullying or abuse generate enormous anxiety in parents today. Yet every generation of parent has worried about children’s “downtime”. In the late 19th century, reading novels was feared to encourage precocious sexuality in young women. In the 1980s, parents warned their children that watching television would lead to “square eyes”.

Concern about tablet or smartphone use among preschoolers follows a long tradition of parental anxiety about the impact of new technologies. While social media can certainly host antisocial behaviour, digital communications can also connect young people across geographic distance and overcome social barriers like mobility issues or vision impairment.

Read more: Stop worrying about screen ‘time’. It’s your child’s screen experience that matters

While more instances of anxiety and depression are being identified in children and teenagers, this does not mean mental illness is actually increasing.

These days, parents are more likely to initiate dialogues about painful emotions and challenging relationships. Conversations between parents and children have become franker around many topics, including sexuality, puberty, body safety and dealing with difficult feelings. The emotional lexicon of the parent-child relationship has become more open and complex.

Not all Australians experience happy childhoods or loving families. A series of government inquiries have exposed shocking mistreatment of children, including those forcibly removed from their families, such as the Stolen Generations, and children abused while in the “care” of welfare institutions and religious organisations.

While the revelations of such abuse have been distressing, they indicate an important cultural shift in Australia. No longer will we allow abused children to repress their stories in secrecy and shame. Let’s hope these painful testimonies of past childhoods will help prevent the traumatising of future childhoods.

Australian childhood is in good shape

Concern about childhoods in the present is often a disguise for nostalgia about childhoods past. We nurture highly emotive associations with our memories of growing up, by virtue of the privileged place that childhood is seen to hold in the formation of adult identity.

While the details of childhood and parent-child relationships shift in different historical contexts, the fundamentals remain the same. Childhood is a time of learning, exploring, growing – and the appropriate way to grow is dependent on the cultural circumstances into which each generation is born.

Parents will always strive to do their best for their children. Constant collective concern and criticism only increase parental anxiety and hyper-vigilance, exacerbating the “lawnmower parenting” and “hothouse children” that stimulated the concern in the first place.

– ref. ‘Helicopter parenting’ and ‘tiger mothers’? Relax, Australian kids are alright – http://theconversation.com/helicopter-parenting-and-tiger-mothers-relax-australian-kids-are-alright-128057

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arnagretta Hunter, Physician & Cardiologist, The Canberra Hospital; Clinical Senior Lecturer, Australian National University

Australian summer temperatures have risen by 1.66℃ over the past 20 years. In the past century we’ve seen a significant increase in the number, intensity and duration of heatwaves during our summers.

Heat is the natural hazard associated with the highest mortality in Australia. When heatwaves occur, the death toll routinely reaches into the hundreds. For example, the 2009 heatwave across southeast Australia resulted in close to 500 deaths.

Heat is more likely to endanger the health of people with pre-existing conditions, people who are socially isolated, and people who have limited access to air conditioning. These are often older members of the community.

Read more: How rising temperatures affect our health

Heat affects people of different ages in different ways

Human body temperature is set at 36.8℃, although our normal temperature can vary slightly and may marginally decrease as we age.

Ambient temperatures well below this prompt us to keep ourselves warm, and as the temperature rises we look for ways to keep ourselves cool.

An important mechanism of cooling is perspiration. As sweat evaporates, it cools our skin. However, humid weather impedes our capacity to cool ourselves in this way.

Heat stress occurs when the body can’t cool itself and maintain a healthy temperature. Heat stress can begin at temperatures around 30℃ when the humidity is high, and at temperatures closer to 40℃ in dry heat.

Read more: Extreme heat in sport: why using a fixed temperature cut-off isn’t as simple as it seems

Babies and young children are highly vulnerable to the heat because of their small size. They can become dehydrated and develop heat stress more quickly than adults.

This is because they absorb heat faster, and often cannot remove themselves from hot environments. So little ones need to be kept cool and well hydrated (with milk for babies and water for small children) during hot periods.

While young people and adults face lower health risks from the heat, extended periods of hot weather can adversely affect our mood. One recent study pointed to increased intimate partner violence during heatwaves.

This effect appears to be exacerbated when night time temperatures are also high. High overnight temperatures are associated with increased crime rates, decreased productivity and poorer academic results.

But generally, it’s people over 65 who are at highest risk from the heat.

How does heat affect older people’s health?

The ageing body doesn’t cope with sudden stresses as quickly or effectively as a younger body. For example, an elderly person’s skin does not produce sweat and cool the body as efficiently as a younger person’s skin.

Importantly, heat stress can exacerbate existing health conditions common in older people, such as diabetes, kidney disease, and heart disease. Many heat deaths are recorded as heart attacks.

In short, this is because heat requires our hearts to work harder. In very hot conditions, our blood vessels dilate, increasing our heart rate. For people with abnormal heart function, these hot periods can lead to worsening of their heart failure.

With severe, prolonged heat stroke, heart failure can even develop in people without pre-existing heart disease.

Read more: To keep heatwaves at bay, aged care residents deserve better quality homes

For people with pre-existing kidney disease, dehydration during hot periods can impact their kidney function. So people with kidney disease need to take extra care to stay hydrated during hot periods.

Dehydration can also affect older people’s blood pressure, making falls more likely.

Further, hot weather can affect blood sugar control for people with diabetes. Heat stress can increase blood sugar levels even in people without diabetes, but is most concerning in those with the condition. Poor blood sugar control is associated with many different diabetes complications including increased risk of infections.

Older people with chronic medical problems usually take regular medications. Some medications can hinder the body’s ability to regulate temperature and make people more susceptible to heat stress.

For example, people with heart failure often take diuretic medications to manage symptoms like swelling and shortness of breath. But increasing diuretic medications in hot weather can cause dehydration, worsening heart failure and often affecting the kidneys.

Added to this, heat stress may cause disorientation, confusion and delirium. This risk is more pronounced for older people with cognitive conditions and dementia.

Social factors and exercise

Socioeconomic factors and isolation can magnify the risk of heat exposure among older people. For example, some pensioners may not be able to afford air conditioning at home.

Being part of social networks can help. One person may recognise if another is unwell, increasing the likelihood of their friend getting medical attention.

Read more: Health Check: how to exercise safely in the heat

Further, extended periods of hot weather can interrupt our exercise routines. This can be particularly problematic for older people who may be using exercise to manage chronic health conditions.

Regular exercise correlates with improved quality of life in many conditions, including heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, diabetes, cognitive impairment and osteoporosis.

When our activity is disrupted for weeks at a time it can be hard to regain previous fitness. This can be especially true for older people, as muscle mass is commonly lost as we age. Periods of inactivity accelerate muscle loss, and regaining strength and endurance is often more difficult in this context.

Read more: A hot and dry Australian summer means heatwaves and fire risk ahead

Australia’s climate is changing. We’re likely to experience longer periods of hot temperatures, with hotter summers and some extraordinarily high temperatures. This will test our health and our health-care systems. Understanding the challenge ahead can help to reduce the risks.

On a practical level, be aware of spending too much time in hot temperatures, stay hydrated, and know where you can access air conditioning – particularly if power fails. Consider vulnerable relatives, friends and neighbours, especially those of advanced age.

– ref. Hot and bothered: heat affects all of us, but older people face the highest health risks – http://theconversation.com/hot-and-bothered-heat-affects-all-of-us-but-older-people-face-the-highest-health-risks-123769

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Manu Saunders, Research fellow, University of New England

Bees get a lot of good press. They pollinate our crops and in some cases, make delicious honey. But bees around the world face serious threats, and the public can help protect them.

Of more than 20,400 known bee species in the world, about 1,650 are native to Australia. But not all bees found in Australia are native. A few species have been introduced: some on purpose and others secretly hitchhiking, usually through international trade routes.

As bee researchers, we’ve all experienced seeing a beautiful, fuzzy striped bee buzzing about our gardens, only to realise it’s an exotic species far from home.

Read more: The farmer wants a hive: inside the world of renting bees

We need the public’s help to identify the bees in Australian backyards. There’s a good chance some are not native, but are unwanted exotic species. Identifying new intruders before they become established will help protect our native species.

Exotic bees in Australia

The European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the best-known introduced species, first brought to Australia in the early 1800s. It is now well-established throughout the country, with profitable industries built around managed populations.

Other invasive species in Australia are less well known (or loved). The European bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) is present in high numbers in Tasmania, but isn’t thought to be established on mainland Australia.

This bumblebee has caused major harm to native bees in South America, competing for resources and spreading disease.

In northern Queensland, the Asian honey bee (Apis cerana) is established around Cairns and Mareeba, from a single incursion in 2007. The original founding colony is thought to have been a stowaway on a boat that sailed to Cairns from somewhere in southeast Asia or the Pacific, where this bee is widespread.

New Asian honey bee incursions at Australian ports occur almost annually, most recently in Townsville and Melbourne. But swift biosecurity responses have so far stopped them becoming established.

Why should we care?

Most insects can spread and establish breeding populations before anyone notices them, so it’s important we pay attention to these small intruders.

Introduced species can bring new parasites or diseases into the country that may harm native insects – including our stingless bees that are so vital to crop pollination – or affect the valuable European honey bee industry.

While bumblebees may help commercial pollination in a handful of Australian crops, they and other introduced species can also compete with native species for resources, or spread weeds.

Most resources go to monitoring invasive species with a more dramatic and understood effect on agriculture and the environment. Bees sneak under the radar – but we’re still curious.

Take the African carder bee (Pseudoanthidium repetitum), which arrived in Australia in the early 2000s. Thanks to citizen scientists, we know they are spreading rapidly. In 2014, they were the third most common bee species found in a survey of Sydney community gardens.

Just recently, we found two invasive African carder bees in a backyard in Armidale in northern New South Wales while testing out a new insect monitoring method. There are no confirmed records of this invasive bee in Armidale, although we have seen a few around town since 2017.

Read more: Bees: how important are they and what would happen if they went extinct?

Although it’s usually exciting to find a new record for a native species, finding an exotic bee where it’s not supposed to be is worrying. How long have they been there, and how many others are there?

The European bumble bee was recently sighted to global biodiversity.

Will you help us keep track?

Anyone can help keep track of potential new invasive species, simply by learning more about the insects in your local area and sharing observations on citizen science platforms such as iNaturalist, or through targeted projects like the African carder bee monitoring project.

You don’t need to be sure exactly what species you’ve seen. Uploading some clear, high-resolution photos, along with the date and location of your observation, will help naturalists and researchers identify it.

Read more: Wasps, aphids and ants: the other honey makers

You can also participate in events such as the twice-yearly Wild Pollinator Count or local Bioblitzes.

Your efforts can help us detect emerging threats, and add to our records of both native and non-native bees (and other species). Plus it’s a great excuse to get outdoors and learn more about the insect life in your area.

This article was co-written with Karen Retra.

– ref. Aussie scientists need your help keeping track of bees (please) – http://theconversation.com/aussie-scientists-need-your-help-keeping-track-of-bees-please-128932

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kit MacFarlane, Lecturer, University of South Australia

Broadcasting fireworks on TV was a ratings success for the ABC as 2018 turned into 2019, with 1.95 million viewers. But 60 years ago, a New Year’s Eve in front of the TV was a very different experience.

I study historical television and popular culture to develop a small sense of shared experience with the people who watched those same broadcasts.

Television was still quite new in Australia in 1959, introduced to Melbourne and Sydney in 1956 and to Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth three years later. Everywhere else was still waiting.

If you were one of the Australians who happened to have a TV set in 1959, what were you watching?

Imported content

Television content varied from region to region, but looking at Melbourne’s TV Times listings can give us an interesting insight.

One key part of the evening’s viewing still resonates: international content far outweighed locally produced shows. But unlike the fare on streaming services today, the series Australians watched then weren’t exactly current.

In the afternoon, viewers could catch up with shows that had long ceased production. At 4:15 on Nine, you could watch Follow That Man, an early New York city detective series filmed from 1949 to 1954.

At 4:30pm on Seven was Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans, a historical action series set in regional New York in the 1750s, which originally aired in 1957.

On the ABC at 6pm, Ivanhoe, a British children’s series staring Roger Moore, was followed by an American sitcom featuring “America’s queen of comedy” Joan Stevens, I Married Joan.

After the news, the schedules started to resemble prime-time US schedules, where Westerns were at a peak of popularity.

At 7pm on the ABC, you could watch Tales of Wells Fargo; at 8:30 on Nine Wagon Train; and 8pm on Seven was Rawhide, starring a young Clint Eastwood.

Australian variety shows

As midnight approached, Australian content began to air on all three TV stations in Melbourne.

From 9:30pm, viewers could watch In Melbourne Tonight on Nine; from 10:30 Club Seven on Seven; and from 11:10, Top Pops of 1959 on the ABC.

Club Seven and In Melbourne Tonight were both variety shows. Club Seven aired from 1959 to 1961 on Thursday nights at 10pm, on a set replicating a nightclub. It was outlasted by In Melbourne Tonight, which aired for 13 years until 1970 and is still viewed as a high point for live Australian television.

On 24 December, The Age reported the exciting news that Evie Hayes was “breaking a holiday in Queensland” to host Top Pops, a one-off broadcast celebrating the year in music.

On December 31, it reported In Melbourne Tonight would have two hosts: young Australian television staples Bert Newton and Graham Kennedy. The article spruiked, “One of the biggest lineups of artists ever assembled for I.M.T.”

A particular highlight would be Kennedy “featured in a vocal interpretation of 76 Trombones”, the signature song from the musical The Music Man, which was opening soon in Melbourne.

Despite Hayes’ cancelled holiday and Kennedy’s 76 Trombones, New Year’s Eve 1959 wasn’t (on television, at least) a party that carried on into the wee hours.

The ABC went off air at 12:05 and Seven at 12:30. Nine stuck around a bit longer, fitting in an episode of I Led 3 Lives (a drama about an FBI spy who infiltrated the Communist party), to outlast the rest, calling it a night at 12:50am.

Mind you, the following Thursday, the ABC’s close was scheduled for 10:55pm, Seven’s at 11, and Nine’s at 11:45.

Indeed the ABC wouldn’t start broadcasting through the night, every night, until 1993.

Lost pieces of Australian history

There’s very little of this Australian content left for us to rewatch. Many live broadcasts were not preserved at all and video was often wiped for re-use: television shows were seen as having limited commercial or historical value and junked.

Read more: Natural history on TV: how the ABC took Australian animals to the people

Even those episodes from Australia’s TV history that have survived and have been catalogued in archives can be difficult to find and access.

It’s a shame that Australia’s television history isn’t more accessible. Pop culture, like television, can be used to gain an inkling of a society’s interests and lived experiences in a way that isn’t always possible through more formal documents. It can also show how people were marginalised or excluded in Australia’s pop culture landscape.

The cultural history of television is still largely defined by what’s not available.

– ref. What Australia watched on TV on New Year’s Eve, 1959 – http://theconversation.com/what-australia-watched-on-tv-on-new-years-eve-1959-128230

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle O’Shea, Senior Lecturer Sport Management, Western Sydney University

Not long ago, a mother-of-three was refused entry to a Sydney pool because of its policy of one adult for every child aged under six.

Reminding parents of their obligations, Royal Life Saving Australia chief executive officer Justin Scarr said, “life guards are not babysitters and swimming pools are not daycares.”

It’s true drownings can and do happen at public pools. Active supervision means focusing all of your attention on your children all of the time, when they are in, on or around the water.

But with a bit of policy and institutional support, we can make it easier for solo parents to go to the local pool with kids in tow.

Our research in progress suggests a group called Surfing Mums, a social network administered by and for women, may provide an instructive example.

Read more: Community pool projects show how citizens are helping to build cities

Pools are not just for swimming

In Australia, public swimming pools are significant community assets. Their importance as community anchors are often obscured until we hear of plans to close them or reduce their funding.

The average Australian visits a local pool more than four times a year – that figure is equal to more than 100 million visits annually.

For women and children, swimming remains one of the most popular forms of physical activity.

And public pools are not just for swimming laps. Many also feature spas, river rides, water slides, wave pools, hydrotherapy pools and water spray grounds. Little wonder, then, swimming and other water activities are growing more popular for sport, fitness, rehabilitation and fun.

Publicly funded pools are also important sites for social connection and belonging. For people who live alone or spend long periods at home with kids, without adult conversation, the pool is a crucial part of social and physical life.

For women with children, physical activity is important, especially post-partum. Swimming after giving birth may help restore muscle tone. It also boosts strength and energy, which may be sapped after pregnancy and childbirth.

But just how public is the public pool?

Historically, woman’s admission to and freedoms in these public spaces were closely regulated and mediated by segregation and notions of modesty. For example, woman’s aquatic dress was highly regulated to ensure decorum and propriety. Significant restrictions were placed on when and where women could bathe.

While formal restrictions of this kind no longer exist, access and usage for some women to these important public spaces can be limited.

We need to find new ways to make it easier for mums and dads to get to the pool, and ensure they can have a swim too.

So, in light of the clear need for active supervision, how can swimming pools foster the joys of childhood swimming, regarded by many as an Australian birthright?

‘Surfing mums’ at the pool

Perhaps local governments and commercial pool operators can learn a thing or two from Surfing Mums, a social network developed by two mothers who met up regularly to mind each other’s children while the other surfed.

Surfing Mums is like a playgroup, but with benefits like full public liability insurance and affiliation with the national body, Surfing Australia.

The “surf swap” system sees mums in the group partner up with one another. While one supervises the kids, the other goes for a surf and then they swap.

If used in a pool environment this swap system would ensure children are actively supervised at all times, thereby meeting Royal Lifesaving and state government policies and guidelines.

The adult supervising children would be identified by a hat and brightly coloured shirt and would not enter the water with children while the swap was in progress.

This approach means miscommunications regarding supervision, identified as a contributing factor to drowning fatalities, can be redressed.

Read more: From segregation to celebration: the public pool in Australian culture

Creative strategies can boost access

The result? Active supervision of children, safe pool access and enjoyment for women and their families, all while parents reap the physical benefits swimming offers.

While primary supervision through this network is a focus, there may also be opportunities to provide mothers with important skills and knowledge relevant to secondary drowning prevention through learning resuscitation and lifesaving skills.

For governments at all levels this kind of initiative would have far-reaching benefits, particularly in linguistically and culturally diverse populations where swim safety skills are often less developed.

A pool-swap style system might not be the only or final answer. But creative strategies which enable supervision, connection and friendships just might keep us afloat.

– ref. For many, a pool swim is an Australian birthright. Let’s make it easier for solo parents to claim it – http://theconversation.com/for-many-a-pool-swim-is-an-australian-birthright-lets-make-it-easier-for-solo-parents-to-claim-it-128305

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Lee, Professor at the National Drug Research Institute (Melbourne), Curtin University

With the holiday season well underway and New Year’s Eve approaching, you might find yourself drinking more alcohol than usual.

So what actually happens to our body as we drink alcohol and wake up with a hangover?

What about memory blackouts and “hangxiety”, when you can’t remember what happened the night before or wake up with an awful feeling of anxiety?

Let’s look at what the science says – and bust some long-standing myths.

What happens when you drink alcohol?

It doesn’t matter what type of alcohol you drink – or even whether you mix drinks – the effects are basically the same with the same amount of alcohol.

Read more: Do different drinks make you different drunk?

When you drink alcohol it goes into the stomach and passes into the small intestine where it’s quickly absorbed into the bloodstream.

If you have eaten something, it slows the absorption of alcohol so you don’t get drunk so quickly. That’s why it’s a good idea to eat before and during drinking.

It takes your body about an hour to metabolise 10g, or one standard drink, of alcohol.

(There are calculators that help you estimate your blood alcohol level but everybody breaks down alcohol at a different rate. So these calculators should only be used as a guide.)

What causes memory blackouts?

We all have that friend who has woken up after a big night out and not been able to remember half the night. That’s a “blackout”.

It’s different to “passing out” – you’re still conscious and able to carry out conversation, you just can’t remember it later.

The more alcohol you drink and the faster you drink it, the more likely you are to experience blackouts.

Once alcohol in your blood reaches a certain level, your brain simply stops forming new memories. If you think of your brain like a filing cabinet, files are going straight to the bin, so when you later try to look for them they are lost.

How do I sober up?

If you’ve had too much, there’s no way to sober up quickly. The only thing that can sober you up is time, so that the alcohol can be eliminated from your body.

The caffeine in coffee may make you feel more awake, but it doesn’t help break down alcohol. You will be just as intoxicated and impaired, even if you feel a little less drunk.

The same goes for cold showers, exercise, sweating it out, drinking water, and getting fresh air. These things might help you feel more alert, but they have no impact on your blood alcohol concentration or on the effects of alcohol.

What causes hangovers?

Researchers haven’t identified one single cause of hangovers, but there are a few possible culprits.

Alcohol is a diuretic, so it makes you urinate more often, which can lead to dehydration. This is especially the case if you’re in a hot, sweaty venue or dancing a lot. Dehydration can make you feel dizzy, sleepy and lethargic.

Alcohol can irritate your stomach lining, causing vomiting and diarrhoea, and electrolyte imbalance.

An imbalance of electrolytes (the minerals our body need to function properly) can make you feel tired, nauseated, and cause muscle weakness and cramps.

Too much alcohol can cause your blood vessels to dilate (expand), causing a headache. Electrolyte imbalance and dehydration can also contribute to that thumping head the next morning.

Alcohol also interferes with glucose production, resulting in low blood sugar. Not producing enough glucose can leave you feeling sluggish and weak.

Alcohol also disrupts sleep. It can make you feel sleepy at first but it interrupts the circadian cycle, sleep rhythms and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, so later in the night you might wake up.

It can stop you from getting the quality of sleep you need to wake feeling refreshed.

Why ‘hair of the dog’ doesn’t work

There’s no way to cure a hangover, even with “hair of the dog” (having a drink the morning after). But drinking the next morning might delay the onset of symptoms, and therefore make you feel better temporarily.

Read more: Monday’s medical myth: you can cure a hangover

Your body needs time to rest, metabolise the alcohol you have already had, and repair any damage from a heavy night of drinking. So it’s not a good idea.

If you drink regularly and you find yourself needing a drink the next morning, this may be a sign of alcohol dependence and you should talk with your GP.

Suffering from hangxiety?

Alcohol has many effects on the brain, including that warm, relaxed feeling after a couple of drinks. But if you’ve ever felt unusually anxious after a big night out you might have experienced “hangxiety”.

Over a night of drinking, alcohol stimulates the production of a chemical in the brain called GABA, which calms the brain, and blocks the production of glutamate, a chemical associated with anxiety. This combination is why you feel cheerful and relaxed on a night out.

Your brain likes to be in balance, so in response to drinking it produces more glutamate and blocks GABA. Cue that shaky feeling of anxious dread the next morning.

What can you do if you wake up with hangxiety?

To ease some of the symptoms, try some breathing exercises, some mindfulness practices and be gentle with yourself.

There are also effective treatments for anxiety available that can help. Talk to your GP or check out some resources online.

If you’re already an anxious person, drinking alcohol may help you feel more relaxed in a social situation, but there is an even greater risk that you will feel anxiety the next day.

Prevention is better than a cure

If you choose to drink this holiday season, the best way to avoid hangovers, hangxiety, and blackouts is to stick within recommended limits.

The new draft Australian alcohol guidelines recommend no more than ten standard drinks a week and no more than four standard drinks on any one day.

(If you want to check what a standard drink looks like, use this handy reference.)

Read more: Cap your alcohol at 10 drinks a week: new draft guidelines

As well as eating to slow the absorption of alcohol, and drinking water in between alcoholic drinks to reduce the negative effects, you can also:

• set your limits early. Decide before you start the night how much you want to drink, then stick to it

• count your drinks and avoid shouts

• slow down, take sips rather than gulps and avoid having shots.

If you’re worried about your own or someone else’s drinking, call the National Alcohol and other Drug Hotline on 1800 250 015 to talk through options or check out resources online.

– ref. What causes hangovers, blackouts and ‘hangxiety’? Everything you need to know about alcohol these holidays – http://theconversation.com/what-causes-hangovers-blackouts-and-hangxiety-everything-you-need-to-know-about-alcohol-these-holidays-127995

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Dawson, PhD Student in Anthrozoology, La Trobe University

In pet-loving nations such as Australia, nobody likes the idea of dogs churning out litters in squalid conditions or sitting homeless in a shelter.

Responsible dog owners are therefore strongly encouraged to desex their pets, through programs such as national desexing month and low-cost surgery schemes. In some places in Australia, it is even compulsory.

But as we try to limit unwanted dogs, experts estimate there is demand in Australia for nearly half a million new puppies every year.

Read more: Managing mutations of a species: the evolution of dog breeding

Many desexed family pets are the ideal parents of the next generation of family companions, having demonstrated their ability to fit in with family life. Yet by desexing as early as possible, we are removing the best source of happy healthy pets from the doggy gene pool.

We argue there’s room for responsible pet owners and breeders to work together, breeding ideal companion animals and reducing the number of unwanted or unsafe dogs left in shelters.

Read more: Why decisions to desex male dogs just got more complicated

We want happy, loyal pups

People want their dogs to suit their family’s needs: tall or short, short-coated or non-shedding, couch potato or running buddy. We have created hundreds of breeds to meet these preferences. However, Australian pet-owners most value dogs that are affectionate, friendly, obedient and safe with children.

Such dogs are a combination of nature and nurture. Most temperament traits in dogs, including aggression, have a genetic basis. Dogs bred for working roles, such as police work, have physical and behavioural assessments to make sure they can do their jobs well.

If we treat being a happy and safe companion as a job, we need to select breeding dogs with the right characteristics to succeed. This begins with carefully selecting parents who also have these traits. Many dogs who would breed perfect family pets are themselves family pets, and owners have years of observation to rely on.

A puppy’s early life is also extremely important for creating a suitable pet. Raising them in rich environments, with plenty of affection, equips puppies with important life-skills. For those destined for companionship, this experience includes regular playtime with humans and exposure to life in a modern household. These requirements highlight the need to consider where dogs come from.

Professionals, hobbyists or irresponsible owners

While we don’t have firm data on where Australians get their pets, we can safely assume there are three main sources: commercial breeders, recreational or hobby breeders, and members of the general public who fail to desex their pet dogs.

While new legislation in Victoria targets the worst puppy mills, even the best large-scale commercial operations may struggle to give puppies the attention they need early in life.

Read more: Victoria’s puppy farms and pet shop laws a world first – but questions about ‘ethical’ breeding remain

Meanwhile, recreational breeders, who are often strongly motivated to provide the best upbringing possible, may not select their breeding dogs on the basis of their performance as pets.

Instead, they may focus on success in the show ring or pedigree bloodlines, potentially producing very expensive dogs ill-equipped to be great pets.

And what of the traditional source of the family dog – pet owners who fail to desex their pets? If high rates of desexing exclude from the gene pool those really wonderful pet dogs owned by “responsible” owners, and only irresponsible owners allow their dogs to breed, the resulting puppies are far less likely to possess the traits so desired by prospective homes.

One has only to visit a local shelter to see the unfortunate results of accidental matings among the many wonderful dogs seeking a new home. Thousands of dogs are surrendered in Australia shelters every year.

To secure future generations of successful companion dogs, a new approach to breeding is needed. Restricting who can breed, and issuing penalties to those who break the rules, is one strategy that must of course be developed and enforced.

All breeders must be educated about careful selection of parents, and suitable early experiences in breeding puppies that will excel as pets.

But the final piece in the puzzle should be collaboration between responsible breeders and pet owners in the breeding process.

If more responsible dog owners were encouraged not to desex their dogs at an early age, but to wait until their dogs’ physical and behavioural health has been thoroughly demonstrated, the very best companion dogs could be permitted to contribute their genes to the next generation.

Read more: How serious is inbreeding in show dogs?

This more nuanced approach, where owners and breeders work together to identify dogs of exemplary health and temperament, could enrich the companion dog gene pool and result in happier owners, happier dogs, and emptier shelters. Although not desexing companion dogs does carry risks – from behavioural issues to unwanted puppies – we believe this is worth considering. Always discuss your concerns with your veterinarian. Not snipping in haste may be a better option than snipping everything.

– ref. Let it breed: why desexing dogs isn’t always the best thing to do – http://theconversation.com/let-it-breed-why-desexing-dogs-isnt-always-the-best-thing-to-do-123013

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Florence Monique Boulard, Associate Dean Teaching & Learning and Senior lecturer, James Cook University

The school year is over and holidays are upon us. But that doesn’t mean your children’s learning experiences can’t continue.

If you’re planning an overseas trip with your family, you’re in for many benefits. Research shows travel has a positive impact on mental and physical health, and family relationships.

Travel is also an educational opportunity. It’s a rich experience seeing different parts of the world and understanding other cultures. And there are several things you can do to support your children’s learning.

How travel educates

The way children learn while travelling is in many respects comparable to what educational researchers call play-based learning. Play-based learning and travel stimulate children’s minds by boosting their creativity and imagination. Both can also help develop social and emotional skills and encourage language development.

Read more: Let them play! Kids need freedom from play restrictions to develop

Travelling exposes children to new scenarios and problems to solve – such as following a certain route on a map. They explore new food, encounter people communicating in a different language, notice cars driving on the opposite side of the road and billboards showcasing products they have not seen before.

All of their senses are challenged as they go through these new experiences.

New experiences can provoke some anxiety, which is what sociologist and education professor Jack Mezirow refers to as disorientating dilemmas. He argues such dilemmas are the first step to transformative learning, where the learner’s existing assumptions are challenged and beliefs transformed.

Although Mezirow often associates transformation with elements of life crises, others suggest transformative learning can happen in different contexts, most notably travel.

But transformative learning usually comes at an emotional cost, such as a change of routine which can lead to mixed emotions, especially for children. This is why travelling as a family provides a buffer, as it often promotes a safe environment.

Read more: Five ways parents can help their kids take risks – and why it’s good for them

What you can do

Some of the richest learning, for a child, can be disguised as exploration and adventure. Parents can maximise such learning during travel by subtly incorporating intentional teaching to the experience, just as educators do in play-based learning scenarios.

Here are some ways to do this.

1. Do some pre-reading about the destination

This will help you identify where and how learning might occur. You might also engage your children in this. Say you’re going on a cruise to the South Pacific. Prior to departing you might look at a map of the Pacific with your children to identify the various islands located in this part of the world.

You could also encourage your children to discover the special landmarks of different places using Google Earth. Such activities will support the development of your children’s prediction skills. This helps children anticipate future experiences which increases their intellectual involvement with them.

Educational research has shown the act of predicting strengthens connections between children’s new knowledge and their existing understanding of the world.

2. Learn some of the language together

Learning even a little of the local language will open up aspects of the culture you may not have otherwise experienced.

Together with your children, you can start learning the basics of the new language by downloading some interactive language apps. Another fun way to expand your vocabulary and improve your pronunciation is by singing songs in the target language.

Knowing a bit of the local language is a demonstration of respect which means people are more likely to open up to you, further supporting learning opportunities.

3. Model an inquiring mind

By asking and responding to questions with your children, you’re encouraging new knowledge and helping them engage in critical and creative thinking.

For example, when you are walking down the street of the city you are visiting, encourage your children to take notice of what is going on around them and engage in open-ended questions such as:

• “How does this supermarket compare to the one we normally go to back home?”

• “Why do you think the houses are built that way?”

4. Throw in a little reflection at the end of each day

Travel will provide so many learning experiences, you will need to allow time for your child to pause and make sense of them. Any teacher will tell you reflecting is often when the deep connections are made between new experiences and existing world views.

Read more: Knowledge is a process of discovery: how constructivism changed education

Some children will reflect of their own accord, but establishing a routine of doing this together will make sure it happens. The traditional travel diary is still a great tool to engage in self-reflection. Others might enjoy looking at photos taken and reflect on the day through family conversations.

Learning is a life-long journey that extends well beyond the walls of the traditional classroom. By planning for just a little intentional teaching, you can help your children learn to critically think about and appreciate the world around them.

– ref. New cultures, new experiences: 4 ways to keep kids learning while travelling – http://theconversation.com/new-cultures-new-experiences-4-ways-to-keep-kids-learning-while-travelling-126202

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan Stronach, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, University of Technology Sydney

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains images and names of deceased people.

Aboriginal women and girls in lutruwita (Tasmania or Van Diemen’s Land) were superb swimmers and divers.

For eons, the palawa women of lutruwita had productive relationships with the sea and were expert hunters. Scant knowledge remains of these women, yet we can find fleeting glimpses of their aquatic skills.

Wauba Debar of Oyster Bay’s Paredarerme tribe was stolen as a teenager to become, according to Edward Cotton (a Quaker who settled on Tasmania’s East Coast), “a sealer’s slave and paramour”.

Servitude and rescue

Foreign sealers arrived on the Tasmanian coastlines in the late 18th century. The ensuing fur trade nearly destroyed the seal populations of Tasmania in a matter of two decades.

At the same time, life became extremely difficult for the female palawa population.

Slavery was still legal in the British Empire, and so the profitability of the sealing industry was underpinned by the servitude of palawa women.

Sporadic raids known as “gin-raiding” by sealers rendered the coastlines a place of constant danger for female palawa.

Read more: Noted works: The Black War

Little is known of Wauba Debar other than tales of a daring rescue at sea. Though variations to her story can be found, it most frequently details her long swim and lifesaving efforts in stormy conditions. As one version tells it:

The boat went under; the two men were poor swimmers, and looked set to drown beneath the mountainous grey waves. Wauba could have left them to drown, and swim ashore on her own. But she didn’t.

First, she pulled her husband under her arm — the man who had first captured her — and dragged him back to shore, more than a kilometre away. Wauba next swam back out to the other man, and brought him in as well. The two sealers coughed and spluttered on the Bicheno beach, but they did not die. Wauba had saved them.

Death at sea

Sadly, no one was there to rescue Wauba when she needed it. Her demise during a sealing trip, was at the hands of Europeans.

According to a sailor’s account to Cotton, Wauba was one of the “gins” captured to take along on a whaleboat sailing from Hobart to the Straits Islands (Furneaux Group) as “expert hunters, fishers, and divers, as in most barbarous tribes, the slaves of the men”.

The sailing party camped at Wineglass Bay but woke to find the women and dogs had vanished. A group set off to pursue those who’d taken them. In his 1893 account, Cotton speculated in The Mercury newspaper on the likely cause of her death:

Wauba Debar had, I suppose, been captured in like manner … and possibly died of injuries sustained in the capture, which no doubt was not done very tenderly.

The crew interred Wauba at Bicheno, and marked her grave by a slab of wood with details inscribed.

Accounts differ as to when this actually took place. In 1893, elderly Bicheno residents said Wauba was buried 10 years before the date on the headstone, placing her death around 1822.

However, in his diary entry on 24 January 1816, Captain James Kelly described how he hauled up in Waub’s Boat Harbour due to the heavy afternoon swell. Considering the area was already named after her, it can be concluded that Wauba was likely buried before 1816.

Cotton’s report imagined her burial:

Wauba Debar did not live to be a mother of the tribe of half-bred sealers of the Straits, which became a sort of city or refuge of for bushrangers in aftertime … But she, poor soul was buried decently, perchance reverently, and I suppose other of the captured sisters would be present by the graveside on the shores of that silent nook near the beached boat.

Here lies Wauba

Wauba’s reputation was such that in 1855 the public of Bicheno decided to commemorate her by erecting a railing, headstone, and footstone (paid for by public subscription) at her grave, with “Waub” carved into it.

John Allen, who had been granted land nearby, donated ten shillings towards the cost of the gravestone – notwithstanding his involvement in a massacre at Milton Farm, Great Swanport, 30 years earlier.

The inscription reads:

Here lies Wauba Debar. A Female Aborigine of Van Diemen’s Land. Died June 1832. Aged 40 Years. This Stone is Erected by a few of her white friends.

Whether prompted by a sense of loss, guilt, or admiration, the community memorialised Wauba, and by extension, the original inhabitants of the land.

Yet by the late 1800s, European demand for Aboriginal physical remains for “scientific investigation” was high. In 1893, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery was determined to procure the remains of Wauba.

The prevailing ethnological theories believed that the study of Australian Aboriginal people, and particularly Indigenous Tasmanians, would reveal much about the earliest stages of human development and its progress.

Wauba’s grave was exhumed, put into a box, labelled “Native Currants”, and dispatched to Hobart.

The locals were outraged. An editorial in the Tasmanian Mail newspaper condemned the act as “a pure case of body snatching for the purposes of gain, and nothing else” that “the name of Science is outraged at being connected with”.

Snowdrops bloom

Wauba’s memorial is the only known gravestone erected to a Tasmanian Aboriginal person during the 19th century, and she is the only palawa woman known to have been buried and commemorated by non-Indigenous locals.

In 2014, Olympic swimmer and Bicheno resident Shane Gould dedicated a fundraising swim to Wauba Debar’s swimming abilities and memory.

The European styled memorial serves as a reminder of the more turbulent interactions between the two peoples that shaped Tasmania’s history from the 1800s onwards.

Wauba’s empty grave is Tasmania’s smallest State Reserve. Her remains were returned to the Tasmanian Indigenous community in 1985. Snowdrops are said to bloom around the grave every spring.

– ref. Hidden women of history: Wauba Debar, an Indigenous swimmer from Tasmania who saved her captors – http://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-wauba-debar-an-indigenous-swimmer-from-tasmania-who-saved-her-captors-126487

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Federico Volpin, PhD Fellow, University of Technology Sydney

To mark the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements we’re taking a look at some of the elements used by researchers in their work.

Today’s focus is phosphorus, an element that is vital for life but of limited supply. But we can recover phosphorus from a source that we all give away freely, every day, our urine.

Phosphorus, number 15 on the periodic table, can be highly toxic and flammable and has been used in warfare as an incendiary device, yet it is also essential for life.

As the famous science writer Isaac Asimov said in his 1974 book, Asimov on Chemistry:

Life can multiply until all the phosphorus has gone and then there is an inexorable halt which nothing can prevent.

Read more: Titanium is the perfect metal to make replacement human body parts

That’s because phosphorous is essential to all living organisms. It forms the backbone of our DNA as well as the molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that is found in cells and captures chemical energy from the food we eat.

We have yet to find a single living being that does not require phosphorous to survive. But we don’t have an endless supply of phosphorus, and that’s where my research comes in.

Demand grows for phosphorus

Demand for phosphorus and nitrogen increased dramatically in the 20th century as it was found to play a crucial role in fertiliser used for growing crops.

In just over 50 years (between 1961 and 2014) fertiliser production increased tenfold due to the so-called green revolution.

This allowed for a worldwide increase in the agricultural production, particularly in the developing world, which was used to feed an ever-growing global population.

The high demand for nitrogen was met by ramping up a process that captures nitrogen and hydrogen from fresh air and uses it to synthesise ammonia (the major nitrogen-based fertiliser). As the air in Earth’s atmosphere is made of 78% nitrogen, synthetic ammonia production was only limited by its cost.

But phosphorous is generally stored in solid or liquid form, and the cheapest way to cope with the high demand for phosphorous fertiliser was to extract if from phosphate rocks.

Phosphate rocks are a resource that is both limited and not equally distributed. The top five phosphate rocks holders – Morocco and Western Sahara, China, Algeria, Syria, and Brazil – account for 84% of the world reserves. Australia holds just 1.6%.

As phosphate rocks are a finite and non-renewable resource, the continuous extraction is causing uncertainties in our future supplies.

The wee supplies of phosphorus

One solution is to look for other supplies of phosphorus, and that’s where you and I can play a role. Our urine is an excellent source of raw material for phosphorous.

Each one of us excretes up to half a kilogram of phosphorous per year, just through our urine. This makes urine the single largest source of phosphorous from urban areas.

Back in the 17th century, the German chemist Hennig Brandt chose urine to isolate elemental phosphorous. In his experiment, he boiled hundreds of litres of urine down to a thick syrup until a red oil distilled up from it.

He collected the oil and cooled down the urine. After discarding the salts formed at the bottom of the mixture, he added back the red oil. By heating back the mixture for 16 hours, a white fume would come out, then oil, and finally phosphorous.

He was actually searching for the legendary Philosopher’s Stone that would supposedly turn any metal into gold. He might have failed in that, but he showed how easy it was to isolate phosphorous from urine with unsophisticated tools.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Today’s approaches to recycling of phosphorous from our wastes are way more practical and economical compared to Brandt’s method.

An increasing number of companies are looking to recover phosphorus from waste water, including from urine.

New urine-derived fertilisers have entered the market and the race is on to find the optimal technology to convert smelly urine into a safe, non-odorous commercial fertiliser.

In Australia, researchers from the University of Technology Sydney have developed a process that uses urine as a raw material to produce fertiliser and freshwater. Selected microorganisms are used to oxidise the (smelly) compounds in raw urine and convert volatile ammonia into more stable nitrates.

The treated urine is then filtered through a membrane, which retains the microorganisms allowing for their re-use, while allowing the soluble phosphorus and nitrogen to pass through. Treated and filtered urine is concentrated to reach nutrients concentration similar to commercial fertilisers.

Read more: Silver makes beautiful bling but it’s also good for keeping the bacterial bugs away

At present, this fertiliser – named UrVal short for “You are Valuable” – is being tested at the Royal Botanical Garden in growing parsley.

Clearly, these new innovations in nutrients recovery from wastes allow us to reduce the dependence on a finite resource (phosphorous).

But they could also enable us to explore the possibility of one day producing food outside of planet Earth where we need fertiliser. Phosphate rocks may not be available in such places, but we’d have plenty of urine.

– ref. That’s a relief! We have a way to recover phosphorus from our urine – http://theconversation.com/thats-a-relief-we-have-a-way-to-recover-phosphorus-from-our-urine-117751

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jo Bird, Lecturer, University of New England

Screens are everywhere, including in the palms of our hands. Children see how much time we adults spend on our smartphones, and therefore how much we seem to value these devices – and they want to be a part of it.

Children see us constantly looking up information we need to know, and being continuously connected. It’s only natural that they should want to copy this behaviour in their play, and “practise being an adult”.

Read more: Imitation and imagination: child’s play is central to human success

Most people have an opinion about children and technology, and the media regularly present stories of their potential for learning, or horror stories of the damage they can cause. My research takes a slightly different tack.

Rather than studying children’s screen use per se, I looked at how they play with old and discarded devices, such as a hand-me-down phone handset or an old and defunct laptop that has otherwise outlived its usefulness.

Many early childhood education centres contain play spaces set up to mimic situations in everyday adult life. Examples include “home corner” containing kitchen equipment, of other situations such as offices, hairdressing salons, doctors’ surgeries, and restaurants. These spaces might also let children play at using mobile phones, computers, iPads, EFTPOS machines, or other electronic devices.

I observed classes of 4 and 5-year-olds at two early education centres as they played imaginatively using technologies, to find out how they use devices in their play.

Facebook aficionados

Some of the children’s behaviours were fascinating and eye-opening.

Four-year-old Maddie, for example, “videoed” her educator dancing, and then said she was going to post it to Facebook. She knew the process involved, even though she had only ever watched her mother post, and had never done it herself.

Four-year-old Jack made a “video camera” from cardboard boxes and pretended to film other children. It even had a screen where you could watch the footage he had shot.

Another educator told me her two-year-old child knows the difference between her work phone and her personal phone, and uses a different voice while pretending to talk on each.

In my research, children put phones in pockets or handbags before they went off and played, one child stated “I can’t go out without my phone!”

Practise and pretend

During pretend play, children are often acting at a higher level to practise new skills.

The children in my study had seen grown-ups doing “grown-up” things with their devices, and wanted to recreate them in their play situations.

Early childhood educators can use this kind of play to help children understand complex concepts and situations. For example, I have observed preschool children acting out tsunamis in the sandpit, discussing X-rays and broken bones, and showing a child how to care for a doll to practise interacting with a new sibling.

Technologies are no different. Parents and educators can use pretend play with technologies to teach children useful life lessons, such as how to behave appropriately with mobile phones, and when it is appropriate to use them.

Read more: One man’s trash: how using everyday items for play benefits kids

In the Facebook example above, the educator could have had a conversation with Maddie about asking permission before taking a video of someone else and posting it to Facebook. They could ask questions like “how would you feel if someone took a video of you dancing and then posted it to Facebook?”

When the children were playing restaurants, one child declared: “no screens at the table!” The children then negotiated that it was okay when the call was very important, or if they needed to look something up to help with whatever the group was discussing. In this way, the children displayed their understanding of the importance of social interactions.

Read more: Play-based learning can set your child up for success at school and beyond

Not only can educators teach children through play, they can also model appropriate behaviour with technologies. By asking children if it is alright to take a photo or video of them, showing the child their image before it is shared with others, and being present and not looking at a screen when a child is speaking, we can show children we respect them and behave ethically towards them.

So before you throw away your broken laptop or your old mobile, consider donating it to your local early childhood centre or, if you have children in your own home, give it to them to use as a toy. You might be surprised at what they will teach you.

– ref. Playing with old phones teaches children good habits, and reflects our bad ones back at us – http://theconversation.com/playing-with-old-phones-teaches-children-good-habits-and-reflects-our-bad-ones-back-at-us-127727

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Olds, Professor of Health Sciences, University of South Australia

The sun’s shining and there’s a trampoline in the backyard. Yet your kids want to spend their summer holidays lying on the couch playing computer games all day.

So what can you do to help your school-aged kids stay active and healthy this summer?

Read more: More than one in four Aussie kids are overweight or obese: we’re failing them, and we need a plan

Kids put on weight over the holidays

In 2016, a US study found that all the increase in fatness of school-aged children occurred over the summer holidays. During term time, kids get leaner and leaner, only to put it all back on, and then some, during the holidays.

Their fitness also declines during holiday time. To make matters worse, changes are greater in kids from poorer, less educated backgrounds, and the gap between rich and poor widens over multiple summer holidays. The work of the school is undone at home.

What’s going on, and what can parents do about it?

Holidays are different

Kids spend their time differently on holidays, as we showed in a study published earlier this year.

On holidays, Australian kids get 58 minutes a day more screen time than during term time, including spending 16 minutes a day more playing video games. They get 16 minutes less sport and vigorous exercise each day.

Read more: Explainer: why does the teenage brain need more sleep?

They also get 40 minutes more sleep, staying up about 40 minutes later, and sleeping in 80 minutes more.

All this adds up: their overall energy expenditure is more than 5% lower. Over six weeks of school holidays, that amounts to an extra half kilogram of fat in a typical 11-year old, and that’s without counting changes in diet.

Kids eat differently on holidays, too.

On school days, kids can only eat during recess and lunch. Their options are limited by school-based healthy eating initiatives such as “fruit time”, healthy canteen menus, and the curriculum about healthy lunchboxes.

All that goes out the window on holidays. Kids fall victim to the gravitational pull of the big white box in the kitchen.

On weekends and school holidays, kids have greater choice of how much, what and when they eat. Most (knowingly) choose less healthy options.

Later bedtimes mean more screen time and more snacking. Longer lie-ins often mean kids skip breakfast.

The importance of structure

US researchers coined the idea of “structured days”. School days, they argue, are characterised by consistency and structure, which regulate how kids use their time, and when and what they eat.

On school days, for example, two-thirds of kids get up within an hour of each other (roughly between 6:30 and 7:30 am); on non-school days, it is over three hours (between 6:45 and 10:05 am).

Their review of 190 studies compared children’s sleep, physical activity, sedentary behaviours and diet on school days and weekends. They found that in 80% of studies, weekends were associated with unfavourable activity and dietary patterns.

During school term, the unhealthy impacts of unstructured weekend days are diluted. In contrast, the school holidays, and particularly the summer holidays, involve a long string of unstructured days and unfavourable activity and dietary behaviours. This leads to a decline in fitness and accelerated weight gain.

The “filled-time perspective” describes the sensible idea that when children’s time is filled with favourable activities, the time cannot be filled with unfavourable ones.

This suggests it is helpful to fill children’s time with favourable activities, like physical activity and excursions, to reduce the time available for unfavourable activities, such as snacking and screen time.

So what can parents do to keep kids healthy and active on school holidays? Here are four ways, with a proven track record.

1. Get kids outside

Studies consistently show time spent outside is strongly associated with both physical and mental health. That effect is likely due to kids being more physically active outdoors.

2. Try summer camps

Summer camps are popular in Europe and North America, and also run in Australia.

An estimated 1.3 million French school children go off to their “colonies de vacances” each summer. In the US, over 14 million kids attend summer camps.

Children who spend more time in summer camp are more active than those who spend more time at home over the summer holiday.

Some 80% of boys and 73% of girls who attended a summer day camp met the daily physical activity recommendations of 60 minutes per day — about four times as many as those reaching that target during the year.

3. Activity before screen time

Only allow screen time when the kids have been physically active, even if that only means doing household chores. On holidays, kids spend 35 minutes more each day doing chores, so this may be your chance to get your kids to pitch in.

4. Plan the day

Organise time for physical activity with your child. Have a game of beach cricket or a mini-Olympics in the backyard. Take the dog for a walk. Organise excursions to the museum, or even shopping, where they get to walk around. Have regular times for meals and relaxation.

Good luck.

Read more: Why suburban parks offer an antidote to helicopter parenting

– ref. 4 ways to get your kids off the couch these summer holidays – http://theconversation.com/4-ways-to-get-your-kids-off-the-couch-these-summer-holidays-123918

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Euan Ritchie, Associate Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University

2019 might well be remembered as the year the world caught fire. Some 2.9 million hectares of eastern Australia have been incinerated in the past few months, an area roughly the same size as Belgium. Fires in the Amazon, the Arctic, and California captured global attention.

As climate change continues, large, intense, and severe fires will become more common. But what does this mean for the animals living in fire-prone environments?

Read more: Drought and climate change were the kindling, and now the east coast is ablaze

Our new research, published recently in the Journal of Animal Ecology, looked at studies from around the world to identify how predators respond to fire.

We found some species seem to benefit from fires, others appear to be vulnerable, and some seem indifferent. In a changing climate, it’s urgent we understand how fires affect predators – and hence potentially their prey –in order to keep ecosystems healthy.

Predators: the good and the bad

Large predators, like wolves and lions, often play important roles in ecosystems, regulating food webs by reducing the numbers or changing the behaviour of herbivores and smaller predators. Many large predators are in dire straits within their native range, while introduced predators, such as feral cats and red foxes, have spread to new regions, where they have devastated native wildlife .

Fires can offer new opportunities as well as problems to predators. Some predators take advantage of charred, more open landscapes to hunt vulnerable prey; others rely on thick vegetation to launch an ambush.

But until now, we have not known which predators are drawn to fire, which are repelled by it, and which don’t care either way. Synthesising information on how different kinds of predators (for example, large or small, pursuit or ambush) respond to fire is vital for both the conservation of top predators and to help protect native prey from introduced predators.

Some like it hot

Our research reviewed studies from around the world to identify how different vertebrate predators (birds, mammals and reptiles) respond to fire in different ecosystems.

We found 160 studies on the response of 188 predator species to fire, including wolves, coyotes, foxes, cats, hawks, owls, goannas and snakes, amongst others. The studies came from 20 different countries, although most were from North America or Australia, and focused on canine and feline species.

Some predators seem to like fire: they are more abundant, or spend more time in, recently burnt areas than areas that escape fire. Our review found red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) mostly responded positively to fire and become more active in burned areas.

Raptors have even been observed in Northern Australia carrying burning sticks, helping to spread fire and targeting prey as they flee the fire.

For other predators, fire is bad news. Following Californian wildfires, numbers of eastern racer snakes fell in burnt areas. Likewise, lions avoid recently burned areas, because they rely on dense vegetation from which to ambush prey.

The authors of the papers we reviewed thought food availability, vegetation cover, and competition with other predators were the most important things affecting species’ responses to fire.

But perhaps more surprising was that most species, including bobcats and the striped skunk, appeared largely unaffected by fire. Of the affected species, some (such as spotted owls) responded differently to fire in different places.

Overall, we found it is difficult to predict how a predator species will respond to fire.

We still have a lot to learn

Our results show while many predators appear to adapt to the changes that fires bring about, some species are impacted by fire, both negatively and positively. The problem is that, with a few exceptions, we will struggle to know how a given fire will affect a predator species without local knowledge. This means environmental managers need to monitor the local outcomes of fire management, such as fuel reduction burns.

There may be situations in which predator management needs to be coupled with fire management to help prevent native wildlife becoming fox food after fire. There has even been trials to see if artificial shelters can help protect native wildlife from introduced predators after fire.

Getting our knowledge base right

One thing that has hampered our research is the lack of contextual information in many studies. No two fires are the same – they differ in size, intensity, severity, and season – but these details are often absent. The literature is also biased towards dog-like and cat species, and there are few studies on the response of predators to fire in Africa, Asia, and South America.

It is important to note that some predator responses to fire may be overlooked due to the way experiments were carried out, or because monitoring happened too long after the fire.

Unifying how fire, predator numbers and environmental features are recorded would help future studies predict how predators might react to different types of fires in various situations.

Read more: Bushfires are pushing species towards extinction

As wildfires become more frequent and severe under climate change, understanding how fire intensity and frequency shapes predator populations and their prey will be critical for effective and informed ecosystem management and conservation.

– ref. Hunter, hunted: when the world catches on fire, how do predators respond? – http://theconversation.com/hunter-hunted-when-the-world-catches-on-fire-how-do-predators-respond-126280

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael James Walsh, Assistant Professor Social Science, University of Canberra

In the years since selfie sticks went global, it has become clear that the mobile phone has changed the way we travel. The ubiquity of social media means tourists can now produce content on the move for their networked audiences to view in close to real time.

Where once we shared slideshows post trip and saved prints and postcards as keepsakes, we now share holiday images and selfies from the road, sea or air — expanding the “tourist gaze” from the traveller to include remote audiences back home.

Read more: #MeTourism: the hidden costs of selfie tourism

Instagram-worthy

Travelling has gone from a solitary quest to a “social occasion”. As such, gazing is becoming inseparably linked with photography. Taking photos has become habitual, rendering the camera as a way of seeing and experiencing new places.

Travellers take selfies that present both locations and people in aesthetically pleasing and positive ways.

Indeed, the “instagrammability” of a destination is a key motivation for younger people to travel there – even if filters and mirrors have been used to create a less than realistic image.

This transforms the relationship between travellers and their social networks in three important ways: between tourists and destination hosts; between fellow tourists; and lastly, between tourists and those that stay home.

The urge to share travel imagery is not without risk. An Australian couple were released from detention in Iran in October, following their arrest for ostensibly flying a drone without a permit.

Other tourists earned derision for scrambling to post selfies at Uluru before it was closed to climbers.

Meanwhile, there is a sad story behind the newly popular travelgram destination Rainbow Mountain in the Peruvian Andes. It has reportedly only recently emerged due to climate change melting its once snowy peaks.

Testing the effects

To understand the way social media photography impacts travelling, we undertook an exploratory study of overnight visitors at zoological accommodation in lavish surrounds.

We divided 12 participants into two groups. One group was directed to abstain from posting on social media but were still able to take photos. The second group had no restrictions on sharing photos. Though the numbers were small, we gathered qualitative information about engagement and attitudes.

Participants were invited to book at Jamala Wildlife Lodge in Canberra. The visit was funded by the researchers — Jamala Wildlife Lodge did not sponsor the research and the interviewees’ stay at the Lodge was a standard visit. We then conducted interviews immediately after their departure from the zoo, critically exploring the full experience of their stay.

The study confirmed that the desire to share travel pictures in close to real time is strongly scripted into the role of the tourist; altering the way travellers engage with sites they are visiting, but also their sense of urgency to communicate this with remote audiences.

Pics or it didn’t happen

Participants Mandy and Amy were among those instructed to refrain from posting pictures to social media while at the zoo. They described having to refrain from social media use as a disappointment, even though it seemed to further their engagement.

Interviewer: Did you look at your social media throughout your stay or did you refrain?

Mandy: A bit yeah. But even then, probably not reading it as much as I often would. I don’t think I commented on anything yeah.

Amy: Even today when we put something up [after staying at the Zoo] about the things we’d done today and only a few people had liked it, there was that little bit of disappointment that ‘Oh more people haven’t liked my post.’ Where we didn’t have that for the previous 24 hours [because of the experiment] … because nobody knew about it.

The desire for social media recognition resumed after leaving the zoo. For Michelle, posting after the experience presented new concerns:

Interviewer: How did you feel about not being able to post?

Michelle: Spanner in the works! For me personally not being able to post was a negative experience because I wanted to show people what we’re doing, when we’re doing it.

And I also feel, like a couple of people knew we were going to the zoo, right, and knew that we couldn’t use social media. So, when I eventually post it, they’re going to go, ‘She’s been hanging on to those and now she’s posting them and that’s just a bit weird.’ Like, to post it after the event. Everyone normally posts it in real time.

Later, Michelle commented that withholding content from posting to social media also diminished a part of the experience itself:

I sort of feel like if we don’t share the photos it’s like a tree fell down in the forest and no one heard it, like, we’ve had this amazing experience and if I don’t share them, then no one’s going to know that we had this experience, you know, apart from us.

Centre Stage

Digital photography and social media transform the relationship between the travelling self and its audience, as individuals have an expanded — and potentially diversified — audience.

Selfies in tourist contexts reflect the tourist gaze back at the tourist, rather than outward.

The perfect digital postcard now incorporates the self centrestage. As one participant suggested:

Shannon: It almost feels like it’s kind of an expected behaviour when you are doing something touristy … We’ve actually had tour guides before … kind of a bit disappointed if you don’t take a photograph.

The purpose of photography has shifted from a memory aid to a way of sharing experience in the moment. There is tension now between the need to capture tourist experiences for digital sharing and individual engagement in the tourist activity. Decrying the desire to use photography as a way of communicating experience will not constructively address this tension.

To ensure tourism sustainability, and engagement with their target market, tourism providers need to explore better ways to manage travellers’ face-to-face and digital engagement.

Digital engagements have become a defining part of travel, and organisations should be encouraged to promote online sharing of experiences — phone charging stations and photo competitions were two suggestions offered by our interviewees.

In contrast, device-free days or activities could be another way to encourage face-to-face engagement and prompt tourists to be more considered with their online sharing.

– ref. #travelgram: live tourist snaps have turned solo adventures into social occasions – http://theconversation.com/travelgram-live-tourist-snaps-have-turned-solo-adventures-into-social-occasions-124583

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya Hill, Honorary Fellow of the University of Melbourne and Senior Curator (Astronomy), Museums Victoria

A partial solar eclipse will occur across northern Australia on December 26. During the afternoon, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun, partially blocking the Sun’s bright light.

The eclipse will take place north of Geraldton (WA), Alice Springs (NT) and Townsville (QLD). These towns will barely witness the eclipse, as from their vantage point the Moon just skims past the Sun’s outer limb.

Further north, the Moon will hide more of the Sun. For Australia, Darwin will experience the greatest eclipse, with up to 31% of the Sun’s area blocked by the Moon.

However, there won’t be any noticeable effects to let you know that the eclipse is occurring. The daylight will appear just as bright – it doesn’t begin to dim until around 80% or more of the Sun is blocked out.

To view the eclipse, be sure to take the necessary precautions to see it safely, without risking your eyesight. Most importantly, never look directly at the Sun. The timings and appearance of the eclipse for other locations can be found at timeanddate.com.

Ring of fire

Australia’s experience of the eclipse is relatively modest because we lie on its outskirts. The main event is happening further north, in a narrow band stretching from Saudi Arabia, through southern India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and out to the island of Guam.

View the eclipse from within that band (including the city of Singapore), and you will see a special type of solar eclipse known as an annular solar eclipse.

During an annular solar eclipse the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun – as it does during a total solar eclipse – but in this instance, the Moon is too small to fully obscure the Sun from view.

Instead of eclipsing or hiding the Sun, the Moon turns the Sun into a spectacular ‘ring of fire’ that encircles the dark Moon.

It’s a quirk of nature that Earth has a moon that is the right size (about 400 times smaller than the Sun) and is at the right distance (about 400 times closer to Earth than the Sun is) for a total solar eclipse to occur.

But since the Moon follows an elliptical orbit around the Earth, its distance varies slightly throughout its monthly orbit. If the Moon happens to be at or near the most distant part of its orbit during a solar eclipse, then the Moon will appear slightly smaller in the sky leading to an annular solar eclipse.

How to see the eclipse

A way to see the eclipse – while protecting your eyesight – is to project an image of the Sun onto another surface. This also works as a great way to share the moment with others and to enable younger children to share in the experience.

Make a small hole in the bottom of a plastic cup (or piece of cardboard) and with your back towards the Sun, hold the cup so that sunlight passes through the hole and onto a flat surface such as a piece of paper or a wall.

The image of the Sun will be small and faint. But it is generally enough to show that the Sun is no longer a complete circle. It works especially well if you track the changing shape as the eclipse slowly progresses.

Specially designed eclipse glasses can be used to look at the Sun directly as they block out most of the light. Make sure they fit well and there are no scratches or other signs of wear or tear. Also it’s important to remember (especially for children) to look away from the Sun before putting on or taking off the glasses.

Eclipse glasses can also be used to look for large sunspots – dark spots or blemishes on the Sun’s surface that are slightly cooler than their surroundings because of strong magnetism. These spots appear quite small but are typically larger than the Earth – an incredible reminder of just how big the Sun truly is.

However, don’t be surprised if you see a blank Sun with no spots at all. We are currently in a deep solar minimum. As I write, the Sun has had no sunspots for over a month. In fact, 2019 has broken the known sunspot record – more than 270 days this year have featured a blank Sun, without any spots. That’s more than any other year since the Space Age began. You can follow spaceweather.com to track the daily sunspot count.

Save the date

This is the third solar eclipse for the year. But while they happen fairly regularly, you must be in the right location to have the full experience. For any specific location, it can be years between partial solar eclipses or centuries can pass between total solar eclipses.

Some may remember the total solar eclipse that occurred over Melbourne in 1976 or the more recent one over northern Queensland in 2012.

Australia’s last annular eclipse was seen in Western Australia in 2013.

The next total solar eclipse for Australia will occur in April 2023. The band of totality will just clip Australia near Exmouth at the tip of the North West Cape in Western Australia.

However, the eclipse worth waiting for will occur on July 22, 2028. Totality will stretch across Australia, from the top of Western Australia down through New South Wales, passing directly over Sydney. That will be an amazing sight to see.

– ref. Watch the Moon hide the Sun from northern Australia – http://theconversation.com/watch-the-moon-hide-the-sun-from-northern-australia-127819

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Lee, Research assistant, The University of Queensland

There’s an enourmous variety of sunscreens to choose from. Major supermarkets each sell more than 60 options. And one large pharmacy chain sells more than 100.

So how do you choose sunscreen that’s right for you?

Read more: Inducing choice paralysis: how retailers bury customers in an avalanche of options

The big 4 must haves

Sunscreens need to tick these four major boxes:

1. The sun protection factor, or SPF, should be at least 30, preferably 50. SPF describes how much UV gets to the skin. SPF50 allows just 1/50th (2%) of the UV to reach the skin

2. Go for broad spectrum protection, which filters the full UV light spectrum. UVB rays (290-320nm wavelengths) are responsible for most sunburn and DNA damage, but UVA rays (320-400nm) also cause DNA damage and accelerate skin ageing

3. Aim for water resistant formulations, which stay on longer in sweaty conditions, and when exercising or swimming. But no sunscreen is completely waterproof

4. Make sure the sunscreen is approved in Australia. Approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is the final must-have. All sunscreens for sale in Australia must meet the TGA’s requirements and will carry an AUST number on the packaging. They can only contain ingredients from an approved list that have been tested for safety and efficacy. And the SPF, water resistance and broad spectrum action must be established by testing on human skin. Sunscreens bought overseas don’t necessarily have these safeguards, so proceed with caution.

Once you’ve ticked off the big four, you can limit your options by how the sunscreen is delivered, its ingredients, and other factors.

Pump pack, roll-on or spray?

The sunscreen delivery system is more important than you might think. Sunscreen works best when you use lots — a teaspoon for each limb, a teaspoon each for your front and back, and a teaspoon for your face and neck.

This is easiest to achieve with pump packs or squeeze tubes. People apply far less sunscreen when they use a roll-on. Spray-on sunscreen is even worse; the TGA recommends you apply one-third of a whole can for proper coverage.

Look and feel, sensitive skin and kids

Now we get down to the finer choices in sunscreen, and they depend on your personal concerns and preferences. Here are a few common choices.

How to avoiding looking greasy

Greasiness is the most off-putting thing about sunscreen for many Australians.

But there are non-greasy formulations, often marketed as “dry-touch” or “matte finish”. These can be comparatively expensive, but worth it if greasiness is your main barrier to using sunscreen.

Your skin may still look shiny immediately after applying it. But it should return to a matte finish within 10-20 minutes as the sunscreen settles into the epidermis, the outer layer of the skin.

How about sunscreen for sensitive or acne-prone skin?

Sensitive skin is irritated by a wide variety of cosmetics, lotions and fragrances. So, you can use ones marketed as kids’ sunscreen because these tend to be fragrance-free.

You can also choose sunscreens with ingredients such as zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, which partially reflect and also absorb UV rays.

Those so-called physical blockers are very unlikely to cause allergic or irritant rashes. But they appear white on the skin, unless you chose an option with nano-sized particles, which are invisible to the eye.

If your skin is prone to acne, good options are lotions or gels, rather than creams, and products marked oil-free or non-comedogenic.

Sensitive and acne-prone skin is often limited to the face and neck, so it can be cheaper to have a specialist sunscreen for those parts and a cheaper one for the rest of your body.

Sunscreen allergies are rarer but do affect up to 3% of people. They’re generally caused by a single sunscreen component, usually preservatives or fragrances. A dermatologist can patch test individual ingredients, which you can then avoid by checking labels.

What’s the best sunscreen for my kids?

Parents worry about the effects of both UV exposure and chemical exposure. And of course, small children can be pretty anti-sunscreen.

All Australian sunscreen chemicals are approved by the TGA and are recommended for daily use, even on kids. Plus, many kids’ sunscreens are made with sensitive skin in mind, because skin sensitivity is more common in young children. If your child doesn’t have sensitive skin (skin that reacts with itching or burning sensations to a wide range of body care products), adult sunscreens are fine too.

However, babies under six months old need a physical blocker sunscreen.

What not to do

The Cancer Council and the TGA strongly recommend against homemade sunscreens.

Natural oils and other ingredients promoted in recipes found online generally have a low SPF. And, as they have not been tested for causing irritation, can react unpredictably with the skin.

Cosmetics that contain sunscreen, such as lipstick or foundation with an SPF rating, are not regulated as tightly as regular sunscreens in Australia.

Cosmetics with an SPF 30 or higher can have good protection when you first apply them. But like regular sunscreens, they need to be reapplied throughout the day. That’s not something we usually do, unless you’re going for the caked-on look.

Read more: Explainer: what happens to your skin when you get sunburnt?

– ref. How to pick the right sunscreen when you’re blinded by choice – http://theconversation.com/how-to-pick-the-right-sunscreen-when-youre-blinded-by-choice-125881

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England

How do magpies detect worms and other food sources underground? I often see them look or listen, then rapidly hop across the ground and start digging with their beak and extract a worm or bug from the earth – Catherine, age 10, Perth.

You have posed a very good question.

Foraging for food can involve sight, hearing and even smell. In almost all cases learning is involved. Magpies are ground foragers, setting one foot before the other looking for food while walking, called walk-foraging. It looks like this:

Finding food on the ground, such as beetles and other insects, is not as easy as it may sound. The ground can be uneven and covered with leaves, grasses and rocks. Insects may be hiding, camouflaged, or staying so still it is hard for a magpie to notice them.

Read more: Curious Kids: why is a magpie’s poo black and white?

Detecting a small object on the ground requires keen vision and experience, to discriminate between the parts that are important and those that are not.

Magpie eyes, as for most birds, are on the side of the head (humans and other birds of prey, by contrast, have eyes that face forward).

To see a small area in front of them, close to the ground, birds use both eyes together (scientists call this binocular vision). But birds mostly see via the eyes looking out to the side (which is called monocular vision).

This picture gives you an idea of what a magpie can see with its left eye, what it can see with its right eye and what area it can see with both eyes working together (binocular vision).

You asked about underground foraging. Some of that foraging can also be done by sight. Worms, for instance, may leave a small mound (called a cast) on the surface and, to the experienced bird, this indicates that a worm is just below.

Magpies can also go a huge step further. They can identify big scarab larvae underground without any visual help at all.

Scarab larvae look like grubs. They munch on grassroots and can kill entire grazing fields. Once they transform into beetles (commonly called Christmas beetles) they can do even more damage by eating all the leaves off eucalyptus trees.

Here is the secret: magpies have such good hearing, they can hear the very faint sound of grass roots being chewed.

We know this from experiments using small speakers under the soil playing back recorded sounds of scarab beetle larvae. Magpies located the speaker every time and dug it up.

So how do they do it? Several movements are involved.

To make certain that a jab with its beak will hit the exact spot where the juicy grub is, the magpie first walks slowly and scans the ground. It then stops and looks closely at the ground – seemingly with both eyes working together.

Then, holding absolutely still, the magpie turns its head so the left side of the head and ear is close to the ground for a final confirming listen.

Finally, the bird straightens up, then executes a powerful jab into the ground before retrieving the grub.

That is very clever of the magpies. Very few animals can extract food they can’t see. Only great apes and humans were thought to have this ability. Clever magpies indeed. And farmers love them for keeping a major pest under control.

Read more: Curious Kids: Why do birds sing?

Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au

– ref. Curious Kids: how do magpies detect worms and other food underground? – http://theconversation.com/curious-kids-how-do-magpies-detect-worms-and-other-food-underground-125713