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Stage 3 stacks up: the rejigged tax cuts help fight bracket creep and boost middle and upper-middle households

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ben-phillips-98866">Ben Phillips</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-national-university-877">Australian National University</a></em></p> <p>The winners and losers from the Albanese government’s <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-01/tax-cuts-government-fact-sheet.pdf">rejig</a> of this year’s Stage 3 tax cuts have already been well documented.</p> <p>From July 1 every taxpayer will get a tax cut. Most, the 11 million taxpayers earning up to A$146,486, will also pay less tax than they would have under the earlier version of Stage 3, some getting a tax cut <a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-tax-plan-will-give-average-earner-1500-tax-cut-more-than-double-morrisons-stage-3-221875">twice as big</a>.</p> <p>A much smaller number, 1.8 million, will get a smaller tax cut than they would have under the original scheme, although their cuts will still be big. The highest earners will get cuts of $4,529 instead of $9,075.</p> <p>But many of us live in households where income is shared and many households don’t pay tax because the people in them don’t earn enough or are on benefits.</p> <p>The Australian National University’s <a href="https://csrm.cass.anu.edu.au/research/policymod">PolicyMod</a> model is able to work out the impacts at the household level, including the impact on households in which members are on benefits or don’t earn enough to pay tax.</p> <h2>More winners than losers in every broad income group</h2> <p>We’ve divided Australian households into five equal-size groups ranked by income, from lowest to lower-middle to middle to upper-middle to high.</p> <p>Our modelling finds that, just as is the case for individuals, many more households will be better off with the changes to Stage 3 than would have been better off with Stage 3 as it was, although the difference isn’t as extreme.</p> <p>Overall, 58% of households will be better off with the reworked Stage 3 than they would have under the original and 11% will be worse off.</p> <p>Importantly, there remain 31% who will be neither better off nor worse off, because they don’t pay personal income tax.</p> <hr /> <p><iframe id="0CWXE" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" style="border: none;" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/0CWXE/4/" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <hr /> <p>But it is different for different types of households.</p> <p>In the lowest-earning fifth of households, far more are better off (13.5%) than worse off (0.2%) with the overwhelming bulk neither better nor worse off (86.3%).</p> <hr /> <p><iframe id="KC5zy" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" style="border: none;" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/KC5zy/3/" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <hr /> <p>In the highest-earning fifth of households, while more than half are better off (54.4%), a very substantial proportion are worse off (42.3%).</p> <p>Very few (only 3.1%) are neither better nor worse off.</p> <hr /> <p><iframe id="WSkSL" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" style="border: none;" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/WSkSL/3/" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <hr /> <h2>But high-earning households go backwards on average</h2> <p>In dollar terms, the top-earning fifth of households loses money while every group gains. That’s because although there are more winners than losers among the highest-earning fifth of households, the losers lose more money.</p> <p>The biggest dollar gains go to middle and upper-middle income households with middle-income households ahead, on average, by $988 per year and upper-middle income households by $1,102. The highest-income households are worse off by an average of $837 per year.</p> <p>As a percentage of income, middle-income households gain the most with a 1% increase in disposable income. Lowest income households gain very little, while the highest-income households go backwards by 0.3%.</p> <hr /> <p><iframe id="kAPmC" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" style="border: none;" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/kAPmC/3/" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <hr /> <h2>The rejig does a better job of fighting bracket creep</h2> <p>And we’ve found something else.</p> <p>The original version of the Stage 3 tax cuts was advertised as a measure to overcome <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-2-main-arguments-against-redesigning-the-stage-3-tax-cuts-are-wrong-heres-why-221975">bracket creep</a>, which is what happens when a greater proportion of taxpayers’ income gets pushed into higher tax brackets as incomes climb.</p> <p>We have found it wouldn’t have done it for most of the income groups, leaving all but the highest-earning group paying more tax after the change in mid-2024 than it used to in 2018.</p> <p>The rejigged version of Stage 3 should compensate for bracket creep better, leaving the top two groups paying less than they did in 2018 and compensating the bottom three better than the original Stage 3.</p> <hr /> <p><iframe id="YG0cT" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" style="border: none;" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/YG0cT/1/" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <hr /> <p>Not too much should be made of the increase in tax rates in the lowest income group between 2018 ad 2024 because some of it reflects stronger income growth.</p> <p>We find that overall, the redesigned Stage 3 does a better job of offsetting bracket creep than the original. It is also better targeted to middle and upper-middle income households.</p> <p>Having said that, the average benefit in dollar terms isn’t big. At about $1,000 per year for middle and upper-middle income households and costing the budget about what the original Stage 3 tax cuts would have cost, its inflationary impact compared to the original looks modest.<!-- 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/221851/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><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ben-phillips-98866"><em>Ben Phillips</em></a><em>, Associate Professor, Centre for Social Research and Methods, Director, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-national-university-877">Australian National University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</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/stage-3-stacks-up-the-rejigged-tax-cuts-help-fight-bracket-creep-and-boost-middle-and-upper-middle-households-221851">original article</a>.</em></p>

Money & Banking

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Meal kits are booming – but how do they stack up nutritionally?

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kylie-fraser-1483094">Kylie Fraser</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alison-spence-720195">Alison Spence</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/karen-campbell-224857">Karen Campbell</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/penny-love-1060241">Penny Love</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a></em></p> <p>Meal kits are a <a href="https://www.statista.com/outlook/dmo/online-food-delivery/meal-delivery/australia">billion dollar industry</a> selling the promise of convenience while cooking healthy meals at home. Delivering ingredients and step-by-step recipes to the doorstep, meal kits reduce the time and energy to plan, shop and prepare meals. But do they deliver on their promise of health?</p> <p>While people may <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195666321007236">think</a> meal kits are healthy, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article/38/6/daad155/7441372?searchresult=1">our new research</a> suggests this varies.</p> <p>The range and quantity of vegetables in a meal is a great indicator of how healthy it is. So we assessed the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article/38/6/daad155/7441372?searchresult=1&amp;login=false">vegetable content</a> of recipes from six Australian meal kit providers. We found when it comes to nutrition, whether it be budget friendly or high-end, it’s more about the meals you choose and less about what company to use.</p> <h2>What we found</h2> <p>For our <a href="https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article/38/6/daad155/7441372?searchresult=1&amp;login=false">new research</a> we purchased a one-week subscription to nine Australian-based meal kit companies to access weekly recipes. Six companies provided their full week of recipes. The vegetable content of these recipes were analysed.</p> <p>Of the 179 meals analysed, we found recipes use a median of three different types of vegetables and provide a median of 2.5 serves of vegetables per person. At first glance, this looks promising. But on closer inspection, the number and types of vegetables vary a lot.</p> <p>Some recipes provide less than one serve and others more than seven serves of vegetables per person. Not surprisingly, vegetarian recipes provide more vegetables, but almost one-third of these still include less than two vegetables serves per person.</p> <p>The variety of vegetables included also varies, with recipes providing between one and six different types of vegetables per meal.</p> <h2>What’s for dinner?</h2> <p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10200412/">Dinner</a> is the time when we’re most likely to eat vegetables, so low levels of vegetables in meal kit meals <a href="https://theconversation.com/food-as-medicine-why-do-we-need-to-eat-so-many-vegetables-and-what-does-a-serve-actually-look-like-76149">matter</a>.</p> <p>Eating vegetables is known to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5837313/">reduce the risk</a> of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6266069/">obesity</a> and some cancers. What’s more, food preferences and eating habits are <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17367571/">learned</a> in childhood. So being exposed to a wide range of vegetables from a young age is important for future health.</p> <p>But few Australians eat enough vegetables. According to the <a href="https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/guidelines/australian-dietary-guidelines-1-5">Australian Dietary Guidelines</a>, children should be eating 2.5 to five serves and adults at least five serves of vegetables each day. Currently children eat an average of <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4364.0.55.012main+features12011-12">less than</a> two serves and adults less than three serves of vegetables per day.</p> <p>So there’s room for improvement and meal kits may help.</p> <h2>Meal kits have advantages</h2> <p>The good news is that using meal kits can be a healthier alternative to ordering takeaway delivery or prepared ready-to-heat meals. When we cook at home, we have much more say in what’s for dinner. We can use healthier cooking methods (think grilled rather than deep-fried), healthier fats (olive or canola oil) and add in plenty of extra veg. All make for better nutrition and better health.</p> <p>Meal kits might also build your cooking confidence to cook more “from scratch” and to learn about new ingredients, flavour combinations and time-saving techniques. Cooking with meal kits may even <a href="https://theconversation.com/cooking-from-meal-boxes-can-cut-household-food-waste-by-38-new-research-192760">cut household food waste</a> by providing the exact amount of ingredients needed to prepare a meal.</p> <h2>5 tips for getting the most out of meal kits</h2> <p><strong>1) Select some vegetarian options</strong></p> <p>This way you can have <a href="https://meatfreemondays.com/about/">meat-free</a> dinners during the week. Vegetarian recipes are more likely to help you meet daily vegetable intakes and to eat a wider variety of vegetables</p> <p><strong>2) Choose recipes with at least 3 different types of vegetables</strong></p> <p>Eating a range of vegetable types and colours will help maximise nutritional benefits. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7195662/">Research</a> shows eating a variety of vegetables at dinner can increase our vegetable intakes. Exposing children to “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-get-children-to-eat-a-rainbow-of-fruit-and-vegetables-97546">eating the rainbow</a>” can also increase their willingness to eat vegetables</p> <p><strong>3) Choose recipes with unfamiliar or new vegetables</strong></p> <p>Research tells us that learning to prepare and cook vegetables can increase cooking <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20399299/#:%7E:text=Households%20bought%20a%20greater%20variety,at%20least%20one%20minor%20(difference%3A">confidence</a> and skills. This can influence our willingness to buy a wider range of vegetables. Worried about fussy eaters? Add your child’s favourite cooked or raw veg to their plate (one familiar, one new)</p> <p><strong>4) Look for ways to add more vegetables</strong></p> <p>It’s OK to tweak the recipe! Adding vegetables from your fridge – maybe some lettuce on the side or chopped up carrots to a cooked sauce – to meal kit meals will help reduce household <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/protection/waste/food-waste">food waste</a>. You can also extend meals by adding a can of lentils or beans to mince-based meals, or frozen peas or chickpeas to a curry. This adds valuable fibre to the meal and also bulks up these recipes, giving you leftovers for the next day</p> <p><strong>5) Use less</strong></p> <p>While vegetables are important for health, it’s also important to consider the <a href="https://academic-oup-com.ezproxy-b.deakin.edu.au/heapro/article/36/3/660/5908259">salt</a>, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31694291/">fat and energy</a> content of meal kit recipes. When using meal kits, you can <a href="https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/bundles/healthy-living-and-eating/salt-and-heart-health">use less</a> seasoning, spice mix or stock cubes and add more herbs instead.<!-- 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/218339/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/kylie-fraser-1483094">Kylie Fraser</a>, PhD Candidate, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alison-spence-720195">Alison Spence</a>, Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Population Health, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/karen-campbell-224857">Karen Campbell</a>, Professor Population Nutrition, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/penny-love-1060241">Penny Love</a>, Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin 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/meal-kits-are-booming-but-how-do-they-stack-up-nutritionally-218339">original article</a>.</em></p>

Food & Wine

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How does Australia’s health system stack up internationally? Not bad, if you’re willing to wait for it

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stephen-duckett-10730">Stephen Duckett</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a></em></p> <p>When things are going bad in the health system, we are reassured we’ve got one of the best health systems in the world. But we’re rarely told where we actually stand relative to others.</p> <p>A <a href="https://www.oecd.org/health/health-at-a-glance/">new report</a> from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows where Australia is doing relatively well – and not so well. The report is more than 200 pages with dozens of charts and tables.</p> <p>Here we highlight five charts showing Australia’s relative performance. Overall, Australia’s health system performs well, but can come after long waits. And our use of antibiotics is trending in the wrong direction.</p> <h2>1. We spend less than average but live longer than average</h2> <p>Despite the rhetoric about the unsustainability of the health system, Australia performs well. When mapping health expenditure against life expectancy, Australia (marked by the red dot) sits in the best performing quadrant – and has done so for the past decade.</p> <p><iframe id="tc-infographic-996" class="tc-infographic" style="border: none;" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/996/32f7548791bf05b7559d74976bfa0b955319adc5/site/index.html" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <p>In contrast, the United States is stuck in the worst performing quadrant for the whole period – significantly higher spending than other countries with worse life expectancy.</p> <p>The life expectancy measure is used here but it involves an implicit assumption that the principal impact on life expectancy is from the health system, which is not really the case. Nevertheless, it is a good measure of overall system performance and combined with spending provides a good measure.</p> <h2>2. Most Australians rate their health as good or very good</h2> <p>The vast majority of Australians (about 85%) rate their health as good or very good, with Australia performing better on this metric than most other similar countries. Often good health is conflated with good health care, and the data show that Australia also has more doctors per head than other countries.</p> <p><iframe id="Ygo7Z" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" style="border: none;" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Ygo7Z/1/" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <p>The founding charter of the World Health Organization (WHO) recognised that health is not just the absence of disease, but a “<a href="https://www.who.int/about/accountability/governance/constitution">state of complete physical, mental and social well-being</a>”. This points to a flaw in the nexus between good health and more health professionals. The WHO focus on well-being helps to explain why it is not surprising that, looking across countries, the number of doctors doesn’t appear to be a key determinant of performance on self-rated health.</p> <h2>3. It’s harder to get a bed in aged care</h2> <p>About 30% of people in OECD countries are over 65, while the Australian proportion is about 20%. The proportion of over-65s is rising everywhere.</p> <p>A minority of older Australians (14%) use aged care, with most of these using home care. However, monitoring access to residential aged care (represented here by the number of long-term care beds per thousand population over 65) might act as a “canary in the coal mine”, highlighting where access problems exist.</p> <p><iframe id="lBe4O" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" style="border: none;" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/lBe4O/1/" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <p>In Australia, access to aged care beds is falling, by about 27% between 2011 and 2021. We started in the middle of the pack so this is a concern and probably contributes to more Australians being stuck in acute hospitals, rather than being in more appropriate accommodation in residential aged care. This “<a href="https://www.ama.com.au/articles/hospital-exit-block-symptom-sick-system">exit block</a>” in turn leads to problems of ambulance ramping.</p> <h2>4. Australians wait too long for public hospital hip replacements</h2> <p>Most publicly funded health systems are characterised by long waiting times for access to planned procedures such as hip replacements. Some waiting is to be expected as part of efficient management of operating theatre scheduling. But long waits, especially when the person is in pain, reflect poorly on management of the public hospital system.</p> <p><iframe id="LNntD" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" style="border: none;" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/LNntD/2/" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <p>The data shows that almost two-thirds of people waiting for hip replacement surgery in Australia waited more than three months. This is marginally worse than the OECD average. Unfortunately, our performance is deteriorating.</p> <p>A number of states, such as <a href="https://www.health.vic.gov.au/planned-surgery-reform-blueprint">Victoria</a>, have developed strategies to improve the performance of the planned procedure system, or have identified opportunities for <a href="https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/public+content/sa+health+internet/about+us/about+sa+health/reporting+and+advisory+groups/health+performance+council/health+performance+council+reports">efficiency improvements in public hospitals</a> which would help address this issue.</p> <p>Although it’s understandable that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2049080122011554">planned procedures were affected</a> by the first few years of the COVID pandemic, governments should have adapted their funding and provision systems to bring waiting times back to the pre-pandemic levels.</p> <h2>5. Our use of antibiotics is going in the wrong direction</h2> <p>Antibiotics have saved millions of lives. But public health experts have long recognised the emerging <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance">problem of antimicrobial resistance</a>, where inappropriate use of these drugs can lead to their reduced effectiveness over time.</p> <p>Worldwide campaigns to promote appropriate use of antibiotics are bearing fruit and across the OECD, use of antibiotics is going down.</p> <p>Unfortunately, Australia’s trend is in the reverse direction.</p> <p><iframe id="AK4GO" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" style="border: none;" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/AK4GO/1/" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe><!-- 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/218031/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/stephen-duckett-10730">Stephen Duckett</a>, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a></em></p> <p><em>Image </em><em>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-does-australias-health-system-stack-up-internationally-not-bad-if-youre-willing-to-wait-for-it-218031">original article</a>.</em></p>

Caring

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How habit stacking trains your brain to make good habits last

<p><strong>Forming new habits</strong></p> <p>Forming new habits – even those you’re excited about – can be just as tricky as breaking habits. Adding more things to our daily to-do list can feel overwhelming, but with a little time-management ingenuity, making good habits stick can help us learn how to be happy, how to set goals and even how to be productive. Clueless about how to start with that? A behavioural trick called habit stacking can give you a major assist.</p> <p>The concept of habit stacking is akin to constructing a solid house: build a new habit on top of a strong, existing part of your daily routine. That way, it’s piggybacking on an old habit that’s already a no-brainer, so you’re far more likely to adopt the new habit going forward. “Habits are automated behaviours you don’t have to think about,” says clinical psychologist, Dr Pauline Wallin. “For example, there are several steps involved in tying your shoelaces, but you don’t consciously think about these during the process. Once your fingers grab the laces, it’s an automated process.”</p> <p>Why not make all your to-dos as effortless as tying your shoes? There’s really no downside to habit stacking. It turns chores into habits you don’t have to think about all that much. So here’s how you can make that happen.</p> <p><strong>What is habit stacking?</strong></p> <p>The term habit stacking was first used by author S.J. Scott in his book Habit Stacking, and it’s taken off like a rocket. “Habit stacking involves adding small routines to habits that are already established,” says Wallin. “With intentional practise, the established habit becomes a trigger for the new habit you want to adopt.”</p> <p>That new behaviour will eventually become a trigger for the next habit, allowing you to build on the progress you’ve already made.</p> <p><strong>How does habit stacking work?</strong></p> <p>At its core, habit stacking is simply pairing a small, new habit (say meditating for a few minutes) with one that’s already established (boiling water for your morning cup of tea). The more we practise doing it, the more automatic it becomes. It may take a little bit of adjusting to get used to it at first, but be intentional about how you go about stacking habits.</p> <p>“Adding a new behaviour to an established habit is not automatic at first but gradually becomes automatic as it is repeatedly paired with the longer-established habit, such that the earlier habit becomes a cue for the newer habit,” says Wallin.</p> <p>Eventually, you may not feel like you even need habit trackers anymore – you’ll be getting things done without even thinking about them. Here’s more about how habit stacking works to help you quickly adopt new behaviours.</p> <p><strong>It uses existing neural networks to make new habits stick </strong></p> <p>Everything we do and think draws on neural networks, which are how our brains organise information to communicate our thoughts and behaviours. Habits have many deep and redundant neural paths, so we can perform a habit even while our attention is elsewhere.</p> <p>“Your brain builds new neurons to support the behaviours we practise daily,” says clinical psychologist Bonnie Carpenter. “The more you practise a habit, the stronger the connections can become. If you don’t practise a habit, the connections will not be as strong.”</p> <p>So when you tap into the power of the habits you already have, the newer habits already have a framework to follow.</p> <p><strong>It turns an existing habit into a cue for the next one</strong></p> <p>We all have many behaviours that we’ve practised for years, just like tying our shoelaces. “If you attach a new behaviour to the old ones, it’s much more likely that you will make the new behaviour part of your routine,” says Carpenter. “You are teaching yourself and planning the path to behaviours in the future.”</p> <p>Eventually, you’ll take for granted those habits you couldn’t make stick.</p> <p><strong>It'll help you procrastinate less</strong></p> <p>You know you need to adopt a good-for-you habit, but you just don’t know how or where to start. And let’s be honest: you really can’t find the motivation for it. (Join the club.)</p> <p>That’s exactly when habit stacking works well. When you tie the dreaded thing you keep putting off to a strong, automatic habit, it’s suddenly possible to get ‘er done. “After a while, it becomes natural,” says Carpenter. Wasting time putting off what you don’t want to do will quickly be a thing of your past.</p> <p><strong>What is an example of habit stacking?</strong></p> <p>Different people have different habits they want to adopt, but these examples can get the wheels turning in your head about the ways habit stacking can help you streamline your life and become more productive. For each, we’ve included your established habit, then the new habit you can stack on top of it.</p> <p>When you turn off your work computer for the day or when you take a break from work,  tidy up your desk for five minutes.</p> <p>After you grab something to wear out of your overstuffed closet, put another clothing item into a bag to be donated to charity.</p> <p>When you finish dinner, immediately put your plates and silverware in the dishwasher so the kitchen sink is always empty.</p> <p>Once you’re done brushing your teeth, hydrate with a full glass of water.</p> <p>While your morning coffee is brewing, sweep the floor, open the mail or wash the dishes in your sink.</p> <p>When your car pulls out of work at the end of the day, phone your mother (you know she wishes you’d call more often!).</p> <p><strong>What are habit-stacking strategies?</strong></p> <p>How exactly you want to tackle this is entirely up to you, and that’s one of the best parts of the habit-stacking concept: it can and should be customised. Our experts suggest these ideas to get you started.</p> <p><em><strong>1. Find the right habits to pair</strong></em></p> <p>It probably makes the most sense to connect the old habit with the new one that’s in a similar vein, but that isn’t entirely necessary. For example, if you want to fit in more exercise, start a new habit of walking for five minutes every time you put on a pair of sneakers.</p> <p>But according to clinical psychologist, Dr Linda Sapadin, what matters most is that the new habit is specific, not that the habits are cousins. Maybe putting on your sneakers isn’t tied to exercise; instead, it might make more sense for you to take out the garbage whenever you lace up your tennis shoes.</p> <p>If the pairing makes sense to you, that’s all that matters. In other words, you do you.</p> <p>Timing matters too: “It’s also very helpful to decide when you are most likely to have a positive experience with habit stacking,” Sapadin says.</p> <p>If your aim is to practise gratitude by filling out a gratitude journal daily, it doesn’t make sense to tie this new habit to your morning shower. You won’t be writing under the spray of water, after all. Instead, you might stack the gratitude journalling habit on top of putting on your pyjamas.</p> <p>“Look at the habits you have daily, and look for the place where you might easily insert the new behaviour,” says Carpenter.</p> <p><em><strong>2. Don't use an emotionally laden habit as a cue</strong></em></p> <p>Certain ingrained routines are not the right triggers for new habits. If you wake up in the morning, hop on the scale and feel bad about yourself, for example, your am weigh-in is absolutely not the right cue for another habit. “If you pair a new habit with one that is emotionally triggering, you will unwittingly train the new habit to trigger similar emotions,” says Wallin.</p> <p><em><strong>3. Stack the habits for good </strong></em></p> <p>Most of us have already engaged in habit stacking for our bad habits, such as procrastinating on work. Let’s say you sit down at your desk to work, but you are reluctant to get started (usually due to some degree of anxiety). “To distract yourself from anxiety, you form a habit of scrolling through your social media feed for a few minutes,” says Wallin. Now you’re not working, and you’re not doing anything else terribly productive either.</p> <p>This pattern can continue to suck your time, which is the opposite effect of what habit stacking should be. “Next, suppose that, while scrolling through your social media, you see an ad for an item that you’ve been shopping for recently,” says Wallin. “What luck! You click to purchase it immediately. For the next few days, when you sit down to work, you check your social media and then look for other bargain offers. Now you are stacking another habit onto the sequence.”</p> <p>As you can guess, this type of habit stacking is easy, says Wallin. “But the sequence is counter-productive because it interferes with getting work done,” she says.</p> <p>If, instead, you want to mirror the morning habits of highly organised people, stack a productive task on top of another one. In time, you will become the naturally productive person you’ve always wanted to be.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/culture/how-habit-stacking-trains-your-brain-to-make-good-habits-last?pages=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>. </em></p>

Body

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Woolies worker seriously stabbed while stacking shelves

<p dir="ltr">A Woolworths worker who was allegedly randomly stabbed with a 40cm has opened up about the terrifying ordeal.</p> <p dir="ltr">Donna Grocott was stacking shelves in the pet aisle at Woolworths in Ellenbrook Central in northeast Perth when she was allegedly stabbed in the back of her hip by Cassandra Hickling on August 16.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 44-year-old worker was rushed to hospital with the 40cm knife still lodged in her back and required seven staples after it was removed.</p> <p dir="ltr">She also suffered injuries to her fingers but says she is lucky to be alive after the knife failed to puncture any major organs.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I feel very fortunate that my injuries were not worse,” Ms Grocott said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I’d like to thank the people who helped me at the store and the emergency responders and the hospital staff for taking care of me.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Hickling, 35, was arrested at her home and charged with attempted murder. She remains behind bars awaiting her court appearance at the end of the month.</p> <p dir="ltr">Midland Police Detective Sergeant Tania Mackenzie confirmed the women did not know each other and that Hickling purchased the knife from a different shop.</p> <p dir="ltr">“(It is) something I’ve never heard of happening before in my career,” she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It was just someone going about their day-to-day work, stacking shelves in the shopping centre.</p> <p dir="ltr">“There’s been no one else in the aisle and she’s been approached by the suspect who has (allegedly) stabbed her with a filleting knife.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Woolworths is offering counselling to staff.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: 7News/Facebook</em></p>

Caring

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How do conservation efforts stack up?

<div class="copy"> <p>Conservation initiatives are cropping up all over the planet to address escalating environmental threats and crumbling biodiversity – but what makes them reach a scale that has tangible impacts?</p> <p>Helping them go viral is one answer found by an international study led by Imperial College London, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0384-1" target="_blank">published </a>in the journal Nature Sustainability.</p> <h2>Conservation initiatives needed to head off extinction crisis</h2> <p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The team saw that while an enormous amount of research on our “<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/what-is-a-mass-extinction-and-are-we-in-one-now/" target="_blank">sixth extinction crisis</a>” has identified threats to biodiversity and the consequences thereof, relatively little research has evaluated the adoption of conservation efforts including policies, programs and projects.</span></p> <p>“Conservation initiatives like managing fishing resources and offsetting land for nature are critical for protecting biodiversity and the valuable ecosystems that help provide us with clean water and air,” says lead author Morena Mills.</p> <p>To evaluate their success, Mills and colleagues investigated 22 diverse schemes from around the world, ranging from locally managed marine areas and community resource management initiatives to government programs, NGOs and international World Heritage sites.</p> <p>The resulting database spanned terrestrial and marine ecosystems of flora and fauna managed by low- and high-income regions on local, national and international levels, from which the researchers modelled the factors that drove the spread of each initiative.</p> <h3>What helps conservation initiatives gain traction?</h3> <p>Of those tested, they found that 83% of successful schemes followed a ‘slow-fast-slow’ model – they were taken up slowly at first, then grew quickly as early adopters connect with other potential adopters.</p> <p>“We found that most of these initiatives spread like a disease, where they depend on a potential adopter catching the conservation ‘bug’ from an existing one,” explains Mills.</p> <p>The authors write that this insight is important because it suggests “a slow initial uptake rate is therefore not sufficient grounds for abandoning an initiative”.</p> <p>Once they reached a saturation point where all potential adopters had taken it up or refused it, the rate slowed down again.</p> <p>Successful schemes that followed this model include resource management systems within the local waters of communities across the Solomon Islands and Fiji.</p> <p>However, the time between initial and later adoption of protected areas from one country to the next in such scenarios was as long as 54 years, and there seemed to be “a trade-off between the speed of uptake and the final proportion of adopters”.</p> <p>The other effective models had a ‘fast-slow’ pattern, like one in Samoa where quicker adoption upfront was likely to have been made possible by the government, which supplied boats and aquaculture resources to help get communities on board.</p> <p>Others include international environmental treaties like natural World Heritage areas and the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/" target="_blank">Man and the Biosphere Reserves</a>, or wildlife management areas powered by NGOs and/or governments. These initiatives are more strongly driven and regulated and don’t rely on interactions among adopters to scale up.</p> <h3>Making conservation initiatives of the future more effective</h3> <p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Overall, however, more than half of the schemes were taken up by less than a third of potential adopters. Ideally, they would have both fast uptake and large-scale adoption, the authors write.</span></p> <p>“In our study we did not find any initiatives that were taken up relatively quickly and by a large proportion of the potential pool of adopters,” says Mills. “We are seeking to understand more about how local context facilitates or hinders spread, to help initiatives that benefit both nature and people reach scale.”</p> <p>They also found many initiatives that were never implemented effectively or were abandoned.</p> <p>“Given the long time scales required for ecological recovery,” they write, “it is important to consider the dynamics of ongoing action, as well as adoption.”</p> <p>“The persistence of biodiversity and ecosystem services depends on the adoption of effective conservation initiatives at a pace and scale that match or exceed environmental threats.”</p> <p>Although further research is needed, their findings could help inform these efforts.</p> <p>“We hope our insights into biodiversity conservation initiatives spread will allow practitioners to design them so that they reach scale,” Mills says, “which is critical for enabling them to make a tangible, lasting impact.”</p> <!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --> <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=26860&amp;title=How+do+conservation+efforts+stack+up%3F" alt="" width="1" height="1" /> <!-- End of tracking content syndication --></div> <div id="contributors"> <p><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/sustainability/does-conservation-work/">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/natalie-parletta">Natalie Parletta</a>. Natalie Parletta is a freelance science writer based in Adelaide and an adjunct senior research fellow with the University of South Australia.</p> <p><em>Image: <span>Mark Kolbe/Getty Images</span></em></p> </div>

Travel Tips

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“It didn’t stack up”: ICAC investigation into Gladys Berejiklian begins

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On the opening day of a corruption inquiry into Gladys Berjiklian, private evidence was revealed of the then-premier expressing her “shock” when she was forced to sack former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The video evidence was recorded over a month ago, prior to the former Premier announcing her shock departure from the top job.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the clip from 2020, Ms Berejiklian is questioned via video link by Scott Robertson, the Council Assisting of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). Mr Robertston directed his questions towards what she knew about Mr Maguire’s allegedly corrupt behaviour when she asked him to resign  as Parliamentary Secretary in 2018.</span></p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height:281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7844928/icac1.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/ad5c3f39aedf4c75924e2c789902fcfe" /></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: ICAC</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Did you suspect Mr Maguire was engaged in corrupt conduct?” Mr Robertson </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/icac-gladys-berejiklian-corruption-inquiry-first-day-hears-private-evidence/f054f374-bf74-4af2-9b92-2a99a81c1a23" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">asked</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I couldn’t make any assumption at that stage, he was professing his innocence,” Ms Berejiklian replied.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After being repeatedly pressed about her suspicions, Ms Berejiklian eventually answered “no”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Once the recording finished, Mr Robertson told the Commission that there were questions about whether the evidence should be accepted in the current investigation.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If not, Mr Robertston continued, the Commission should “consider why Ms Berejiklian did not make a report to this Commission concerning Mr Maguire”.</span></p> <p><strong>The current investigation</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The ICAC is investigating allegations that Ms Berejiklian breached her own ministerial standards by not disclosing her relationship with Mr Maguire when she was Treasurer under Mike Baird or to her own cabinet when she was Premier.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“There will be evidence to the effect that a number of public officials would have acted differently if they knew about Ms Berejiklian’s relationship with Mr Maguire,” Mr Robertson </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/investigations/live-streaming-of-public-inquiries/operation-keppel-live-stream" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in his opening address.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr Robertson provided examples of Ms Berejiklian declaring past conflicts of interest, such as the appointment of people she knew to government boards, and the employment of her cousins by the public service.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But, Ms Berejiklian “never gave a disclosure to the NSW ministerial code of conduct about Mr Maguire”.</span></p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height:281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7844929/icac2.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/334e03d0134049d6856159180fd42c92" /></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: ICAC</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ms Berejiklian is also being investigated for three other allegations surrounding the awarding of two grants to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music and the Australian Clay Target Association in Wagga Wagga.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">First, it is alleged that she breached the public trust by failing to report any suspicions of corrupt conduct in relation to Mr Maguire.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Allegations that Ms Berejiklian behaved in a way “that was liable to allow or encourage” Mr Maguire’s allegedly corrupt conduct are also being investigated in the inquiry.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.</span></p> <p><strong>“It didn’t stack up”</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Michael Toohey from the Office of Sport appeared as the first witness, and rubbished the $5.5 million grant awarded to the Australian Clay Target Association. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“There wasn’t any real design work … it didn’t stack up,” Mr Toohey told the ICAC.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr Maguire publicly touted the project and claimed that the gun range could be used as the venue of the 2018 Sydney Invictus Games if it received funding.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Invictus Games doesn’t have shooting events,” Mr Toohey said.</span></p> <p>Day two sees second witness speak</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On </span><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/berejiklian-inquiry-live-updates-paul-doorn-to-appear-as-icac-investigation-into-conduct-of-former-nsw-premier-continues-20211018-p590zt.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">day two</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of the inquiry, the ICAC heard that the Office of Sport was asked to draft an urgent funding submission for the grant, despite the office regarding it as a low priority project.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Former Office of Sport executive director Paul Doorn told the ICAC on Tuesday that he could not remember why the submission was so urgent.</span></p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height:281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7844930/icac3.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/f37a0f9a86a24cb49468ef43b22580ae" /></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Paul Doorn appears as a witness during day two of the ICAC’s investigation. Image: ICAC</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He already told the ICAC that the project didn’t appear to benefit the state of NSW, and upgrading the Wagga Wagga club could pose a risk of cannibalising any events that would go to the government-owned shooting facility in Olympic Park.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Why would you invest in a facility where you’ve already got a facility that could host [major events?” Mr Doorn said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The commission also heard that Mr Maguire, who was the member for Wagga Wagga, lobbied for government funding for the facility twice, but that the proposal lacked details.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr Doorn also agreed that he would have told the government that the information provided was insufficient for funding to be allocated to the gun club.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The investigation is ongoing, with Mr Baird, Stuart Ayres, John Barilaro, and Ms Berejiklian to give evidence over the next two weeks.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: 9NEWS</span></em></p>

Legal

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"I blew my stack": Why Jacqui Lambie has been banned by Qantas

<p>Jacqui Lambie has apologised to Qantas staff, admitting she "blew her stack" at the airline's lounge.</p> <p>The Tasmanian Senator confirmed that she had been banned from the national airline for six months after going on a "rant" a few months ago.</p> <p>The politician told Today she deserves the ban.</p> <p>"I deserve everything that I got from Qantas," Ms Lambie told<span> </span><em>Today.</em></p> <p>"That ban will stay. I deserve every bit of that ban, and once again I'm profusely apologetic to those staff members that were involved.</p> <p>"I've tried to apologise to those staff members. I've even written a letter myself apologising for that a few months ago."</p> <p>Today host Ally Langdon questioned the Senator for further details.</p> <p>"What happened exactly?" she asked.</p> <p>Senator Lambie said that she went "on a rant" after "a long few weeks in parliament".</p> <p>"It's just been a really, really long year," Senator Lambie said.<br />"Basically I just blew my stack and unfortunately there was a couple of Qantas staff members that wore that.</p> <p>"They should never have wore that and it was really unfair of me to do that to them. So once again, I'm extremely apologetic for my behaviour for that few minutes."</p> <p>Lambie also spoke to Sydney Morning Herald's CBD column, saying she issued an apology to staff but she would like to do so again.</p> <p>“It was the end of a long week in Canberra. I’d backed into a car that morning, got a speeding ticket on the way to work, and my flight home was delayed.”</p> <p>The senator said she wasn’t in her usual frame of mind due to taking pain medication for an old back injury. “It was a bad day for me. But it was worse for the poor Qantas staff who had to stand and take my rant. It was totally uncalled for and totally unacceptable behaviour on my part. I have apologised to the staff for my actions, and I’d like to do so again.</p> <p>“I’ll take whatever punishment Qantas throws at me. I’ve done the crime and I’ll do the time, because that’s what I deserve.”</p>

News

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Karl Stefanovic's report card: How his Today return stacked up against Sunrise

<p><em>Today’s</em><span> </span>new-look team starring Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon has delivered a strong debut, as they scored a healthy ratings boost for its first weekday show.</p> <p>The new look panel – which also includes sports reporter Alex Cullen, newsreader Tracy Vo, entertainment reporter Brooke Boney and weather presenter Tim Davies – managed to draw in an average of 226,000 (five city metro) viewers on Monday. Despite still trailing behind<em><span> </span>Sunrise’s</em><span> </span>293,000, it’s still a huge leap for the struggling program.</p> <p>Last year, when former<span> </span><em>Today</em><span> </span>hosts Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight’s first show aired in 2019, it only reached a total of 197,000 people – a 15 per cent gap from yesterday’s number.</p> <p>The increased number most certainly provided some much needed relief over at Nine Network, but the task of turning around a lengthy run of horror ratings has only just started – and the question remains as to whether the new team can build on that number and become a serious rival for<span> </span><em>Sunrise</em><span> </span>once again.</p> <p>When Gardner and Knight were hosting the show last year, the morning program experienced it’s lowers ratings ever, with its metro audience dipping below 200,000 for the first time. And in what was already turning out to be a disastrous year for Nine, ABC’s<span> </span><em>News Breakfast</em><span> </span>attracted more viewers nationally than<span> </span><em>Today</em><span> </span>for the first time.</p> <p>At the beginning of November,<span> </span><em>Today<span> </span></em>suffered its lowest ratings for the year, attracting a mere 155,000 viewers from around the country.</p> <p>But<span> </span><em>TV Tonight<span> </span></em>editor David Knox told<span> </span><em>news.com.au</em><span> </span>that there’s still a long way to go despite it being “good news” for the network.</p> <p>“Compared to 2019 first numbers are headed in the right direction. But we should acknowledge<span> </span><em>Sunrise</em><span> </span>and<span> </span><em>News Breakfast</em><span> </span>were also up, undoubtedly due to the bushfire crisis and continued breaking news,” he said.</p> <p>“The challenge for Nine will be to build on its base beyond the curiosity factor. In this genre, a honeymoon period can be mercilessly brief but early anecdotal response from viewers would suggest the 2020 team has a better shot at the fight ahead than the previous.”</p> <p>Stefanovic and Langdon were originally scheduled to make their highly anticipated debut this week, but Nine bosses made the decision to bring it forward to last Saturday, January 4 in light of the ongoing bushfire crisis coverage.</p>

TV

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How the new Aladdin stacks up against a century of Hollywood stereotyping

<p>Though critically acclaimed and widely beloved, the 1992 animated feature “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103639/?ref_=nv_sr_2?ref_=nv_sr_2">Aladdin</a>” had some serious issues with stereotyping.</p> <p>Disney wanted to avoid repeating these same problems in the live action version of “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcBllhVj1eA">Aladdin</a>,” which came out on May 24. So they sought advice from a Community Advisory Council comprised of Middle Eastern, South Asian and Muslim scholars, activists and creatives. I was asked to be a part of the group because of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HZ-HRd0AAAAJ&amp;hl=en">my expertise on representations of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. media</a>.</p> <p>The fact that a major studio wants to hear from the community reflects Hollywood’s <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/02/21/696471501/hollywood-diversity-report-finds-progress-but-much-left-to-gain">growing commitment to diversity</a>.</p> <p>But while the live action “Aladdin” does succeed in rectifying some aspects of Hollywood’s long history of stereotyping and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/2/22/11091170/john-oliver-hollywood-whitewashing-oscars">whitewashing</a> Middle Easterners, it still leaves much to be desired.</p> <p><strong>Magical genies and lecherous sheikhs</strong></p> <p>In his seminal 1978 book “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Orientalism.html?id=66sIHa2VTmoC">Orientalism</a>,” literature professor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Said">Edward Said</a> argued that Western cultures historically stereotyped the Middle East to justify exerting control over it.</p> <p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/when-will-we-stop-stereotyping-people/p06p97cr">Orientalism in Hollywood</a> has a long history. Early Hollywood films such as “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012675/?ref_=nv_sr_2?ref_=nv_sr_2">The Sheik</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034465/?ref_=nv_sr_4?ref_=nv_sr_4">Arabian Nights</a>” portrayed the Middle East as a monolithic fantasy land – a magical desert filled with genies, flying carpets and rich men living in opulent palaces with their harem girls.</p> <p>While these depictions were arguably silly and harmless, they flattened the differences among Middle Eastern cultures, while portraying the region as backwards <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Unthinking_Eurocentrism.html?id=KqjAAwAAQBAJ">and in need of civilizing by the West</a>.</p> <p>Then came <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520244993/epic-encounters">a series of Middle Eastern conflicts and wars</a>: the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973, the Iran Hostage Crisis and the Gulf War. In American media, the exotic Middle East faded; replacing it were depictions of violence and ominous terrorists.</p> <p>As media scholar Jack G. Shaheen <a href="https://shop.mediaed.org/reel-bad-arabs-p133.aspx">observed</a>, hundreds of Hollywood films over the last 50 years have linked Islam with holy war and terrorism, while depicting Muslims as either “hostile alien intruders” or “lecherous, oily sheikhs intent on using nuclear weapons.”</p> <p><strong>Cringeworthy moments in the original ‘Aladdin’</strong></p> <p>Against this backdrop, the Orientalism of Disney’s 1992 animated “Aladdin” wasn’t all that surprising.</p> <p>The opening <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3kkVGuiKFI">song lyrics described</a> a land “Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face” and declared, “It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home!”</p> <p>When the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee <a href="https://variety.com/1993/film/news/aladdin-lyrics-altered-108628/">protested the lyrics</a>, Disney removed the reference to cutting off ears in the home video version but left in the descriptor “barbaric.”</p> <p>Then there were the ways the characters were depicted. As <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1992/12/27/when-will-it-be-okay-to-be-an-arab-the-disney-people-didnt-have-to-invent-a-fictional-city-for-aladdin-its-set-in-baghdad/22c97a21-58f9-468b-a575-514e1c65e894/">many</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1222519.Thinking_Class">have noted</a>, the bad Arabs are ugly and have foreign accents while the good Arabs – Aladdin and Jasmine – possess European features and white American accents.</p> <p>The film also continued the tradition of erasing distinctions between Middle Eastern cultures. For example, Jasmine, who is supposed to be from Agrabah – originally Baghdad but fictionalized because of the Gulf War in 1991 – has an Indian-named tiger, Rajah.</p> <p><strong>Questionable progress</strong></p> <p>After 9/11, a spate of films emerged that rehashed many of the old terrorist tropes. But surprisingly, some positive representations of Middle Eastern and Muslim characters emerged.</p> <p>In 2012, I published my book “<a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814707326/arabs-and-muslims-in-the-media/">Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11</a>.” In it, I detail the strategies that writers and producers used after 9/11 to offset stereotyping.</p> <p>The most common one involved including a patriotic Middle Eastern or Muslim American to counterbalance depictions as terrorists. In the TV drama, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1796960/">Homeland</a>,” for example, Fara Sherazi, an Iranian American Muslim CIA analyst, is killed by a Muslim terrorist, showing that “good” Muslim Americans are willing to die for the United States.</p> <p>But this didn’t change the fact that Middle Easterners and Muslims were, by and large, portrayed as threats to the West. Adding a ‘good’ Middle Eastern character doesn’t do much to upend stereotypes when the vast majority are still appearing in stories about terrorism.</p> <p>Another strategy also emerged: reverting to old Orientalist tropes of the exotic, romantic Middle East. Maybe writers and producers assumed that depicting the Middle East as exotic would be an improvement over associating it with terrorism.</p> <p>The 2004 film “<a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/454768/pdf">Hidalgo</a>,” for example, tells the story of an American cowboy who travels to the Arabian desert in 1891 to participate in a horse race. In classic Orientalist fashion, he saves the rich sheik’s daughter from the sheik’s evil, power-hungry nephew.</p> <p>The 2017 movie “<a href="https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/victoria-abdul-stephen-frears-judi-dench-eddie-izzard/Content?oid=31655216">Victoria and Abdul</a>” depicts an unlikely friendship between Queen Victoria and her Indian-Muslim servant, Abdul Karim. While the film does critique the racism and Islamophobia of 19th-century England, it also infantilizes and exoticizes Abdul.</p> <p>Nonetheless, some glaring problems persisted. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/05/why-is-a-white-actor-playing-prince-of-persia-title-role/345435/">Jake Gyllenhaal was cast</a> in the lead role of “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473075/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time</a>” (2010), while Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton were cast in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1528100/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1">Exodus: Gods and Kings</a>” (2014) as Egyptian characters.</p> <p>Why were white actors assuming these roles?</p> <p>When challenged, producer Ridley Scott <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/05/why-is-a-white-actor-playing-prince-of-persia-title-role/345435/">infamously said</a> that he can’t “say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such. I’m just not going to get it financed.”</p> <p><strong>Does the new ‘Aladdin’ make strides?</strong></p> <p>Perhaps in a desire to avoid the mistakes of the past, Disney executives sought advice from cultural consultants like me.</p> <p>There’s certainly some notable progress made in the live-action “Aladdin.”</p> <p>Egyptian Canadian actor Mena Massoud plays Aladdin. Given the <a href="https://www.menaartsadvocacy.com/">dearth of people of Middle Eastern descent in lead roles</a>, the significance of casting Massoud cannot be overstated. And despite the fact that <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/disney-aladdin-skin-darkening_n_5a54e36fe4b003133eccb275">some white extras had their skin darkened during filming</a>, Disney did cast actors of Middle Eastern descent in most of the main roles.</p> <p>Casting Indian British actress Naomi Scott as Jasmine was <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/07/17/disney-aladdin-jasmine-naomi-scott_a_23034316/">controversial</a>; many hoped to see an Arab or Middle Eastern actress in this role and wondered whether casting someone of Indian descent would simply reinforce notions of “Oriental” interchangeability. Nonetheless, the film does note that Jasmine’s mother is from another land.</p> <p>The biggest problem with the 2019 “Aladdin” is that it perpetuates the trend of reverting to magical <a href="http://arabstereotypes.org/why-stereotypes/what-orientalism">Orientalism</a> – as if that’s a noteworthy improvement over terrorist portrayals. In truth, it’s not exactly a courageous move to trade explicit racism for cliched exoticism.</p> <p>To be fair, “Aladdin” distinguishes itself from “Hidalgo” and other Orientalist films of this trend by not revolving around the experiences of a white protagonist.</p> <p>However, once again, characters with American accents are the “good guys” while those with non-American accents are mostly, but not entirely, “bad.” And audiences today will be as hard pressed as those in 1992 – or 1922, for that matter – to identify any distinct Middle Eastern cultures beyond that of an overgeneralized “East.” Belly dancing and Bollywood dancing, turbans and keffiyehs, Iranian and Arab accents all appear in the film interchangeably.</p> <p>Just as making positive tweaks within a story about terrorism doesn’t accomplish much, so does making positive tweaks within a story about the exotic East. Diversifying representations requires moving beyond these tired tropes and expanding the kinds of stories that are told.</p> <p>“Aladdin,” of course, is a fantastical tale, so questions about representational accuracy might seem overblown. It is also a really fun movie in which Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott and Will Smith all shine in their roles. But over the last century, Hollywood has produced <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Reel-Bad-Arabs-Hollywood-Vilifies/dp/1566567521/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=reel+bad+arabs&amp;qid=1557265888&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1-catcorr">over 900 films that stereotype Arabs and Muslims</a> – a relentless drumbeat of stereotypes that <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-bad-news-for-one-muslim-american-is-bad-news-for-all-muslims-61358">influences public opinion and policies</a>.</p> <p>If there were 900 films that didn’t portray Arabs, Iranians and Muslims as terrorists or revert to old Orientalist tropes, then films like “Aladdin” could be “just entertainment.”</p> <p>Until then, we’ll just have to wait for the genie to let more nuanced and diverse portrayals out of the lamp.</p> <p><em>Written by Evelyn Alsultany. Republished with permission of </em><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-new-aladdin-stacks-up-against-a-century-of-hollywood-stereotyping-115608"><em>The Conversation</em></a><em>. </em></p>

Movies

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The ultimate guide to stacking your dishwasher

<p>Believe it or not but there is an art in stacking your dishwasher. While some may just throw the dishes in whichever way they deem fit, there are a few rules to follow to ensure your using space to its full potential.</p> <p>Consumer advocacy group Choice Australia has revealed some of the best tips and tricks when it comes to stacking your dishwasher to help achieve the cleanest dishes possible.</p> <p><strong>Never place wood, aluminium or copper in the dishwasher</strong></p> <p>While most items are safe to stack, there are a few exceptions.</p> <p>It’s recommended that anything made of wood, such as chopping boards, rolling pins and wooden spoons should not be placed inside a dishwasher, as the material tends to absorb odours and flavours of the surrounding dishes.</p> <p>Good quality knives and fine china should also be avoided, as the water pressure can damage the cutlery and ruin the detailing.</p> <p>Anything that consists of a “reactive metal” should be handwashed, which means items made from aluminium and copper should stay away from the dishwasher.</p> <p><strong>Don’t bother pre-washing dishes</strong></p> <p>It’s a habit that most people fall into before loading up their dishwasher, but your favourite dishwashing tablet has enough power to remove all surface stains without you having to give it a pre-wash.</p> <p>Just be sure to scrape any excess food scraps beforehand, to avoid the filter from clogging up.</p> <p><strong>Make sure the dirtiest dishes go in the middle</strong></p> <p>The answer to squeaky clean dishes is placement so write this next part down.</p> <p>Plastics should always go on the top shelf to reduce the risk of melting, the same applies for anything made of glass.</p> <p>Sometimes the spinning fan can miss the corners of the dishwasher so it’s a good idea to put the dirtiest dishes right in the middle for the most effective clean.</p> <p>Lastly, place each and every plate and bowl downwards to avoid dirty water and don’t stack them on top of each other.</p>

Home & Garden

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A retirement at sea – does it stack up?

<p>It sounds like a dream, to spend your retirement cruising around the world. Here’s what you need to know to make it a reality.</p> <p><strong>How much does it cost?</strong></p> <p>First things first, the financials. Of course, if money is no object you can retire anywhere you want – including on a cruise ship. And there are plenty of ultra luxury options to cater to the rich retiree. Crystal Cruises, one of the world’s best lines, recently launched Residences on its ships that people can purchase and live in full or part time. Prices have not been released, but don’t expect much change from $2 million.</p> <p>Even if you need to be more frugal, the numbers can still add up. The government estimated that people need around $59,000 a year for a couple or $43,000 for a single for a comfortable retirement. On a per day basis, that works out to be around $160 per couple per day or $117 per single per day. That includes things like eating out, some travel, and buying new clothes or appliances. You can get a good cruise deal for around $100-150 per person per day, which actually makes for a comparable daily budget. Remember that you no longer have to think about bills, car payments or home repairs when retiring full time on a cruise ship. Many lines will give you a considerable discount when booking out a cabin for months at a time, so you could make even greater savings.</p> <p><strong>How does it work?</strong></p> <p>Essentially, like a really long cruise! Choose a ship that suits your needs and budget. You will need to book out your cabin for months in advance to ensure that you have the same one (you really don’t want to be moving between cabins). Declutter and downsize so you are only travelling with the bare minimum (a storage shed can be a good idea). Then get ready to travel the world! Many people who retire on cruise ships choose to spend a few weeks or months ashore each year, so you can arrange to stay with family or rent a house for a short period.</p> <p><strong>What are the benefits?</strong></p> <p>You will never have to cook a meal or make your bed again! Cruise ships make for a very easy life. The days are filled with activities and entertaining port stops, plus the experienced crew will take care of everything. You also have a ready made community where you can make friends and meet new people every week.</p> <p><strong>Is there anything to be worried about?</strong></p> <p>You need to be in fairly good health to make this work. While you can easily organise enough medication or see local doctors – and there is a medical facility onboard – if you require advanced medical care a cruise ship cannot cater to your needs. You will also need to have plans in place should your health deteriorate or one partner pass away.</p>

Cruising

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How Australia's budget carriers stack up

<p>Want to save some cash and fly with a budget carrier? Here’s what you need to know about Jetstar and Tigerair.</p> <p><strong>What is a budget carrier?</strong></p> <p>A budget carrier is essentially a no frills airline that offers very cheap fares for the seat alone. You then need to pay extra for things like checked baggage, meals and entertainment that would normally be included on a full service airline. The budget carrier market has grown rapidly in recent years with hundreds of lines launching around the world. Australia has two budget carriers – Jetstar and Tigerair.</p> <p><strong>SKYTRAX rating</strong></p> <p>The SKYTRAX World Airline Star Rating is a globally recognised ranking system that classifies global airlines by the quality of their physical product (like planes, meals and lounges) and service standards.</p> <p>Jetstar – 3 stars</p> <p>Tigerair – 3 stars</p> <p><strong>AirlineRatings.com rating</strong></p> <p>Independent airline safety and product review website AirlineRatings.com also compares the quality of companies around the world.</p> <p>Jetstar – 7/7 stars for safety, 3/5 stars for product</p> <p>Tigerair – 5/7 stars for safety, 2.5/5 stars for product</p> <p><strong>On time performance</strong></p> <p>The Australian government Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) analyses the on time performances of all domestic airlines. For 2016, Tigerair was the best-performing budget carrier. 83.1 per cent of its flights departed on time and 81.6 per cent arrived on time. Jetstar ranked the worst of all the airlines analysed – 73.3 per cent departed on time and 76.2 per cent arrived on time.</p> <p><strong>Fleet</strong></p> <p>Many budget carriers around the world rely on old aircraft that full service airlines have retired. That means they can be behind the times in terms of technology and style. This is where Jetstar has the upper hand. From late 2013 the airline began to introduce brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliners, one of the most high tech aircraft available. The humidity in the cabin is higher (easing the ‘dry’ feeling of flying and helping to reduce jetlag), windows are larger and dim at the touch of a button, and overhead baggage lockers have more space. Tigerair operates a fleet of A320 and 737 aircraft with an average age of 8.6 years.</p> <p>What budget carrier do you generally opt for?</p>

Travel Tips

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Tropical fruit stack with basil lime syrup

<p>Make the most of the tail end of the melon season with this beautifully refreshing fruit salad, which is simple to make, but elegant enough to be a dinner party dessert. It's also perfect as a light breakfast.</p> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Serves:</span></strong> 2</p> <p><em>For the syrup</em></p> <ul> <li>40ml water </li> <li>30ml honey</li> <li>juice of 3 limes</li> <li>10 large basil leaves, sliced finely </li> </ul> <p><em>For the fruit</em></p> <ul> <li>½ small watermelon</li> <li>½ small rock melon</li> <li>2 ripe mangoes</li> </ul> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Method: </span></strong></p> <p>1. First, make the syrup: Warm the water, honey, lime juice and sliced basil leaves in a small pot. Once the honey has melted, set the syrup aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, pass the syrup through a sieve and discard the basil leaves.</p> <p>2. Cut the watermelon into 2cm thick slices and using a circular cookie cutter or a glass (about 7cm is ideal), cut out 4 circles from the flesh. Repeat this process with the rock melon.</p> <p>3. Peel the mangoes with a sharp knife and cut 1cm off each side to get flat sides. Cut 2cm slices either side of the stone to get 4 oval-shaped rounds. Cut out 4 circles using the same glass/cookie cutter. </p> <p>4. On 2 serving plates, build 2 stacks with the watermelon, rock melon and mango circles. Repeat the process until the stack is 6 rounds high. Once the syrup is cool, pour it over the fruit and serve immediately.</p> <p><em>Written by Jordan Rondel. First appeared on <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz</span></strong></a>.</em></p> <p><em><strong>Have you ordered your copy of the Over60 cookbook, The Way Mum Made It, yet? Featuring 175 delicious tried-and-true recipes from you, the Over60 community, and your favourites that have appeared on the Over60 website, <a href="https://shop.abc.net.au/products/way-mum-made-it-pbk" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">head to the abcshop.com.au to order your copy now</span></a>.</strong></em></p>

Food & Wine

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Nutella pancake stack

<p>How to make pancakes? It's all about the batter.  For fluffy pancakes you need self-raising flour or a raising agent.</p> <p>How to make pancakes better? Eat lots of them, smothered with Nutella, cream and topped with nuts and berries!</p> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Ingredients:</span></strong></p> <ul> <li>200g self-raising flour</li> <li>2 tbsp. castor sugar</li> <li>2 eggs, beaten</li> <li>150ml milk</li> <li>pinch of salt</li> <li>2 tbsp. melted butter</li> <li>extra butter for the pan</li> <li>150g Nutella</li> <li>250ml whipping cream</li> <li>1 tbsp. icing sugar</li> <li>1 cup berries, e.g. halved strawberries</li> <li>2 tbsp. toasted hazelnuts, crushed</li> <li>Icing sugar for dusting</li> </ul> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Method:</span></strong></p> <ol> <li>Blend the flour, sugar, eggs, milk, salt and 1 tbsp. melted butter in a food processor for 30 seconds until smooth. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or until required.</li> <li>Brush a frying pan with melted butter, then add batter by the tablespoonful, three or four at a time. Cook over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface and base is golden.</li> <li>Flip over and cook other side briefly, then remove and spread with Nutella while still hot. Repeat until you have 12 pancakes.</li> <li>Beat the cream and icing sugar until thick. To assemble, top one pancake with a little whipped cream, place a second pancake on top and lightly press, then add more cream and the final pancake.</li> <li>To serve, top with a little cream, berries and crushed hazelnuts. Dust with icing sugar and serve.</li> </ol> <p><em>First appeared on <a href="http://Stuff.co.nz" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz</span></strong></a>.</em></p> <p><strong><em>Have you ordered your copy of the Over60 cookbook,</em> The Way Mum Made It<em>, yet? Featuring 175 delicious tried-and-true recipes from you, the Over60 community, and your favourites that have appeared on the Over60 website, <a href="https://shop.abc.net.au/products/way-mum-made-it-pbk" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">head to the abcshop.com.au to order your copy now</span></a>.</em></strong></p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><a href="/lifestyle/food-wine/2016/09/nutella-porridge/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Nutella porridge</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="/lifestyle/food-wine/2016/07/lamington-pancakes/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Lamington pancakes</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="/lifestyle/food-wine/2015/10/gluten-free-chocolate-pikelets/"><strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Gluten-free chocolate pikelets</span></em></strong></a></p>

Food & Wine

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How you should really stack your dishwasher

<p>The proper way to stack the dishwasher is often a hotly contested debate in the household, but a group of scientists from the University of Birmingham may finally have laid the arguments to rest.</p> <p>Claiming to be the perfect way to stack a dishwasher, the study published in the Chemical Engineering Journal advises you to stack your dishes in a circle around the cutlery basket to ensure the water reaches all of the crockery.</p> <p>Dr Raul Perez-Mohedano, the lead author of the study, told the Daily Mail, "the distribution of water inside a commercial dishwasher is very chaotic."</p> <p>"Areas with a direct impact from the water jets are very localised and these are only able to cover a very small area of all the crockery surface present," he said.</p> <p>Dr Perez-Mohedano noted that circular stacking may not always be possible, saying, "Current commercial dishwashers also show a problem of symmetry - while the ejection of water is produced in a circular movement, the distribution of the crockery follows a rectangular pattern."</p> <p>"This automatically produces areas where the impact of water is going to occur for longer," he said.</p> <p>The study also recommended organising crockery in the dishwasher according to stains, with carbohydrate stains placed in the middle and protein stains stacked in a circle around them.</p> <p>"Depending of the soil type to remove, the best procedure to follow varies," said Dr Perez-Mohedano, adding, "For example, cleaning of protein-based soils, such as egg yolk, requires an initial swelling/hydration stage which is typically driven by high alkaline conditions at the beginning of the wash-cycle.”</p> <p>"Afterwards, cleaning occurs by detachment of soil layers from top to bottom following hydrolysis reactions.</p> <p>"Other types of soils based on carbohydrates, like tomato paste, require less chemistry and more mechanical action.</p> <p>"They are detached in patches of different sizes in a process known as adhesive failure."</p> <p>The study also found dishes with particularly tough stains are best placed in the centre of the blades or in the centre of the top shelf.</p> <p>According to The Telegraph, London, the findings "could now have dramatic consequences for dishwasher design with manufacturers forced to tear-up traditional blueprints and start from scratch with circular loading models."</p> <p><strong>Related links: </strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/home-garden/2016/02/ways-to-repurpose-doilies/">8 pretty ways to repurpose doilies</a></em></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/home-garden/2016/02/how-to-break-common-household-habits/">Bad common household habits we’re all guilty of</a></em></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/home-garden/2015/08/diy-wall-art/">8 pieces of wall art that you can easily make yourself</a></em></strong></span></p>

News

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Parmesan potato stacks

<p>Bursting with cheesy flavour, these parmesan potato snacks make the perfect side dish or appetiser. Watch the video above to see how these tasty stacks are made!</p> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Makes</span>:</strong> 4 -6</p> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Ingredients</span>:</strong></p> <ul> <li>3 tablespoon butter, melted</li> <li>2 tablespoon parmesan cheese</li> <li>1 teaspoon garlic powder</li> <li>1 teaspoon thyme leaves</li> <li>8-10 gold potatoes, sliced thin</li> <li>Salt and freshly ground black pepper</li> </ul> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Method:</span></strong></p> <p>1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Butter 12 muffin cups and set aside.</p> <p>2. Place potato slices into a large bowl. Add melted butter, parmesan cheese, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper. Toss to coat evenly.</p> <p>3. Layer the potato slices into stacks and place in the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle some freshly ground black pepper.</p> <p>4. Bake until the edges and tops are golden brown and the centres are tender, around 55 minutes.</p> <p>5. Remove from the oven, let them rest for 5 minutes then remove from pan and garnish with Parmesan cheese and thyme.</p> <p><em>Source: Home Cooking Adventure</em></p> <p><em><strong>Have you ordered your copy of the Over60 cookbook, The Way Mum Made It, yet? Featuring 178 delicious tried-and-true recipes from you, the Over60 community, and your favourites that have appeared on the Over60 website, <a href="https://shop.abc.net.au/products/way-mum-made-it-pbk" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">head to the abcshop.com.au to order your copy now</span>.</a></strong></em></p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/lifestyle/food-wine/2015/10/chicken-alfredo-fettucine/">Creamy chicken alfredo pasta</a></strong></em></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/food-wine/2016/02/vegetarian-meat-balls/"><strong>Vegetarian meat balls</strong></a></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/food-wine/2016/02/caramel-apple-jam/"><strong>Caramel apple jam</strong></a></em></span></p> <p> </p>

Food & Wine

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Chocolate macadamias pavlova stack

<p>Every now and then you deserve a treat, and we can’t think of anything sweeter than this decadent chocolate macadamias pavlova stack. Try it this weekend!</p> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Serves:</span></strong> 8 - 10</p> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Ingredients:</span></strong></p> <ul> <li>4 x 700g egg whites</li> <li>1  ⅓cup raw caster sugar</li> <li>2 teaspoons vanilla extract</li> <li>¼ cup macadamias, roasted, roughly chopped</li> <li>¼ cup macadamia meal</li> <li>¼ cup cocoa powder, sifted</li> <li>600ml cream</li> <li>1 teaspoon caster sugar</li> <li>1 tablespoon Drambuie</li> <li>2 punnets each of blueberries and raspberries</li> <li>60g honey roasted macadamias (see recipe below)</li> <li>Icing sugar, to dust</li> </ul> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Method: </span></strong></p> <ol> <li>Preheat oven to 100°C fan-forced.</li> <li>Lightly grease and line 4 oven trays with non-stick baking paper.</li> <li>Using a 22cm cake pan as a guide, trace circles onto each tray.</li> <li>Fill a medium saucepan one quarter full with water.</li> <li>Bring to boil over a medium heat, then reduce to a simmer.</li> <li>To make the meringue, combine the egg whites and raw caster sugar in a heatproof bowl and place over the saucepan, being careful not to let the bowl touch the water.</li> <li>Whisk for about 5 minutes until the sugar dissolves and the whites are warm to touch.</li> <li>Test the meringue by rubbing between the fingers - if it feels grainy keep whisking over the saucepan until smooth.Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk, initially on low speed but gradually increasing to high until stiff and glossy peaks form, about 10 minutes.</li> <li>Fold through 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and the macadamias, meal and cocoa, until well combined. Divide the meringue evenly between the circles of the 4 prepared oven trays.</li> <li>Bake for 1 hour, then turn the oven off but leave the meringue discs in the oven for another hour so they’re dry and crisp.</li> <li>Remove from the oven and cool completely. Store in an airtight container until needed.</li> <li>Combine the cream, caster sugar and remaining vanilla in a large bowl and whisk until stiff peaks form. Fold through the Drambuie.</li> <li>Place a meringue disc on a serving plate, spread with a quarter of the cream and a quarter of the berries and repeat with the remaining meringue discs and cream.</li> <li>Scatter the top disc with honey-roasted macadamias and a dusting of icing sugar. Serve.</li> </ol> <p>Recipe courtesy of Australian Macadamias – <a href="http://www.australian-macadamias.org/consumer/en/taste/recipes"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">visit their site for more yummy food ideas.</span> </a></p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><em><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="/lifestyle/food-wine/2015/11/chicken-sausage-jambalaya/">Chicken and sausage jambalaya</a></span></strong></em></p> <p><em><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="/lifestyle/food-wine/2015/11/white-chocolate-macadamia-raspberry-muffins/">White chocolate macadamia and raspberry muffins</a></span></strong></em></p> <p><em><strong><a href="/lifestyle/food-wine/2015/08/new-york-cheesecake/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">New York cheesecake</span></a></strong></em></p>

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