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How people get sucked into misinformation rabbit holes – and how to get them out

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/emily-booth-715018">Emily Booth</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/marian-andrei-rizoiu-850922">Marian-Andrei Rizoiu</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a></em></p> <p>As misinformation and radicalisation rise, it’s tempting to look for something to blame: the internet, social media personalities, sensationalised political campaigns, religion, or conspiracy theories. And once we’ve settled on a cause, solutions usually follow: do more fact-checking, regulate advertising, ban YouTubers deemed to have “gone too far”.</p> <p>However, if these strategies were the whole answer, we should already be seeing a decrease in people being drawn into fringe communities and beliefs, and less misinformation in the online environment. We’re not.</p> <p>In new research <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14407833241231756">published in the Journal of Sociology</a>, we and our colleagues found radicalisation is a process of increasingly intense stages, and only a small number of people progress to the point where they commit violent acts.</p> <p>Our work shows the misinformation radicalisation process is a pathway driven by human emotions rather than the information itself – and this understanding may be a first step in finding solutions.</p> <h2>A feeling of control</h2> <p>We analysed dozens of public statements from newspapers and online in which former radicalised people described their experiences. We identified different levels of intensity in misinformation and its online communities, associated with common recurring behaviours.</p> <p>In the early stages, we found people either encountered misinformation about an anxiety-inducing topic through algorithms or friends, or they went looking for an explanation for something that gave them a “bad feeling”.</p> <p>Regardless, they often reported finding the same things: a new sense of certainty, a new community they could talk to, and feeling they had regained some control of their lives.</p> <p>Once people reached the middle stages of our proposed radicalisation pathway, we considered them to be invested in the new community, its goals, and its values.</p> <h2>Growing intensity</h2> <p>It was during these more intense stages that people began to report more negative impacts on their own lives. This could include the loss of friends and family, health issues caused by too much time spent on screens and too little sleep, and feelings of stress and paranoia. To soothe these pains, they turned again to their fringe communities for support.</p> <p>Most people in our dataset didn’t progress past these middle stages. However, their continued activity in these spaces kept the misinformation ecosystem alive.</p> <p>When people did move further and reach the extreme final stages in our model, they were doing active harm.</p> <p>In their recounting of their experiences at these high levels of intensity, individuals spoke of choosing to break ties with loved ones, participating in public acts of disruption and, in some cases, engaging in violence against other people in the name of their cause.</p> <p>Once people reached this stage, it took pretty strong interventions to get them out of it. The challenge, then, is how to intervene safely and effectively when people are in the earlier stages of being drawn into a fringe community.</p> <h2>Respond with empathy, not shame</h2> <p>We have a few suggestions. For people who are still in the earlier stages, friends and trusted advisers, like a doctor or a nurse, can have a big impact by simply responding with empathy.</p> <p>If a loved one starts voicing possible fringe views, like a fear of vaccines, or animosity against women or other marginalised groups, a calm response that seeks to understand the person’s underlying concern can go a long way.</p> <p>The worst response is one that might leave them feeling ashamed or upset. It may drive them back to their fringe community and accelerate their radicalisation.</p> <p>Even if the person’s views intensify, maintaining your connection with them can turn you into a lifeline that will see them get out sooner rather than later.</p> <p>Once people reached the middle stages, we found third-party online content – not produced by government, but regular users – could reach people without backfiring. Considering that many people in our research sample had their radicalisation instigated by social media, we also suggest the private companies behind such platforms should be held responsible for the effects of their automated tools on society.</p> <p>By the middle stages, arguments on the basis of logic or fact are ineffective. It doesn’t matter whether they are delivered by a friend, a news anchor, or a platform-affiliated fact-checking tool.</p> <p>At the most extreme final stages, we found that only heavy-handed interventions worked, such as family members forcibly hospitalising their radicalised relative, or individuals undergoing government-supported deradicalisation programs.</p> <h2>How not to be radicalised</h2> <p>After all this, you might be wondering: how do you protect <em>yourself</em> from being radicalised?</p> <p>As much of society becomes more dependent on digital technologies, we’re going to get exposed to even more misinformation, and our world is likely going to get smaller through online echo chambers.</p> <p>One strategy is to foster your critical thinking skills by <a href="https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/abstract/S1364-6613(23)00198-5">reading long-form texts from paper books</a>.</p> <p>Another is to protect yourself from the emotional manipulation of platform algorithms by <a href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751">limiting your social media use</a> to small, infrequent, purposefully-directed pockets of time.</p> <p>And a third is to sustain connections with other humans, and lead a more analogue life – which has other benefits as well.</p> <p>So in short: log off, read a book, and spend time with people you care about. <!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223717/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/emily-booth-715018">Emily Booth</a>, Research assistant, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/marian-andrei-rizoiu-850922">Marian-Andrei Rizoiu</a>, Associate Professor in Behavioral Data Science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-people-get-sucked-into-misinformation-rabbit-holes-and-how-to-get-them-out-223717">original article</a>.</em></p>

Mind

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Out of the rabbit hole: new research shows people can change their minds about conspiracy theories

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matt-williams-666794">Matt Williams</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/massey-university-806">Massey University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-kerr-1073102">John Kerr</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-otago-1304">University of Otago</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mathew-marques-14884">Mathew Marques</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a></em></p> <p>Many people <a href="https://theconversation.com/was-phar-lap-killed-by-gangsters-new-research-shows-which-conspiracies-people-believe-in-and-why-158610">believe at least one</a> conspiracy theory. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing – conspiracies <em>do</em> happen.</p> <p>To take just one example, the CIA really did engage in <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/13/cia-mind-control-1266649">illegal experiments</a> in the 1950s to identify drugs and procedures that might produce confessions from captured spies.</p> <p>However, many conspiracy theories are not supported by evidence, yet still attract believers.</p> <p>For example, in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12746">previous study</a>, we found about 7% of New Zealanders and Australians agreed with the theory that <a href="https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/sensing-our-planet/on-the-trail-of-contrails">visible trails behind aircraft</a> are “chemtrails” of chemical agents sprayed as part of a secret government program. That’s despite the theory being <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/8/084011">roundly rejected</a> by the scientific community.</p> <p>The fact that conspiracy theories attract believers despite a lack of credible evidence remains a puzzle for researchers in psychology and other academic disciplines.</p> <p>Indeed, there has been a great deal of research on conspiracy theories published in the past few years. We now know more about how many people believe them, as well as the psychological and political factors that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-25617-0">correlate with that belief</a>.</p> <p>But we know much less about how often people change their minds. Do they do so frequently, or do they to stick tenaciously to their beliefs, regardless of what evidence they come across?</p> <h2>From 9/11 to COVID</h2> <p>We set out to answer this question using a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-51653-z">longitudinal survey</a>. We recruited 498 Australians and New Zealanders (using the <a href="http://prolific.com">Prolific</a> website, which recruits people to take part in paid research).</p> <p>Each month from March to September 2021, we presented our sample group with a survey, including ten conspiracy theories, and asked them how much they agreed with each one.</p> <p>All of these theories related to claims about events that are either ongoing, or occurred this millennium: the September 11 attacks, the rollout of 5G telecommunications technology, and COVID-19, among others.</p> <p>While there were definitely some believers in our sample, most participants disagreed with each of the theories.</p> <p>The most popular theory was that “pharmaceutical companies (‘Big Pharma’) have suppressed a cure for cancer to protect their profits”. Some 18% of the sample group agreed when first asked.</p> <p>The least popular was the theory that “COVID-19 ‘vaccines’ contain microchips to monitor and control people”. Only 2% agreed.</p> <h2>Conspiracy beliefs probably aren’t increasing</h2> <p>Despite contemporary concerns about a “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7320252/">pandemic of misinformation</a>” or “<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30461-X/fulltext">infodemic</a>”, we found no evidence that individual beliefs in conspiracy theories increased on average over time.</p> <p>This was despite our data collection happening during the tumultuous second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns were still happening occasionally in both <a href="https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/things-to-do/a-timeline-of-covid-19-in-australia-two-years-on">Australia</a> and <a href="https://covid19.govt.nz/about-our-covid-19-response/history-of-the-covid-19-alert-system/">New Zealand</a>, and anti-government sentiment was building.</p> <p>While we only tracked participants for six months, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0270429">other studies</a> over much longer time frames have also found little evidence that beliefs in conspiracy theories are increasing over time.</p> <hr /> <p><iframe class="flourish-embed-iframe" style="width: 100%; height: 600px;" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/16665395/embed" width="100%" height="400" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe></p> <div style="width: 100%!; margin-top: 4px!important; text-align: right!important;"><a class="flourish-credit" href="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/16665395/?utm_source=embed&amp;utm_campaign=visualisation/16665395" target="_top"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/made_with_flourish.svg" alt="Made with Flourish" /></a></div> <hr /> <p>Finally, we found that beliefs (or non-beliefs) in conspiracy theories were stable – but not completely fixed. For any given theory, the vast majority of participants were “consistent sceptics” – not agreeing with the theory at any point.</p> <p>There were also some “consistent believers” who agreed at every point in the survey they responded to. For most theories, this was the second-largest group.</p> <p>Yet for every conspiracy theory, there was also a small proportion of converts. They disagreed with the theory at the start of the study, but agreed with it by the end. There was also a small proportion of “apostates” who agreed with the theory at the start, but disagreed by the end.</p> <p>Nevertheless, the percentages of converts and apostates tended to balance each other pretty closely, leaving the percentage of believers fairly stable over time.</p> <h2>Inside the ‘rabbit hole’</h2> <p>This relative stability is interesting, because <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2564659">one criticism</a> of conspiracy theories is that they may not be “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/criterion-of-falsifiability">falsifiable</a>”: what seems like evidence against a conspiracy theory can just be written off by believers as part of the cover up.</p> <p>Yet people clearly <em>do</em> sometimes decide to reject conspiracy theories they previously believed.</p> <p>Our findings bring into question the popular notion of the “rabbit hole” – that people rapidly develop beliefs in a succession of conspiracy theories, much as Alice tumbles down into Wonderland in Lewis Carroll’s <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11">famous story</a>.</p> <p>While it’s possible this does happen for a small number of people, our results suggest it isn’t a typical experience.</p> <p>For most, the <a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2023/opinion/how-to-talk-to-someone-about-conspiracy-theories">journey into</a> conspiracy theory belief might involve a more gradual slope – a bit like a <a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1985.tb05649.x">real rabbit burrow</a>, from which one can also emerge.</p> <hr /> <p><em>Mathew Ling (<a href="https://www.neaminational.org.au/">Neami National</a>), Stephen Hill (Massey University) and Edward Clarke (Philipps-Universität Marburg) contributed to the research referred to in this article.</em><!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222507/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <hr /> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matt-williams-666794">Matt Williams</a>, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/massey-university-806">Massey University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-kerr-1073102">John Kerr</a>, Senior Research Fellow, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-otago-1304">University of Otago</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mathew-marques-14884">Mathew Marques</a>, Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/out-of-the-rabbit-hole-new-research-shows-people-can-change-their-minds-about-conspiracy-theories-222507">original article</a>.</em></p>

Mind

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“Dig a hole in my chest”: Supermodel reveals double cancer fight

<p>Supermodel icon Linda Evangelista has shared the devastating details of her cancer battle, after being diagnosed twice in five years. </p> <p>In a candid interview with <a href="https://www.wsj.com/style/fashion/linda-evangelista-steven-meisel-32909b7b?mod=style_lead_story" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>WSJ magazine</em></a>, the 58-year-old revealed why she chose to "keep it quiet" and only tell a handful of people close to her about her health battle. </p> <p>Evangelista was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018 after a routine mammogram, and decided to undergo a bilateral mastectomy: a surgical procedure to remove both breasts. </p> <p>"The margins were not good. [I chose this treatment] due to other health factors, without hesitation, because I wanted to put everything behind me and not to have to deal with this.</p> <p>"Thinking I was good and set for life. Breast cancer was not going to kill me."</p> <p>Four years later in 2022, Evangelista felt a lump on her chest and an MRI revealed cancer was present in her pectoral muscle.</p> <p>"I just went into this mode that I know how to do – just do what you've got to do and get through it," she said. "And that's what I did."</p> <p>"Dig a hole in my chest," she recalled telling her doctors.</p> <p>"I don't want it to look pretty. I want you to excavate. I want to see a hole in my chest when you're done. Do you understand me? I'm not dying from this."</p> <p>After another round of surgery, she was told the outlook was good for the future, but there is always a possibility the cancer could return. </p> <p>"Well, once it's come back, there's a chance," she recalled the oncologist's words.</p> <p>"I know I have one foot in the grave, but I'm totally in celebration mode."</p> <p><em>Image credits: Instagram / Getty Images</em></p>

Caring

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4 debunked movie plot holes

<p>Movie watchers love to scrutinise over the meaning, inconsistencies and crucial elements of films. It’s part of the fun of watching a movie and makes for entertaining conversations amongst friends. Even film directors are aware of this level of analysis with David Fincher once saying he is sad for those who “go through movies and look for inconsistencies and continuity errors.”</p> <p>Here are some of the most iconic movie plot holes that have been debunked through endless re-watching and sleuthing.</p> <p><strong>1.<em> Titanic</em></strong></p> <p>The age-old question is why didn’t Rose let Jack onto the door with her in the water? This movie plot hole is so famous that an entire <em>Mythbusters</em> episode was dedicated to figuring out the truth. Rose’s virtue has been defended as when the lovebirds first went into the sea they tried to both get onto the door only to have it keep knocking one or both of them off. The consensus is that there wouldn’t be enough buoyancy for two of them to occupy the piece of wood. And then we all know how the story ends, Jack sacrifices his life and Rose faces years of people being annoyed at her “hogging” the floating wood.</p> <p><strong>2. <em>Raiders of the Lost Ark</em></strong></p> <p><em>Raiders of the Lost Ark</em> has been caught up in a debacle because Indiana essentially helps the Nazis on their quest to find the Ark, while their face-melting fate was sealed whether he was there or not. This has been defended because Indiana’s primary job is to recover the Ark and return it to its home. If he wasn’t there, it would’ve remained in German hands. </p> <p><strong>3. <em>Citizen Kane</em></strong></p> <p><em>Citizen Kane</em> has gone down in cinematic history as one of the greatest movies ever made. However, one popular fault that is brought up time and time again is when Kane says “rosebud” it appears as if no one is around to hear and thus there is no catalyst for the plot. It has been observed that Kane’s butler was the one to hear him utter the word and it is later revealed in an interview with his erstwhile employee that Raymond was with him in his last moments. Even if it wasn’t the case, the acoustics could be really good in the big house!</p> <p><strong>4.<em> The Sixth Sense</em></strong></p> <p>The twist at the end of <em>The Sixth Sense</em> where Bruce Willis’ Dr Malcolm Crowe discovers he was dead the whole time ruffled a few feathers. This concept of ghosts is actually introduced throughout the narrative as it is explained that ghosts often don’t come to terms with their fate immediately, even creating their own reality and “living” as normal. Following that line of logic, he wouldn’t have had the revelation of his death until it occurs in the movie.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Instagram</em></p>

Movies

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Caught in the act: supermassive black hole 8.5 billion light years away enjoys violent stellar snack

<p>A supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy some 8.5 billion years way has ripped apart a nearby star, producing some of the most luminous jets ever seen.</p> <p>When stars and other objects stray too close to a <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/how-big-is-a-black-hole-watch-how-it-eats/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">supermassive black hole</a> they are destroyed by the black hole’s immense gravity.</p> <p>These occurrences, known as <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/a-star-is-torn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tidal-disruption events (TDEs)</a>, result in a <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/the-sleeping-giant-black-hole-that-awoke-to-destroy-a-star/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">circling disk of material</a> that is slowly pulled into the black hole and very occasionally, as in the case of supermassive black hole AT2022cmc, ejecting bright beams of material travelling close to the speed of light.</p> <p>Luminous jets are produced in an estimated 1% of cases and are known as a type of astronomical occurrence known as a transient, because they are short-lived.</p> <p>Bright flashes from the jets were spotted in data from the <a href="https://www.ztf.caltech.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF)</a> in <a href="https://astronomerstelegram.org/?read=15232" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">February this year</a> using a special new technique which can comb through the equivalent of a million pages of information every night.</p> <p>Due to the rapid results produced by the novel data analysis method, a research team in the US was able to swiftly follow up on the transient event with multiwavelength observations of the system from different observatory facilities.</p> <p>The jets were visible across many wavelengths, from X-rays to radio, and follow-up observations enabled the European Southern Observatory’s <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/australia/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Very Large Telescope</a> to place AT2022cmc at a whopping distance of 8.5 billion light years away, while optical and infrared observation from NASA’s <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hubble telescope</a> were able to precisely pinpoint AT2022cmc’s location.</p> <p>“The last time scientists discovered one of these jets was well over a decade ago,” said Michael Coughlin, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and co-lead on the paper <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05465-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published in <em>Nature</em></a>. “From the data we have, we can estimate that relativistic jets are launched in only 1% of these destructive events, making AT2022cmc an extremely rare occurrence.”</p> <p>Exactly why this behaviour is so rare remains an enigma, however, the research team believe that AT2022cmc’s rapid spin powers the jets, adding to the current understanding of the physics of these behemoth dead stars at the centres of galaxies.</p> <p>This detection – and the method used to discover it – are valuable as a future models for astronomers as they scour the skies for more events. “Scientists can use AT2022cmc as a model for what to look for and find more disruptive events from distant black holes,” says lead author Igor Andreoni, from the Department of Astronomy at UMD and NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre.</p> <p>This includes using ground-based optical surveys, as opposed to gamma-ray observatories in space – how previous jets were primarily discovered.</p> <p>“Our new search technique helps us to quickly identify rare cosmic events in the ZTF survey data,” says Andreoni.</p> <p>“And since ZTF and upcoming larger surveys such as <a href="https://www.lsst.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vera Rubin’s Large Synoptic Survey Telescope</a> scan the sky so frequently, we can now expect to uncover a wealth of rare, or previously undiscovered cosmic events and study them in detail. More than ever, big data mining is an important tool to advance our knowledge of the universe”.</p> <p><!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --></p> <p><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=226753&amp;title=Caught+in+the+act%3A+supermassive+black+hole+8.5+billion+light+years+away+enjoys+violent+stellar+snack" width="1" height="1" data-spai-target="src" data-spai-orig="" data-spai-exclude="nocdn" /></p> <p><!-- End of tracking content syndication --></p> <div id="contributors"> <p><em><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/supermassive-black-hole-stellar-snack/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on Cosmos Magazine and was written by Clare Kenyon. </em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p> </div>

Technology

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“There was a hole inside of me”: Rebecca Gibney's secret struggles

<p dir="ltr">TV star Rebecca Gibney has opened up about her mental health, revealing she has battled with crippling panic attacks.</p> <p dir="ltr">The Kiwi actress spoke about her struggles during Monday’s episode of <em>This Is Your Life</em>, saying her mental health began to falter in the 1990s when she was rising to fame and her marriage to musician Irwin Thomas broke down.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It was pretty tough,” she told the program.</p> <p dir="ltr">“And that was the hard thing, you do put on a front. My career was going great guns.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I just couldn't verbalise there was a hole inside of me and I was tumbling into it."</p> <p dir="ltr">The <em>Packed to the Rafters</em> star said that at one point she was having 15 panic attacks a day, and recalled one of her lowest moments on a flight from France to Australia on which she said she needed five Valium to “survive”.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I had anxiety attack after anxiety attack. I was in such a hole, and I thought I'm not going to make it," she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I was struggling, and I couldn't verbalise what was wrong. I just knew there was a hole inside me and it was getting bigger and bigger, and I was tumbling into it.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I didn't even tell Mum, I couldn't even tell my family, because I couldn't explain it.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It's so important that now, people talk about their struggles. Because if you get the help, you can get through it.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Now I know that if I start to slide into that pit, I know that there's a way out of it."</p> <p dir="ltr">The 57-year-old credits therapy for helping in her recovery.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-58e7b796-7fff-eab8-667a-e0031a7b6340">Following the airing of Gibney’s episode of <em>This Is Your Life</em>, the actress took to Instagram to thank those involved and described it as a “joyous and humbling experience”.</span></p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CkoYi8TBQkK/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CkoYi8TBQkK/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Rebecca Gibney (@rebeccagibney_)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“So much laughter, so many tears,” she wrote, sharing a collection of snaps from the show.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Thank you to all the beautiful people that showed up on the night and continue to show up in my life. I was blown away by the love - such a joyous and humbling experience.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Host Melissa Doyle also took to social media both to praise Gibney, describing her as “one of the world’s loveliest people”, and shared how the star was told she would be on the show.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-2f54a39c-7fff-3060-fc51-41c74782b608"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">“The surprise is always the best part! We sprung @rebeccagibney_ in stunning New Zealand, on the set of ‘Under the Vines’,” Doyle wrote.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckpnq5wrPmz/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ckpnq5wrPmz/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Melissa Doyle (@melissadoyleofficial)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“I hid in the lighting truck waiting for the low-loader with her car on the back to arrive. To say she was surprised is an under statement (sic)!</p> <p dir="ltr">“Rebecca is truly one of the world’s loveliest people. The applause on set from her colleagues is testament to how much she is loved.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-839cbd24-7fff-55a7-89e6-a7f9dd273fbc"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: @rebeccagibney_ (Instagram)</em></p>

Caring

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Spinetingling audio of a black hole goes viral, here’s why

<p dir="ltr">Audio that allows us to “hear a black hole” has gone viral online since it was shared by NASA, with listeners describing it as “creepy” and “ethereally beautiful”.</p> <p dir="ltr">NASA first shared the audio taken from the black hole in the Perseus galaxy cluster in May, which it described as a remixed sonification of sound waves discovered in 2003, but a recent re-posting on Twitter has seen it gone viral.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-f388abe3-7fff-2cd0-68cf-89aaead1f146"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Here’s how it sounds:</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">The misconception that there is no sound in space originates because most space is a ~vacuum, providing no way for sound waves to travel. A galaxy cluster has so much gas that we've picked up actual sound. Here it's amplified, and mixed with other data, to hear a black hole! <a href="https://t.co/RobcZs7F9e">pic.twitter.com/RobcZs7F9e</a></p> <p>— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) <a href="https://twitter.com/NASAExoplanets/status/1561442514078314496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Nearly twenty years ago, researchers at the Chandra X-Ray Observatory “discovered that pressure waves sent out by the black hole caused ripples in the cluster’s hot gas that could be translated into a note”.</p> <p dir="ltr">But, said note was too low for humans to hear, being the equivalent of a B-flat 57 octaves below the middle C note on a piano, according to NASA.</p> <p dir="ltr">To create something we could actually hear, scientists used a process called sonification, which is where astronomical data is translated into sound.</p> <p dir="ltr">According to NASA, the  creepy sound was created using sound waves extracted outwards from the centre of the Perseus cluster, with astronomers increasing the frequency by 57 and 58 octaves.</p> <p dir="ltr">A radar-like scan around the image was also used to help us hear sound waves emitted in different directions.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-b422c896-7fff-4c03-4c1f-0b305a6f28e2"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">“Another way to put this is that they are being heard 144 quadrillion and 288 quadrillion times higher than their original frequency,” NASA said.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">I was today years old when I found out that sound could travel into space.<br />In fact, NASA released sound waves received from a black hole!<br />Creepy 😲<br />Next, music please? 🎶<a href="https://t.co/myk0laXDV4">pic.twitter.com/myk0laXDV4</a></p> <p>— Elie Habib (@elie_h) <a href="https://twitter.com/elie_h/status/1561773483092320256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">James Miller-Jones, a Professor of Astrophysics at Curtin University, told the <em><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-24/nasa-audio-black-hole-sounds-viral-hear-space/101360094" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABC</a></em> that the frequencies of these sound waves are impacted by gases in the Perseus cluster.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Those sound waves are bumping into regions of dense gas, hotter gas, cooler gas, so they'll move in slightly different speeds in different directions," he explained.</p> <p dir="ltr">"That means they don't have a perfect circular shape. So as they scan around the cluster … it's capturing slightly different pitches."</p> <p dir="ltr">While this isn’t the first time the space agency has <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/entertainment/technology/hear-recordings-of-space-from-nasa-s-spacecraft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared sounds from space</a>, these sounds of the Perseus cluster differ in that they also use sound waves.</p> <p dir="ltr">"This is the only one that I've seen that is really translating real sound waves into the sonification, and to me that's just a beautiful demonstration of what is going on. It's quite powerful," Professor Miller-Jones said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It tells us a lot about the cluster, and how energy is transported through it."</p> <p dir="ltr">Kimberly Arcand, the principal investigator of the sonification project, described the sound as “a beautiful Hans Zimmer score with the moody level set at really high” when she first heard it in late 2021.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It was such a wonderful representation of what existed in my mind,” she told <em><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/23/nasa-black-hole-sound/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Post</a></em>, adding that it was a “tipping point” for the project in that it “really sparked people’s imagination”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The idea that there are these supermassive black holes sprinkled throughout the universe that are … belching out incredible songs is a very tantalising thing,” Arcand added.</p> <p dir="ltr">The decision to release the “re-sonification” of the sound waves nearly two decades later came as part of NASA’s efforts to share complex scientific discoveries in plain English with its millions of social media followers.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-afb09788-7fff-6723-82cd-3c0338da2593"></span></p> <p dir="ltr">Though some experts have cautioned that NASA’s clip isn’t exactly what you’d hear in space, others argue that it would be realistic to believe that it would be what we’d hear if we had ears that were sensitive enough.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">I'm not religious, but I'm starting to think that those souls sent to Hell actually end up in a black hole.</p> <p>Sound ON to be horrified <a href="https://t.co/75v74pkkhu">https://t.co/75v74pkkhu</a></p> <p>— Paul Byrne (@ThePlanetaryGuy) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThePlanetaryGuy/status/1562065393581277185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Even so, plenty of social media users have shared their thoughts on the sound, making comparisons to the Lord of the Rings and Silent Hill series or sharing it was an image of an intergalactic puppy overlaid.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I can confirm that the black hole noise Nasa released is the sound of hell,” one user <a href="https://twitter.com/SlimeRegis/status/1562005777488945152" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“New genre just dropped: Cosmic Horror,” another <a href="https://twitter.com/cybxrart/status/1561690611983343616" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-4a0fce13-7fff-7e3a-478a-a1cb41c49d94"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: @NASAExoplanets (Twitter)</em></p>

Technology

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Why there is a tiny hole in your airplane window

<p><em>Image: Getty</em></p> <p>Next time you sit in the window seat, take a closer look and you might spot a tiny hole in the glass pane.</p> <p>But don’t panic – not only is that normal, but without them, there could be huge problems on-board. This strange design helps the aircraft to withstand the changing air pressure outside.</p> <p>Even though it may look like there’s a hole, the small gap doesn’t go through the entire pane.</p> <p>Each window is made up of three different acrylic layers, and it’s only the middle one that contains the breather hole.</p> <p>The small gap helps to regulate the high pressure environment on the plane, making the experience far more comfortable for passengers.</p> <p>Pilot Mark Vanhoenacker previously revealed: “The outer two cabin windows are designed to contain this difference in pressure between the cabin and the sky.</p> <p>“Both the middle and the outer panes are strong enough to withstand the difference on their own, but under normal circumstances it’s the outer pane that bears this pressure — thanks to the breather hole.”</p> <p>As well as being vital for passenger safety, the breather hole has another important function. The small gap allows moisture to escape the aircraft, preventing fog from forming on the window</p> <p>It isn’t the only strange thing you might spot on planes. Keen-eyed passengers may notice tiny black triangles on the walls of their plane.</p> <p>These indicate the position from which the wings can best be seen by staff from inside the aircraft.</p> <p>They can then quickly check the position of the flaps or slats if required from the appropriate window.</p> <p>There are also tiny yellow hooks on the wings which help staff evacuations over the wing and are used to secure and tether life rafts to the plane.</p>

Domestic Travel

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Man digs backyard hole to “imprison” Dan Andrews

<p dir="ltr">A Melbourne man has been accused of causing damages of up to $1 million to a Telstra phone tower, as well as a strange plot to capture Victorian premier Dan Andrews.</p> <p dir="ltr">Nathan Glover, 44, appeared in court on Thursday, where a police summary was read about the events of October 7th.</p> <p dir="ltr">The report claimed that the man rode an electric scooter to the Telstra tower about 1.5 kilometers from his home, broke in and started a fire.</p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Glover denies any involvement in the act of arson.</p> <p dir="ltr">The fire caused about $1 million in damage and took telecommunications offline, endangering public safety by limiting access to emergency services.</p> <p dir="ltr">Upon searching the man’s home, police found magic mushrooms, cannabis, wire cutters, petrol, two samurai swords, and an electric scooter and clothing that match CCTV footage of the offender.</p> <p dir="ltr">They also found a six metre-by-1.5 metre hole in Mr Glover's backyard, which he allegedly told police was to imprison the Victorian premier.</p> <p dir="ltr">Police allege that an account on the encrypted messaging app Telegram with the name “Nate Glove” volunteered in September for “special ops”, in the chat group titled Hoodlums of Melbourne Special Ops.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I’m down for special ops, but only if I get to burn something down,” the account allegedly posted.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Those 5G towers would make a nice fire,” the chat’s administrator allegedly responded.</p> <p dir="ltr">“My thinking exactly,” the Nate Glove account allegedly replied.</p> <p dir="ltr">Nathan Glover has been charged with criminal damage by fire, possessing a prohibited weapon, possessing cannabis, possessing drug of dependence, and committing an indictable offence while on bail.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Facebook / Getty Images</em></p>

Legal

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Senior driver slammed for parking in disabled spot: “I’m not the a**hole here”

<p>A senior man has been shamed by an angry bystander for parking in a disabled park space outside a Coles supermarket in Sydney’s northwest. </p> <p>A man took to Facebook to share photos from Coles at Epping on Sunday of a Ford Falcon with a a senior Australian man in the driver’s seat parked in the bay allegedly without a permit.</p> <p>The man claims he confronted the older man, who claimed he was 74, about where he was parked. </p> <p>The senior man replied to say he was waiting to pick up his wife from church.</p> <p>The disgruntled bystander advised him the disabled spot was not for older drivers but said there are seniors spots soon to come for the shopping centre.</p> <p>The senior man asked the other man if he would like to see his seniors’ card or his driver’s licence. </p> <p>“OK, I’ll move you are extremely rude,” he said.</p> <p>“No, I’m not the a**hole here,” the disgruntled man responded.</p> <p>“How dare you use such language,” the old man replied.</p> <p><span>On Facebook, people called the elderly man “ignorant”.</span></p> <p>People took to the Facebook comments to label to 74-year-old “ignorant”</p> <p>“Ignoramuses think because they are 'old' that disabled parks are for them,” one woman wrote.</p> <p>“No that is seniors parks - there is a difference. Many older people I have been finding think they are entitled to use these spots illegally.”</p> <p>Others labelled him entitled but some had sympathy for him.</p> <p>“While I don't agree with someone parking in these spots without a permit, maybe his wife can't walk far,” one woman wrote.</p> <p>Another man wrote other people should show more compassion for the older man.</p> <p>“I pray you never get old and someday need a permit. Not all disabilities can be seen by the eye,” he wrote.</p> <p>National Seniors Australia chief advocate Ian Henschke told<span> </span><em><a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/elderly-man-waiting-for-wife-abused-parking-in-disabled-spot-coles-191631822.html" target="_blank">Yahoo News Australia</a></em><span> </span>people with disabilities are the only ones who should be allowed to use disabled parking spaces.</p> <p>“There is room for retailers to create more spaces for seniors and people with mobility issues such as those who use walkers,” Mr Henschke said.</p> <p>“There are pram spots – maybe we should consider doing the same thing with older Australians who have walkers.</p> <p>“That would go some way to solving the problem and we should encourage the elderly to go out more and engage with society.”</p> <p>However, he added he didn’t “want to see disabled people lose their spaces”.</p> <p>In NSW, parking in a disabled bay without the correct permit can attract one demerit point and a $572 fine.</p> <p>Medically recognised disabilities include blindness, paraplegia, cerebral palsy and motor neurone disease.</p>

Retirement Life

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Bird or bunny? This video sends the Internet down the rabbit hole

<p>Is it a bird or a bunny? A new optical illusion has hit the Internet and had people debating.</p> <p>It began when Daniel Quintana, a researcher in biological psychiatry at the University of Oslo in Norway, posted a video showing an animal being stroked.</p> <p>“Rabbits love getting stroked on their nose,” Quintana wrote in the caption. However, when looked at another way, the ‘snout’ of the supposed rabbit resembled a bird’s neck, and the ‘ears’ open beak.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">Rabbits love getting stroked on their nose <a href="https://t.co/aYOZGAY6kP">pic.twitter.com/aYOZGAY6kP</a></p> — Dan Quintana 🐰 (@dsquintana) <a href="https://twitter.com/dsquintana/status/1163083819605475328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 18, 2019</a></blockquote> <p>The video left many in confusion as to what the creature really is.</p> <p>“Fam I can’t be the only one that sees a bird and a bunny,” one commented.</p> <p>“I see a raven. Anyone else?” another wrote.</p> <p>“I sat here for ages seeing someone petting a crow with its beak open to the air, and thinking “rabbits??”” one added.</p> <p>Many said the video resurrected the old rabbit-duck dilemma.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">The optical illusion came to life, it's official, someone has a magic pen!!! <a href="https://t.co/EDX84LTzT8">pic.twitter.com/EDX84LTzT8</a></p> — Keisha Renee (@Broadwaybandit5) <a href="https://twitter.com/Broadwaybandit5/status/1163627346726989830?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2019</a></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/IeWEPVE5bW">pic.twitter.com/IeWEPVE5bW</a></p> — ShadowSpade (@ShadowSpadeXIV) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShadowSpadeXIV/status/1163587468190294016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2019</a></blockquote> <p>Some people commented with pictures and videos of their own ‘rabbits’.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">My rabbit loves too. <a href="https://t.co/EDkcHT50eu">pic.twitter.com/EDkcHT50eu</a></p> — Cécile B (@cecile__b) <a href="https://twitter.com/cecile__b/status/1163547154083979264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2019</a></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">Here's my rabbit <a href="https://t.co/KuSGNOAAQR">pic.twitter.com/KuSGNOAAQR</a></p> — Stan O'Connor (@TourguideStan) <a href="https://twitter.com/TourguideStan/status/1163124718343458817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 18, 2019</a></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">This is my pet lizard <a href="https://t.co/XX9Zdszemt">pic.twitter.com/XX9Zdszemt</a></p> — Ⓥ (@hanavmay) <a href="https://twitter.com/hanavmay/status/1163944701063360512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2019</a></blockquote> <p>According to <em><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/21/us/bird-rabbit-tweet-trnd/index.html">CNN</a></em>, the animal in question is in fact a bird – specifically, <span>an African white-necked Raven <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BUNV918B2va/">named Mischief</a></span>. He is 18 years old and based in the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri.</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/ByN5Sj-FEyC/" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/ByN5Sj-FEyC/" target="_blank">Mischief says, “Hi!” Corvids are excellent mimickers, and this is one of Mischief’s favorite vocalizations. Contrary to popular belief, a corvid does not have to have its tongue split to be able to mimic like this. It is a natural behavior. #worldbirdsanctuary #whiteneckedraven #mischieftheraven</a></p> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/worldbirdsanctuary/" target="_blank"> World Bird Sanctuary</a> (@worldbirdsanctuary) on Jun 2, 2019 at 11:18am PDT</p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Paige Davis, curator of bird training at the sanctuary told <em>CNN </em>that Mischief is “a very talented bird”, with abilities to fly, paint, talk and more. “He even recycles cans and bottles, showing that recycling is so easy, a bird can do it,” Davis said. “His talents are endless.”</p>

Mind

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Australian Mum relives horrifying moment before the big “what if”

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">An Australian mother has re-lived a horrifying moment where she saved her young son from a Land Rover just seconds before it plummeted into a sinkhole in Indonesia. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Margie Rule was enjoying an adventure-packed holiday with her husband Michael and their 20-month-old son Sebastian in their 4WD along a busy road in Yogyakarta when their vehicle began to tilt. </span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">Kecelakaan kerja<br />lokasi di Kentungan Jl.Kaliurang Yogyakarta.<br />kecelakan dari arah barat ke timur, sedang antri macet dan disisi kanan ada penggalian ternyata jalan ambrol tidak bisa menahan kekuatan kendaraan.<br />korban 2 unit mobil.<a href="https://t.co/uouPKpimoJ">https://t.co/uouPKpimoJ</a> dan 1.Truk <a href="https://t.co/yjuNCtqv2m">pic.twitter.com/yjuNCtqv2m</a></p> — mbahmuhepapo (@agungepapo) <a href="https://twitter.com/agungepapo/status/1153557677722615809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2019</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We really didn’t realise how serious it was at the time,” she told </span><a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/australian-mum-relives-family-escape-sinkhole-indonesia-074713437.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yahoo News Australia.</span></a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ms. Rule was unaware a giant 10-metre long sinkhole was making its way up to the street, stunning horrified onlookers. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“When it actually happened I had no idea. Michael turned to me and said ‘Get out of the car! Grab Sebastian and get out of the car!’” she recalled.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mother said her husband was trying to “process” what to do after he glanced out the window and began to notice their Land Rover teetering over the edge. </span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">Jeep landrover dari wisatawan asing Australia, sopir truk &amp; yang didalam mobil Jeep semua selamat.<br />Hati-hati jika melintasi daerah pembangunan disana ya komandan semuanya. <a href="https://t.co/78pQv03NoA">pic.twitter.com/78pQv03NoA</a></p> — mbahmuhepapo (@agungepapo) <a href="https://twitter.com/agungepapo/status/1153558140475961344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2019</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Responding quickly, Ms. Rule followed her husbands demands and jumped out the passenger side and flung open the rear door to pull baby Sebastian from his seat. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“In the footage you can see me take a couple of steps back and look at what it is and what’s happened and think: ‘no, no you need to get out!’”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr. Rule was able to get out of the vehicle by clambering over to the passenger’s side and escaping through the door. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Seconds later, the sinkhole swallowed the car. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">CCTV footage recorded the family’s dramatic escape to safety. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After the family was shown the clip, they realised how severe the situation was - and how close danger was. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We watched the footage and were like: ‘Oh my goodness, it was actually really bad and really close in time’.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mrs Rule said the response from local community members has been overwhelming as they brought them shoes and food - as their whole life lay before them in the ditch. </span></p>

Caring

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Three-year-old NSW boy gets fingers stuck in bath plug hole

<p>A three-year-old boy from NSW has found his fingers stuck in the plug hole of his bathtub, with paramedics called to the scene to cut the toddler free.</p> <p>Leo’s mother, Corinne Deiner, knew she was going to be in for a long night when she noticed that her three-year-old had become a little too curious for his own good.</p> <p>"I hear this voice go, 'I'm stuck', and I'm like, 'oh, what kind of stuck'?", Corinne said.</p> <p>Remarkably though, despite Leo stayed calm through the whole ordeal.</p> <p><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F7NewsAdelaide%2Fvideos%2F1731610860202895%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560" width="560" height="315" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></p> <p>"He was pretty much back against the wall, three fingers straight down, just sort of looked at me like, 'I'm in trouble aren't I?'", she added.</p> <p>It took an hour to free little Leo.</p> <p>"We flipped the plate out, and then once that was out, they put a film under each finger and had to cut each individual hole to get each finger out," Kahlie McLennan from NSW Ambulance said.</p> <p>Each finger was a little swollen but not injured.</p> <p>"I was very proud of him," Leo's mother said,</p> <p>"He cried only a little bit and that was when they were trying to cut the drain off his fingers."</p> <p>What a brave little boy! Have you ever had a child or grandchild become too inquisitive for their own good? Share your story in the comments section below. </p> <p><em>Hero image credit: Facebook / 7 News Adelaide</em></p>

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