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Groom faces serious jail time after $89 million "wedding of the century"

A groom whose viral $89 million wedding was dubbed the "wedding of the century" is now facing a possible life sentence in prison. Jacob LaGrone, 29, and wife, car dealership heiress Madelaine Brockway, took social media by storm last month after videos of their lavish, five-day wedding in France went viral on TikTok. The wedding which featured an overnight stay at the Palace of Versailles, rehearsal dinner at the Paris Opera House, and a performance by Maroon 5 at the Texan couple's reception, was nothing short of amazing. Now, instead of going on their honeymoon, the groom could be facing life in prison, after getting arrested for allegedly shooting at three police officers in an incident on March 14. The Nashville native was indicted eight months ago on three counts of aggravated assault on a public servant, which is a first-degree felony in Texas, that, if convicted, could see him face a sentence from less than five years to life in prison. According to city officials, officers responded to multiple disturbance calls about a gun being discharged at a home – and when the three officers arrived, "they were fired upon” by LaGrone. An indictment obtained by The Washington Post, said that LaGrone "did intentionally and knowingly threaten imminent bodily injury" to the officers and “did use or exhibit a deadly weapon during the commission of the assault, namely, a firearm”. The indictment did not specify where the incident took place, and no further details were given regarding the disturbance calls. The Dallas Morning News reported that the Tarrant County District Attorney offered LaGrone a plea deal of 25-years in jail . Neither LaGrone nor his wife have publicly addressed the charges, and both have since made their social media accounts private. Images: Instagram/ News.com.au

Legal

Antiques Roadshow guest floored by value of father’s gift

For most people, finding out that their old items are worth a few hundred dollars is a treat enough, and maybe a few thousand if the antique is particularly special. But for one woman in the United Kingdom and her treasured brooches, that would have been small change. It was Antiques Roadshow’s expert Geoffrey Munn who broke the news after inspecting her pieces in Wales, assigning an impressive value to the 18th century collection. As the guest - and owner - explained, the two diamond brooches from her set had been gifted to her by her father. “[The smaller bow] on my wedding day. [The floral brooch] came a little bit later,” she said, “and [the ruby bow] was inherited from my grandmother.” She went on to share that her father had actually been involved in the antiques world, and so it was “something that I’ve grown up with.” <img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2023/05/AntiquesRoadshow_EMBED.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /> Upon inspecting the items, Munn noted that they were in “perfect condition”, and that they seemed to be “18th century jewels of the finest pitch”. When it came to the smaller bow, he remarked that it was more than it appeared, being “a true lovers knot, because the harder it is pulled, the tighter it becomes. “And the diamonds are forever, so this little subliminal message for your wedding was perfectly well chosen.” According to Munn, the same could be said of the ruby bow, but that things were “more complicated” when it came to the floral brooch. After sharing that it was most likely a sort of dress ornament, he noted that “there may have been 20 or 30 of them, and they might have gone down the back of a woman of very high rank and huge wealth. “[In the 18th century], people didn’t simply recognise the sovereign because there was no photography and precious few portraits. So, when [they] entered the room, there had to be an enormous display of sumptuary.” He then theorised that the floral brooch could possibly have belonged to Russian royalty, and that he wanted to believe that was the case. “The Russian crown jewels were sold in London after the revolution to raise funds for the new regime,” he continued. “It’s just possible that this is a Russian crown jewel. Wouldn’t [that] be marvellous?” Munn dubbed the entire collection “marvellous things”, declaring that “they’re not showy. They’re utterly beautiful expressions of an era gone by and that’s what we’re looking for”, as well as announcing that the trio came in at a staggering value of approximately $62,000. The smaller bow came in at around $15,000, while the ruby brooch was valued at $18,800, and the ruby at $28,300. And while selling the set would have given the guest’s bank balance quite the boost, she had no intentions of parting with them any time soon. Instead, she intended for her daughters to inherit them. She enjoyed wearing the pieces, she said, but unfortunately, the bigger of the brooches were getting “difficult to wear nowadays … perhaps [they are] a bit more dated.” Images: Antiques Roadshow / BBC

Money & Banking

Picking up a King Charles III coronation commemorative plate? You’re buying into a centuries-old tradition

Mugs and plates celebrating the coronations, marriages and deaths of British royalty are not unusual sights in the Australian home. With the forthcoming coronation of King Charles III on May 6, such memorabilia cluttering our cupboards are only likely to increase. Guides to “<a href="https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/article/king-charles-coronation-memorabilia-2023">the best King Charles III memorabilia</a>” are already advising what souvenirs to buy, including commemorative coins, biscuit tins, tea towels, plates and, of course, mugs. Yet the royal souvenir is not a recent invention. <h2>History of the royal mug</h2> The tradition of celebrating royal events with a mug or drinking vessel dates to at least the 17th century when the current king’s ancestor and namesake, Charles II, was restored to the English throne in 1660-1. Several mugs and cups produced at the time have survived and depict the “<a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/charles-ii-guide-restoration-why-merry-monarch-how-many-children-rule/">merry monarch</a>”. The restoration of Charles II (after his father Charles I had been executed by order of parliament in 1649) was greeted with rejoicing throughout England, Scotland and Ireland. The famous social climber and diarist Samuel Pepys embodied the general feeling of this time when he wrote that on the day of Charles II’s coronation he watched the royal procession with wine and cake and all were “<a href="https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1661/04/22/">very merry</a>” and pleased at what they saw. Drinking and eating in celebration may account for why mugs and plates were, and remain, such popular forms of royal memorabilia; they were used to <a href="https://stuarts.exeter.ac.uk/education/objects/delftware-cup-c-1661/">drink loyal toasts</a> of good health to the monarch on special days of celebration. While a strong ale was the preferred liquid for 17th-century toasts, as the British Empire expanded tea drinking became a common pastime. Teacups became popular royal souvenirs during the reign of Queen Victoria in the 19th century. <h2>Fostering support</h2> The earthenware mugs made for Charles II’s coronation were relatively inexpensive, but not produced on a mass scale. With the industrial revolution of the 19th century and the rise of souvenir culture, royal memorabilia in all forms became more <a href="https://theconversation.com/royal-family-why-even-a-charles-and-diana-divorce-mug-is-important-for-the-monarchy-176588">popular and widespread</a>. Since 1900, royal births, deaths, marriages and coronations have been big money for manufacturers of royal memorabilia. The pitfalls of mass production were realised in 1936 when Edward VIII abdicated from the throne just months before his planned coronation in May 1937. Manufacturers were stuck with <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/178313173?searchTerm=%22coronation%20mug%22">thousands of mugs</a>, plates and other items celebrating the coronation of a king that would not happen. Many of these mugs still made their way out to the market, while other manufacturers such as Royal Doulton <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_2012-8022-5-a-c">adapted existing designs</a> and used them for the coronation of his brother, George VI. English monarchs were not the only royals to encourage the use of their image on objects collected, worn or used by their subjects. Renaissance Italian princes popularised the <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/renaissance-portrait-medals/exhibition-themes">portrait medal</a> and the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V, fostered support in his vast territories using mass-produced medallions <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/197126">bearing his image</a>. Objects with images of royalty served similar functions in the 20th century. Australian school children were often <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/141777602?searchTerm=%22coronation%20mug%22">given medals</a>to commemorate coronations, while children in England were gifted pottery mugs to drink to the sovereign’s health. When Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953, <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/coronation-of-hm-queen-elizabeth-ii">English children</a>received mugs, tins of chocolate and a spoon or coin. <h2>Measuring popularity</h2> Royal memorabilia don’t just foster support but act as a barometer of the popularity of the royal family around the globe. Coronation mugs became popular in the reign of Charles II in 1661 because these objects captured the joyous feeling of a nation that had endured 20 years of warfare and political chaos. Support for the royal family has often been shown through royal weddings and marriages: plates depicting Charles II and his Portuguese bride, Catherine of Braganza, were made to celebrate their union in 1662. Recently a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/metal-detectorist-discovers-rare-gold-pendant-celebrating-henry-viiis-first-marriage-180981557/">gold pendant</a> inscribed with the initials of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, likely worn by a supporter, was also discovered. For Prince William and Kate Middleton’s highly anticipated wedding in 2011, thousands of types of mundane and wacky <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/gossip/la-et-royal-wedding-souvenirs-pictures-photogallery.html">souvenirs</a> were produced, such as plates, mugs, magnets, graphic novels, toilet seat covers and PEZ dispensers. Over 1,600 lines of official merchandise were produced for the marriage of Princes Charles to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. <a href="https://issuu.com/accpublishinggroup/docs/june_july_2022_mag/s/15960301">Less than 25 lines</a> were produced for Charles’ unpopular second marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005. While Charles may not be <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2023/03/01/celebrities-dont-care-to-perform-for-king-charles-iii/?sh=56487b7a20f8">as popular</a> as his mother, coronation fever has most definitely taken hold in the United Kingdom. Royal fans are set to spend £1.4 billion (A$2.6 billion) on <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/21911733/shoppers-spend-billion-king-coronation-may/">coronation parties and souvenirs</a>. The availability of coronation souvenirs and party supplies in Australia is somewhat more limited – perhaps an indicator of Australia’s diminishing appetite for the royal family amid increased calls for another <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-24/king-charles-australias-head-of-state-alternative-republic/101470156">vote on a republic</a>. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/picking-up-a-king-charles-iii-coronation-commemorative-plate-youre-buying-into-a-centuries-old-tradition-200646" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Home & Garden

New lessons about old wars: keeping the complex story of Anzac Day relevant in the 21st century

What happened on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey 108 years ago has shocked and shaped Aotearoa New Zealand ever since. The challenge in the 21st century, then, is how best to give contemporary relevance to such an epochal event. The essence of the Anzac story is well known. As part of the first world war British Imperial Forces, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzacs) landed at Gallipoli on April 25 1915. For eight months they endured the constant threat of death or maiming in terrible living conditions. Ultimately, their occupation of that narrow and rugged piece of Turkish coast failed. The 30,000 Anzacs were evacuated after eight months. More than 2,700 New Zealand and 8,700 Australian soldiers died, with many more wounded. The <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/anzac-day-resources">first anniversary</a> of the landing was a day of mourning, with Anzac Day becoming a public holiday in 1922. A remembrance day of sorrow mixed with pride, it has grown over the years to include all those who served and died in later international conflicts. Over time, various narratives and themes have emerged from that Gallipoli “origin story”: of Aotearoa New Zealand’s emergence as a nation, proving itself to Britain and Empire; of the brave, fit, loyal soldier-mates who emblemised the Kiwi spirit of egalitarianism, fairness and duty. All this mingled with the lasting shock and underlying anger at class hierarchy and the British leadership’s incompetence. But historians know well that the “Anzac spirit” is a complex and ever-evolving idea. In 2023, what do we teach school-aged children about its meaning and significance? One way forward is to rethink those Anzac narratives and tropes in a more complex way. <h2>Colonialism and class</h2> The Anzac story is tied up in the nation’s history as part of the British Empire. The Anzac toll was just part of a staggering 46,000 “Britons” – including many from India and Ireland – who died at Gallipoli. Some 86,000 Turks also died defending their peninsula. We need to teach about the Anzac sacrifice in the context of a global conflict where the magnitude of loss was horrific. Importantly, Anzac themes are bound up in early forms of colonial nationalism: New Zealand proving itself to Britain and developing its own fighting mentality on battlefields far from home. Part of this involves the notion of incompetent British commanders who let down the Anzac troops – but this is part of a bigger story. Focusing on imperial and class hierarchies of the time can place what happened in that broader context. The legendary story of <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/wellington-battalion-captures-chunuk-bair">Chunuck Bair</a>, taken on August 8 by Colonel William Malone’s Wellington Regiment, but where most of the soldiers were killed when they weren’t relieved in time, is particularly evocative. <h2>Māori and the imperial project</h2> From our vantage point in the present, of course, we cannot ignore the Māori experience of war and colonialism. As the historian Vincent O’Malley has suggested, New Zealand’s “great war” of nation-making was actually <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars">Ngā pakanga o Aotearoa</a> – the New Zealand Wars. It’s time to teach the complexity of this past and the multiple perspectives on it. For example, Waikato leader <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/te-kirihaehae-te-puea-herangi">Te Puea Hērangi</a>led opposition to WWI conscription and spoke against Māori participation on the side of a power that had only recently invaded her people’s land. Conversely, Māori seeking inclusion in the settler nation did participate. On July 3 1915, the 1st Māori Contingent landed at Anzac Cove. <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3b54/buck-peter-henry">Te Rangi Hiroa</a> (Sir Peter Buck) (Ngāti Mutunga) was to say, "Our feet were set on a distant land where our blood was to be shed in the cause of the Empire to which we belonged." These words echo the familiar Anzac trope of the New Zealand nation being born at Gallipoli. Such sentiments led to postwar pilgrimages to retrace the steps of ancestors and claim the site as part of an Anzac heritage – a corner of New Zealand even. For many young New Zealanders it has become a rite of passage, part of the big OE. That a visit to Anzac Cove is still more popular than visiting the sites of Ngā pakanga o Aotearoa is something our teaching can investigate. <h2>Mateship and conformity</h2> The notion of the Anzac soldier as courageous and beyond reproach, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for nation and empire, is also overdue for revision. The “glue” of mateship – a potent combination of masculine bravery and strength with extreme loyalty to fellow soldiers – is again a contested narrative. By the 1970s, as historian Rowan Light’s work shows, there was a significant challenge to such perceptions from the counterculture, peace protesters and feminists. And by the 1980s, veterans were sharing their stories more candidly with writer Maurice Shadbolt and war historian Chris Pugsley. Teaching about the meaning of mateship might examine the history of those peer-pressured into participating in war, those who were conscripted and had no choice, and more on the fate of conscientious objectors like Archibald Baxter. At its worst, the idea of mateship was window dressing for uniformity and parochialism. New Zealanders today have complex multicultural and global roots. We have ancestors who were co-opted to fight on different sides in 20th-century wars, including those who fought anti-colonial wars in India, Ireland and Samoa. Some came here as refugees escaping conflict. Jingoism and what it really represents deserves critical analysis. <h2>Poppies and peace</h2> The ubiquitous poppy, an icon much reproduced in classrooms, is also ripe for contextualisation and debate over its meaning. In the age of global environmental crisis, it can be seen as more than a symbol of sacrifice immortalised in verse and iconography. The poppy also reminds us of the landscapes devastated by the machinery of war that killed and maimed people, plants and animals. It contains within it myriad lessons about the threats science and technology can pose to a vulnerable planet. Anzac Day rose from the shock, loss and grief felt by those on the home front. And beyond the familiar tropes of nationalism, mateship and egalitarianism, this remains its overriding mood. Remembering and learning about the terrible physical and mental cost of war is the real point of those familiar phrases “lest we forget” and “never again”. That spirit of humanitarianism chimes with Aotearoa New Zealand’s modern role and evolving self-image as a peacekeeping, nuclear-free nation. Anzac Day also speaks to the need for global peace and arbitration, and how war is no viable solution to conflict. Those are surely lessons worth teaching. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-lessons-about-old-wars-keeping-the-complex-story-of-anzac-day-relevant-in-the-21st-century-204013" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Caring

Century-old typo at Melbourne train stop finally fixed

One of Melbourne’s oldest public spelling errors will be fixed after almost a century. In 1937, the suburb of "Glen Huntly" was incorrectly written as a one-word sign at the train station and has remained that way ever since. The southeast suburb is finally getting an updated sign, as two level crossing removals are about to take place. “That’s a historical spelling error ... It’s taken us nearly a century to fix that,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said at a press conference. “But the local historical society and others who have an eye for detail will be very pleased to see us remedying that error.” Glen Huntly was named after a ship that arrived in Port Phillip all the way back in 1940, but there has been confusion surrounding the spelling ever since. Some local businesses in the suburb still have the spelling as 'Glenhuntly' and the name of the railway station has been changed three times. The stop was called ‘Glen Huntly Road’ when it was opened in 1881, before being changed to ‘Glen Huntly’ in 1882 and then ‘Glenhuntly’ in 1937. Andrews unveiled the new train station signage with the correct spelling as works to remove the level crossings and upgrades to the station commence. Those congested level crossings are at Neerim and Glen Huntly roads with expected closures in the area from May 5 until mid-July. Buses will be replacing trains on the Frankston line between Caulfield and Moorabbin during this time. The new, typo-free Glen Huntly train station will open in August 2023. Image credit: Facebook

Travel Trouble

Trans people aren’t new, and neither is their oppression: a history of gender crossing in 19th-century Australia

This article contains references to anti-trans, colonial and institutional violence, and includes information about an Aboriginal person who died in the early 20th century. Anti-transgender hatred is on the rise. Driven by pseudoscience and backed by <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/03/10/anti-trans-disinformation-australia-transphobia/">well-funded far-right pressure groups</a>, part of the premise of the anti-trans “gender critical” movement is that trans people are new and unnatural. History shows us this is not the case. The “trans” prefix emerged in 1910 with Magnus Hirschfeld’s research on “<a href="https://www.transgendermap.com/politics/sexology/magnus-hirschfeld/">transvestism</a>” (initially a medical term). Hirschfeld was a gay German Jewish doctor whose research centre, the <a href="https://magnus-hirschfeld.de/ausstellungen/institute/">Institut für Sexualwissenschaft</a>, has been called the world’s first trans clinic. The institute was destroyed by Nazis in 1933. You might be familiar with this image of Nazi book-burning – the books in question were Hirschfeld’s research. In the 1800s, people who crossed gender categories were not understood to be “transvestites” or transgender, but were referred to as “masqueraders”, “impersonators”, “men-women” and “freaks”. As such, I consider my research to be a work of shared queer and trans history, but not necessarily a history of trans people. I am not interested in how people in the past might have identified today, but in how they lived and how their communities responded to them. <h2>Gender variance in First Nations communities</h2> Far from being new, gender variance on this continent predates Europeans’ arrival in Australia. Several Aboriginal nations have traditions of <a href="https://www.transhub.org.au/trans-mob">culturally specific gender categories</a>. In 2015 the organisation Sisters and Brothers NT noted the terms “Kwarte Kwarte” in Arrernte, “Kungka Kungka” in Pitjantjatjara and Luritja, “Yimpininni” in Tiwi, and “Karnta Pia” in Warlpiri, which can be interpreted as “like a girl”, while “Kungka Wati” in Pintipi and “Girriji Kati” in Waramungu literally mean “woman/man”. Sandy O’Sullivan, a Wiradjuri trans scholar and professor, notes that the imposition of European gender norms on First Nations peoples was part of a broader colonial project that sought to eliminate Indigenous cultures and kinship systems. <h2>Gender transgression in colonial Australia</h2> In colonial Australia, gender transgression was structurally managed via carceral systems such as lunatic asylums, police and prisons. Although there was no formal legislation against cross-dressing or gender-crossing, people were often charged with vagrancy, fraud, sodomy, impersonation or indecent behaviour. A lot of Australian legislation was inherited from or influenced by British legislation, including the 1533 Buggery Act and the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act, also known as “An Act to make further provision for the Protection of Women and Girls”, which strengthened existing legislation against homosexuality and sex work. In the 19th century there was no formal or medical process for gender transition. When people crossed gender categories, they did so socially, sometimes for their entire lifetimes. On a local level, gender crossers were frequently accepted in their communities if they met certain conditions. People were more likely to be accepted if they were white, transmasculine, and contributing to the productive workforce. People who were socially marginalised or lacking in support from family and friends were more likely to have hostile interactions with the law and with medicine. <h2>Madness, medicalisation, and criminalisation</h2> Gender transgression over years or decades was often interpreted as evidence of insanity. There were cases such as Tom Hurly, institutionalised in Parramatta Lunatic Asylum in 1861, and Edward de Lacy Evans, institutionalised in Bendigo Hospital and Kew Asylum in 1879. Edward Moate – referred to in the press as “another De Lacy Evans” – was institutionalised in Beechworth Asylum in 1884. The lunatic asylum was a structure that maintained and restored the colonial order. To be discharged and re-enter the community, patients had to demonstrate that their insanity had been “cured”, which for gender transgressors generally meant being forced to detransition. Edward de Lacy Evans was made to return to dressing as a woman and was discharged only a few months after his admission. Edward Moate, on the other hand, refused to provide a female name or reassume a female gender expression, and died in the asylum three years later, still under the name Edward Moate. Vagrancy charges were the most common way of criminalising gender crossing. This was frequently applied to people who lived as women, who were more likely to be seen as dangerously deviant than tolerably eccentric. In 1863, Ellen Maguire was charged with vagrancy in Melbourne for “personating a woman”. Officially, the vagrancy charge was one of “having no visible means of support”, despite most of the court trial focusing on her employment as a sex worker and her supposed deception of her male clients. She was eventually convicted of sodomy and died in prison after six years. Sometimes the twin modes of medicalisation and criminalisation were applied simultaneously. In 1896, the Warengesda Aborigines’ Mission reported an Aboriginal (probably Wiradjuri) youth named H Paroo for “masquerading in the garb of a man”. Paroo was ordered to leave the station, but refused to comply. The station wrote a letter to the Aborigines’ Protection Board asking if Paroo could be removed, either by being “given in charge as a vagrant” or “as not fit to be at large” (that is, as a “wandering lunatic”). <h2>Full and authentic lives</h2> Not everyone who was exposed in the press was vilified or incarcerated as a result. Some people lived full lives in their chosen gender categories, and were only outed after their deaths. In 1893, a farmer named Jack Jorgensen died in Elmore, near Bendigo, and was promptly exposed in the press as yet “another De Lacy Evans”. Jorgensen had suffered an injury at work but refused to go to Bendigo Hospital. He signed his will as Johann Martin Jorgensen, and died at home under the care of his housemates, who knew about his gender but kept the secret until after his death. These stories are important because they show that the criminalisation and pathologisation of gender transgression is not a new phenomenon. Medicine and the justice system have a long history of being weaponised against trans people and anyone trespassing from the gendered status quo. If we are to work towards trans liberation in the present, we must reckon with these histories and address their structural legacies. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/trans-people-arent-new-and-neither-is-their-oppression-a-history-of-gender-crossing-in-19th-century-australia-201663" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Caring

From Chaucer to chocolates: how Valentine’s Day gifts have changed over the centuries

For Valentine’s Day, some couples only roll their eyes at each other in mutual cynicism. The capitalisation of love in the modern world can certainly seem banal. But Valentine’s Day gifts are hardly a contemporary invention. People have been celebrating the day and gifting love tokens for hundreds of years. We should first turn to Geoffrey Chaucer, the 14th-century poet, civil servant and keen European traveller. Chaucer’s poem from the 1380s, The Parliament of Fowls, is held to be the first reference to February 14 as a day about love. This day was already a feast day of several mysterious early Roman <a href="https://theconversation.com/st-valentines-a-minor-day-in-a-medieval-calendar-packed-with-festivals-71225">martyred Saint Valentines</a>, but Chaucer described it as a day for people to choose their lovers. He knew that was easier said than done. The narrator of the poem is unsuccessful in love, despairing that life is short compared with how long it takes to learn to love well. He falls asleep and dreams of a garden in which all the different birds of the world have gathered. Nature explains to the assembled flocks that, like every year on St Valentine’s Day, they have come to pick their partners in accordance with her rules. But this process causes confusion and debate: the birds can’t agree what it means to follow her rules because they all value different things in their partners. <h2>Legal and emotional significance</h2> Like today, in Chaucer’s time gift-giving could be highly ritualised and symbolise intention and commitment. In Old and Middle English, a “wed” was any sort of token pledged to guarantee a promise. It was not until the 13th century that a “wedding” came to mean a nuptial ceremony. The same period saw marriage transform into a Christianised and unbreakable commitment (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/04/08/the-catholic-church-didnt-even-consider-marriage-a-sacrament-for-centuries/">a sacrament of the Church</a>). New conventions of love developed in songs, <a href="https://www.bl.uk/medieval-literature/articles/love-and-chivalry-in-the-middle-ages">stories</a> and other types of <a href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O90898/scenes-from-romance-literature-casket-unknown/">art</a>. These conventions influenced broader cultural ideas of emotion: love letters were written, grand acts of service were celebrated, and tokens of love were given. Rings, brooches, girdles (belts), gloves, gauntlets (sleeves), kerchiefs or other personalised textiles, combs, mirrors, purses, boxes, vessels and pictures – and even fish – are just some examples of <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Medieval_Art_of_Love.html?id=vDqSQgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">romantic gifts</a> recorded from the late middle ages. In stories, gifts could be imbued with magical powers. In the 13th century, in a history of the world, Rudolf von Ems recorded how Moses, when <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2021/04/13/medieval-artists-painted-such-things-images-that-surprise-and-delight-in-illuminated-world-chronicles/">obliged to return home</a> and leave his first wife Tharbis, an Ethiopian princess, had two rings made. The one he gave her would cause Tharbis to forget him. He always wore its pair which kept her memory forever fresh in his mind. Outside of stories, gifts could have legal significance: wedding rings, important from the 13th century, could prove that a marriage had occurred by evidencing the intention and consent of the giver and recipient. <h2>The art of loving</h2> Like Chaucer, 20th-century German psychologist Erich Fromm thought people could learn the art of loving. Fromm thought love was an act of giving not just material things, but one’s joy, interest, understanding, knowledge, humour and sadness. While these gifts might take some time and practice, there are more straightforward ideas from history. Manufactured <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/caring-for-our-collections/victorian-valentines">cards</a> have dominated since the industrial revolution, taking their place alongside other now traditional presents such as flowers, jewellery, intimate apparel and consumables (now more often <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/02/14/514565105/chocolate-love-s-sweet-but-not-necessarily-innocent-consort">chocolates</a> than fish). All can be <a href="https://emotionsblog.history.qmul.ac.uk/2014/12/love-in-objects/">personalised</a> for that intimate touch. There have, of course, been weirder examples of love gifts, such as Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton exchanging necklaces with silver pendants smeared with <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/10/billy-bob-thornton-angelina-jolie-blood-vial">each other’s blood</a>. Artist Dora Maar was so upset when her <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/11/09/how-picasso-bled-the-women-in-his-life-for-art/">notoriously bad lover Pablo Picasso </a>complained about having to trade a painting for a ruby ring she immediately threw the ring in the Seine. Picasso soon replaced it with <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/actual-size-l17007/lot.18.html">another</a>, this one featuring Maar’s portrait. A good love token can long outlast the feelings that prompt its giving: a flower pressed in a book, a trinket at the bottom of a box, a fading heartfelt card or a bittersweet song that jolts you back to an earlier time. In this way, the meaning of gifts can change as they become reminders that all things pass. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-chaucer-to-chocolates-how-valentines-day-gifts-have-changed-over-the-centuries-198512" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Relationships

Award-winning century-old house smashes local records

Despite drastically diminishing market conditions, the century-old mansion in the luxurious suburb of Kingsville, Victoria, has surpassed the local pricing record more than 12 months after first being listed for sale. The four-bedroom property – that even has its own ballroom – lies on 1,578 square metres and was snapped up for $2.7m just one week before Christmas – and that was after being sadly passed-in at an auction in November. Even though it was initially listed with a prospective pricing target of $4m way back in October 2021, the final price of $2.7m was a good $800,000 clear of the previous local pricing record of $1.93m. Leo Dardha from Hockingstuart Yarraville told <a href="realestate.com.au/news/kingston-house-price-record-mansion-smashes-record-by-800000/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Herald Sun</a> that buyers “loved the history, they loved the character and they loved the size of the land”. “It’s one of a kind in Kingsville,” he said. “It’s won a couple of awards. It won a beautification award in 1991 from Maribyrnong Council and has had only two owners in 100 years. “The first owners who commissioned the build were in the transport industry and the second were a local family who moved from another home on Somerville Rd and enjoyed the past 40 years there; it was their pride and joy, their trophy home and they raised their family there.” The upper level of the home is a ballroom that has been the scene of many functions with family and friends over the years, while the wider house features rich timber throughout. An entrance hall, formal lounge and dining rooms, sitting room, and office or sunroom, are among the other traditional highlights. Images: Hockingstuart Yarraville

Real Estate

Sale of the Century "quiz legend" dies

The famous winner of a popular quiz show has passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Cary Young died peacefully at a Melbourne retirement village at the age of 83. Young was a regular contestant on the 1980s quiz show Sale of the Century and won a record 60 times. Mr Young’s family shared a tribute to him on Thursday, saying he will be remembered for being an ordinary bloke who captured the hearts of Australians around the country. “People just had this affection for him because he was just this very average person. He wasn’t an academic or professional,” his daughter Michelle said in a statement to the <a title="www.heraldsun.com.au" href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/tv-quiz-king-cary-young-dies-in-wheelers-hill-aged-83/news-story/753fd13eebec05aff64d1a82bbf855fa" data-tgev="event119" data-tgev-container="bodylink" data-tgev-order="753fd13eebec05aff64d1a82bbf855fa" data-tgev-label="entertainment" data-tgev-metric="ev">Herald Sun</a>. “He was working in the meatworks when he went on the show – he saw an opportunity to make a better life for his family.” A native New Zealander, Mr Young originally picked up a knack for general knowledge when, as a child, he was stuck in bed with asthma and had to read to fend off the boredom. Brydon Coverdale, best known for being one of the “chasers” on The Chase Australia, also shared a tribute for the late Cary Young, hailing him a "quiz legend". “Cary became a really recognisable face on Australian television throughout that era, despite the fact he was just a normal, everyday person,” Mr Coverdale said. “He would go through encyclopedias and sources and write a whole list of names and memorise them.” TV personality Mark Humphries also commented on social media, saying, “Oh man. What a legend.” Mr Young became a household name in 1982 when he became a regular champion on the quiz show, hosted by Tony Barber. Since then he appeared on another 59 episodes of Sale of the Century and he was honoured as the show’s most well-known champion. Image credits: Nine

News

Queen Elizabeth’s 21st birthday speech edited in Harry and Meghan doco

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new documentary has edited the Queen’s 21st birthday speech to give it a completely new meaning. The first three episodes of the Sussexes new documentary Harry and Meghan have now aired on Netflix. And now voice coach Susie Ashfield has pointed out that in the first episode, the Queen's speech – in which she says “whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great Imperial family to which we all belong” – is included. Then she takes viewers to episode three, in which the Queen’s speech has been edited, giving it a completely new meaning. “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to the service of our great Imperial family to which we all belong.” She shared another video showing glaring edits of the late Monarch titled: “The Queen Vs Netflix. Spot the difference…”. “I wasn't going to say anything about the Harry and Meghan Netflix documentary because it's nothing to do with me,” she said. "I'm a communications coach. I help people make speeches." <p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #323338; font-family: Roboto, Rubik, 'Noto Kufi Arabic', 'Noto Sans JP', sans-serif; background-color: #ffffff; outline: none !important;"> <div class="embed" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: none !important;"><iframe class="embedly-embed" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px; border-style: initial; vertical-align: baseline; width: 619px; max-width: 100%; outline: none !important;" title="tiktok embed" src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tiktok.com%2Fembed%2Fv2%2F7176949431789505798&display_name=tiktok&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tiktok.com%2F%40royal_family_2022%2Fvideo%2F7176949431789505798%3Fis_copy_url%3D1%26is_from_webapp%3Dv1%26q%3DSusie%2520Ashfield%2520%26t%3D1671075706777&image=https%3A%2F%2Fp16-sign-va.tiktokcdn.com%2Fobj%2Ftos-maliva-p-0068%2F76ca61686cde4add87422c08f0ebf380_1671013766%3Fx-expires%3D1671094800%26x-signature%3Da9QorsOB83kO1sfr6MVMnQwclsE%253D&key=5b465a7e134d4f09b4e6901220de11f0&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=tiktok" width="340" height="700" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div> “But I really like speeches, which is why when somebody told me about some potential editing that might have happened on the Queen's 21st birthday speech. I had to check it out. “So let's play a game together. Spot the difference,” she said, before showing part of the Queen's unedited speech. “I should like to make that dedication now, it is very simple,” Queen Elizabeth II is heard saying. “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service, and to the service of our great Imperial family to which we all belong.” Susie then points out: “That was the original, unedited copy and the transcript reads the same. Now let's look at Harry and Meghan's version." The Queen’s voice is then heard saying: “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to the service of our great Imperial family to which we all belong. “Did you hear the difference?" asks Susie. "And did you notice how just removing a few words changes the meaning of the statement entirely?" The words 'to your service and' were edited out of the Queen's speech. “I don't know what the lesson to learn is here, but I suppose if you are going to be speaking and it will be recorded there is a chance you will get misquoted, your words might get taken out of context or in this case some part might be removed to change the meaning of the statement itself. “So try not to let that happen to you. And if it does happen to you, remember there will be some people out there who might notice.” Images: TikTok/Getty

Obese yet malnourished toddler mummy sheds light on life in 17th century aristocratic Austria

In a creepy discovery published, a collaboration of German scientists have performed a ‘virtual autopsy’ on a mummified toddler’s body, found in a 17th century Austrian crypt. Buried in a wooden coffin that was slightly too small and deformed the skull, the young child’s body appeared to be both obese and malnourished. Researchers say the findings might provide a rare insight into historical Austrian aristocratic society. By using CT scanning, scientists were able to perform a ‘virtual autopsy’ on the mummy which was naturally mummified in the conditions of the crypt. Well-preserved soft tissue showed the child was a boy, overweight for his age, and radiocarbon dating suggests a date of death between 1550 and 1635 CE. By examining the formation and length of the body’s bones, plus evidence of tooth eruption, the researchers were able to estimate that the child was about one year old when he died. The bones also showed that despite being well-fed, the boy was malnourished, with his malformed ribs displaying signs of rachitic rosary. This condition presents in a pattern of prominent bony knobs at points where the rib joins cartilage and results from diseases associated with specific vitamin deficiencies such as rickets (vitamin D) and scurvy (vitamin C). Vitamin D is found in foods like salmon, tuna, mackerel and beef liver and egg yolks, but we typically only get around 10% of our required Vitamin D from our diets – the rest is made by our bodies when exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) from the sun. “The combination of obesity along with a severe vitamin-deficiency can only be explained by a generally ‘good’ nutritional status along with an almost complete lack of sunlight exposure,” said Dr Andreas Nerlich of the Academic Clinic Munich-Bogenhausen and lead researcher. The child appears to have died from pneumonia, judging by the evidence of inflammation in the lungs. Rickets is known to make children more vulnerable to pneumonia, suggesting that, sadly, not only was the child malnourished, but that this condition may have also led to his untimely demise. “We have to reconsider the living conditions of high aristocratic infants of previous populations,” said Nerlich. Relatively little is known about aristocratic childhood in the late Renaissance period, so these mummified remains give key insights into life in Europe of a period generally known for its fervent creativity and intellectual development. “This is only one case,” said Nerlich, “but as we know that the early infant death rates generally were very high at that time, our observations may have considerable impact in the over-all life reconstruction of infants even in higher social classes.” To understand more about this period, researchers scoured historical records of the crypt and the family to whom the crypt belonged. Curiously, the child was buried in a simple, unmarked, wooden coffin, although he was dressed in an expensive silk hooded coat. The unmarked coffin appeared to have been slightly too small for the body such that the skull became deformed and was the only infant buried amongst the identifiable adult metal coffins in the crypt. Historical records of renovations on the crypt confirmed the radiocarbon dating, indicating the child was likely buried sometime after 1600 CE. The crypt belonged to the Counts of Starhemberg and traditionally was kept exclusively for the burial of heirs to their titles, and their wives, making the body likely to be that of the first-born (and only) son, Reichard Wilhelm, of Count Starhemberg. “We have no data on the fate of other infants of the family,” Nerlich said, regarding the unique burial. “According to our data, the infant was most probably [the count’s] first-born son after erection of the family crypt, so special care may have been applied.” This article originally appeared on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/toddler-mummy-17thcentury-austria/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Clare Kenyon. Image: Andreas et al. (2022)

Travel Trouble

7th century gold coins found hidden in wall

A collection of coins have been found concealed in a wall at a nature reserve in what has been described as an "extremely significant archaeological find". During an excavation at the Hermon Stream (Banias) in Israel, archaeologists found 44 gold coins dating back to the 7th century. Weighing in at about 170g, experts estimate that the hoard was hidden during the Muslim conquest in 635 CE. They say the discovery sheds light on this significant moment in history which saw the end of the Byzantine rule in the area. "We can imagine the owner concealing his fortune in the threat of war, hoping to return one day to retrieve his property," Yoav Lerer, the director of the excavation, told the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63122180" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BBC</a>. "In retrospect, we know that he was less fortunate." <img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/10/ancient-coins1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /> Numismatic (currency) expert Dr Gabriela Bijovsky of the Israel Antiquities Authority said some of the coins were minted by Emperor Phocas (602-610 CE), while the majority were of his successor, Emperor Heraclius, with the latest coins the latter minted dating back to 635 CE. Eli Escusido, the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said it was a significant find and that the public could soon see the coins for themselves. "The coin hoard is an extremely significant archaeological find as it dates back to an important transitional period in the history of the city of Banias and the entire region of the Levant," he said. "The Israel Antiquities Authority, together with the National Parks Authority, will work together to exhibit the treasure to the public." Along with the coins, Israeli authorities said the excavation also uncovered remains of buildings and bronze coins, as well as water channels and pipes. Images: Israel Antiquities Authority (Facebook)

Money & Banking

17th-century Polish ‘vampire’ found buried with sickle across neck

The remains of a woman found in a 17th-century graveyard in Poland are believed to be an example of an ‘anti-vampire’ burial after a sickle was also found placed across her neck to prevent her from rising from the dead. Dariusz Poliński, a professor at Nicholas Copernicus University, led the archaeological dig where the remains were uncovered, with the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11173505/Remains-VAMPIRE-pinned-ground-sickle-throat-Poland.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daily Mail</a> reporting that the skeleton was found wearing a silk cap and with a protruding front tooth. “The sickle was not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up… the head would have been cut off,” Professor Poliński told the outlet. According to the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/17th-century-poland-vampires-werent-boogeymen-out-town-girl-or-boy-next-door-180953476/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Smithsonian</a> magazine, Eastern Europeans reported fears of vampires and began treating their dead with anti-vampire rituals during the 11th century. By the 17th century, these practices were common across Poland in response to reports of a vampire outbreak, per <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/research-reveals-the-origin-of-poland-s-mysterious-vampires" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ScienceAlert</a>. <img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/09/skeleton-lady1.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /> The skeletal remains, pictured from above. Image: Łukasz Czyżewski, NCU Professor Poliński told the New York Post that there were other forms of protection to prevent vampires from returning from the dead, including cutting off limbs and using fire. “Other ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burning them, and smashing them with a stone,” he said. The skeleton’s toe was also padlocked, which Professor Poliński said likely symbolised “the closing of a stage and the impossibility of returning”. This isn’t the first time a ‘vampire’ has been discovered by archaeologists either. Matteo Borrini, a lecturer at Liverpool John Moore University, discovered the remains of a woman who died in the 16th century and was buried with a stone in her mouth in a mass grave with plague victims. He explained that outbreaks of ‘vampires’ were often associated with periods where people were dying from unknown causes at the time - such as pandemics or mass poisoning. “These ‘vampires’ start to hunt and kill family members first, then the neighbours, and then all the other villages,” he said. “This is the classical pattern of a disease that is contagious.” The most recent ‘vampire’ remains, which were dug up in August, are being further investigated by scientists. Image: Mirosław Blicharski

International Travel

Don’t look a GIF horse in the mouth: Short, shareable animations have been delighting humans for centuries

They are a popular feature of social media and text messaging in 2022, but many people are surprised to discover short sharable animations or videos, like GIFs have been around in digital format for 35 years, but in analogue for nearly two centuries. Today many have become internet memes, added for emphasis, and mostly played on continuous loop. GIFs (short for Graphics Interchange Format) Steve Wilhite, a computer scientist working at CompuServe is <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/brief-history-gif-early-internet-innovation-ubiquitous-relic-180963543/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">acknowledged as the creator</a> of the Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF in 1987. A GIF is a small image file that can support short animations or videos. GIFs work by stringing together several frames or images into a single file, which plays like a short clip. Compressed they are small file sizes; GIFs are easily shared on email and social media. While most can share in the delight of a well-chosen GIF, there is a long-running heated disagreement over how to pronounce the acronym, tracked <a href="https://time.com/5791028/how-to-pronounce-gif/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">by Time</a> (this COSMOS journalist had been pronouncing GIF with a hard ‘g’, while Wilhite apparently preferred the softer version, like ‘JIF’). But long before the GIF there were various forms of short sharable animation made in analogue. Here we flick through a few. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-giphy wp-block-embed-giphy"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> <div class="entry-content-asset"> <div class="embed-wrapper"> <div class="inner"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/08/giphy1.gif" alt="" width="500" height="337" /></div> </div> </div> </div><figcaption>Ghost GIF / Credit: Matthias Brown</figcaption></figure> Thaumatropes (from the Greek for ‘wonder turner’) Dating back as early as 1827, a thaumatrope is a two-sided disc which creates a simple animation when spun. The device is a disc with different but related pictures on each side and strings attached at opposite ends. When those strings are wound up tightly, and then released, the disc spins creating a simple animation. While the idea was described and popularised by John Ayrton Paris, the inventor of this wonder turner is not known. Phenakistoscopes (from the Greek for ‘deceitful viewer’) <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p202287-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> <form class="wpcf7-form mailchimp-ext-0.5.62 spai-bg-prepared init" action="/technology/computing/dont-look-a-gif-horse-in-the-mouth/#wpcf7-f6-p202287-o1" method="post" novalidate="novalidate" data-status="init"> <input class="wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-text referer-page" name="referer-page" type="hidden" value="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/" data-value="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/" aria-invalid="false" /> </form> </div> </div> In 1832 an analogue form of the modern GIF was made by spinning a circular card on its centre. In that year, two scientists Joseph Plateau from Belgium and Simon von Stampfer from Austria independently created looping animations called phenakistoscopes. The phenakistoscope creates the illusion of moving images by slicing the circle into segments and placing a sequential image at slightly shifting locations within each slice, using vector graphics. Each slice of the circle acts like a frame in an animation. Between each slice is a black radial slit. When the circle is spun on its centre, and its reflection viewed using a mirror, the effect creates the illusion of smoothly moving images like a short, repeating video. Zoetropes (from the Greek for ‘life turn’) Two years later, mathematician William Horner <a href="https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/2908" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">created the zoetrope</a>, an idea based on the phenakistoscope but able to be viewed by more than one person at a time. A larger cylinder like a drum has slits cut into the sides for viewing. Strips of sequential images spin inside the cylinder so that the viewer sees one after the other. The technology was popularised by American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, Milton Bradley in 1866 who sold zoetropes as a toy with replaceable picture strips. Several animation studios have built three-dimensional versions of the zoetrope using sequentially posed figurines instead of pictures. Visitors to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne can experience a <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/acmis-cuphead-zoetrope-cool/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">3D zoetrope</a> of video game character Cuphead. Meanwhile visitors to the <a href="https://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ghibli Museum</a> in Tokyo, can see a zoetrope of skipping and running totoros built using figurines from the Studio Ghibli movie My Neighbour Totoro. Find out more about phenakistoscopes and GIFs on the 2022 SCINEMA International Science Film Festival For more on the history and science of the phenakistoscope (and instructions on how to make one) watch the 2022 SCINEMA International Science Film festival entry, Animated GIFS: Celebrating Scientific Genius, by <a href="https://scinema.org.au/register" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">registering</a> to view it for free on the SCINEMA website. Follow the prompts on the email you receive and you’ll find Animated GIFS: Celebrating Scientific Genius in the Animation / Experimental playlist. You can watch all the films until August 31 2022 when the festival ends. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-photo is-provider-giphy wp-block-embed-giphy"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> <div class="entry-content-asset"> <div class="embed-wrapper"> <div class="inner"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/08/giphy-1.gif" alt="" width="480" height="480" /></div> </div> </div> </div><figcaption>GIF based on a phenakistoscope / Credit: Sanni Lahtinen on GIPHY</figcaption></figure>  <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=202287&title=Don%26%238217%3Bt+look+a+GIF+horse+in+the+mouth%3A+short%2C+shareable+animations+have+been+delighting+humans+for+centuries" width="1" height="1" />  <div id="contributors"> <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/computing/dont-look-a-gif-horse-in-the-mouth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/petra-stock" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Petra Stock</a>. Petra Stock has a degree in environmental engineering and a Masters in Journalism from University of Melbourne. She has previously worked as a climate and energy analyst. Image: Getty Images </div>

Technology

Chloé: how a 19th-century French nude ended up in a Melbourne pub – and became an icon for Australian soldiers

Chloé, the French nude by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Joseph_Lefebvre">Jules Joseph Lefebvre</a>, is an Australian cultural icon. Chloé made its debut at the 1875 Paris Salon and won medals at the 1879 Sydney and 1880 Melbourne international exhibitions. In December 1880, Thomas Fitzgerald, a Melbourne surgeon, bought Chloé for his private collection. Two years later, when Fitzgerald loaned Chloé to the National Gallery of Victoria, a furious debate erupted in the press. Public opinion was <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/224814361">sharply divided</a> over the propriety of displaying a French nude painting on the Sabbath. Chloé spent the next three years at the Adelaide Picture Gallery, before Fitzgerald <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/94392855">removed her</a> from the public gaze. After the surgeon’s death in 1908, Henry Figsby Young bought Chloé for £800 and hung the famous nude in the saloon bar of Young and Jackson Hotel, opposite Flinders Street Station in Melbourne. Enjoying a drink with Chloé at the hotel has been a good luck ritual for Australian soldiers since the first world war. <h2>Longing for her lover</h2> According to the 1875 Paris Salon catalogue, Chloé depicts the water nymph in “Mnasyle et Chloé” by 18th century poet martyr <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Ch%C3%A9nier">André Chénier</a>. Toes dipped in a puddling stream, longing and heartache etched on her lovely features, she listens for the voice of her lover. Chloé was created in the winter of 1874-75. France was still rebuilding after its defeat in the <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/the-franco-prussian-war-150-years-on">Franco Prussian War</a> and the Versailles government’s brutal repression of the revolutionary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWrnGZ_975I">Paris Commune</a>. Newspapers in France and around the world described women who supported the Commune as lethal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A9troleuses">pétroleuses</a>, or petrol carriers. The women were often blamed for destructive acts of arson carried out by Versailles troops during <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/paris-communes-bloody-week">The Bloody Week</a>. <a href="https://index-journal.org/issues/identity/evanescence-of-an-artist-s-model-by-katrina-kell">Jules Lefebvre claimed</a> his working class model for Chloé was involved with former Communards. She may have fought alongside other girls and women, and witnessed the widespread bloodshed that stained the streets of Paris red in 1871. This volatile chapter in French history has been absent from <a href="https://index-journal.org/issues/identity/evanescence-of-an-artist-s-model-by-katrina-kell">Chloé mythologies</a>. But Chloé was painted in the wake of war and revolution and of women’s inspiring activism, as women challenged the class and gender barriers that had limited their opportunities. <h2>Chloé and the Australian soldier</h2> The ritual of having a drink with Chloé at Young and Jackson Hotel, opposite <a href="https://heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/get-involved/tours/melbourne-at-war-hidden-histories-1914-18-audio-tour/melbourne-at-war-stop-2a/">Melbourne’s busiest railway station</a>, began after <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article89096318">Private A. P. Hill</a>, who was killed in action, put a message in a bottle and tossed it overboard. When the bottle was found in New Zealand in January 1918, his message read, "To the finder of this bottle. Take it to Young and Jackson’s, fill it, and keep it till we return from the war." The <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article148561880">hotel and Chloé</a> proved irresistible for returning soldiers. By the start of the second world war, Chloé and Young and Jackson’s were so enmeshed in military mythology they were included in the 2/21st Australian Infantry Battalion’s <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11305333">official march song</a>: "Good-by Young and Jackson’s, Farewell Chloé too, It’s a long way to Bonegilla, But we’ll get there on stew." Tragically, on February 2 1942, the B and C Companies of the 2/21st Australian Infantry Battalion were massacred by Japanese forces at Laha Airfield on the Indonesian island of Ambon. Those who weren’t killed became prisoners of war. After Japan’s surrender in 1945, the Australian prisoners’ hopes for liberation were frustrated when Japanese officers refused to give them radio access. When they finally got a radio transmitter their SOS message was received on the neighbouring island of Morotai. The men were asked questions to prove they were “dinki-di Aussies”. One of the first questions Melbourne soldier John Van Nooten <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23494802-ambon">was asked was</a> “how would you like to see Chloé again?” When Van Nooten replied “Lead me to her”, the operator asked “where is she?” Van Nooten responded with Young and Jackson’s, finally convincing the operator he was Australian. <h2>A soldier’s consolation</h2> In his 1945 article <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/38559150">Seein’ Chloé</a>, West Australian journalist Peter Graeme claimed, "Chloé is to Melbourne what the Bridge is to Sydney. From the soldier’s point of view of course. All over Australia you meet men who have seen her […] Chloé belongs to the Australian soldier." Graeme recalled meeting a soldier at Young and Jackson’s who drained three drinks in front of Chloé. When he asked the soldier why he drank the beers in quick succession, the soldier said he was honouring a promise he and two mates had made to Chloé. The three of them had pledged to have a drink with her when they returned to Melbourne. His two friends never returned, buried at Scarlet Beach in New Guinea. As Graeme concluded in his poignant tale, Chloé may have been, "the symbol of the feminine side of his life. That part which he puts away from him, except in his inarticulate dreams." The soldier’s grief for the mates he lost, and the comfort drinking with the painting gave him, seems to resonate with the longing in Chloé’s melancholy expression, and the war-torn history behind this celebrated Melbourne icon. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared in <a href="https://theconversation.com/chloe-how-a-19th-century-french-nude-ended-up-in-a-melbourne-pub-and-became-an-icon-for-australian-soldiers-180032" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation. </a>

Art

Century-old theatre for sale

A charming 20th-century former theatre in the bucolic town of Scottsdale in Tasmania has been listed for sale with an asking price on the lower side, at $495,000. The enchanting vintage style building is constructed from solid concrete and was built in 1924. According to reports, it was claimed to be the nicest theatre of any country town in Australia at the time. It's been many, many moons since that proclamation was made, though, and the theatre has since fallen into a semi-derelict state. Aside from a small office jutting out of its left side, the grand structure has sat dormant for years, changing ownership several times over the past three decades. As a result of this, the historic dwelling is now what is referred to as a fixer-upper. The most notable room for improvement is the main hall, which is definitely in need of some attention. For example, the floor has sunken quite badly and needs some serious work to rectify the safety issue. How did the floors get so bad? Well, according to Scottsdale's North Eastern Advertiser, a previous owner used the beautiful building as a bottle shop and would drive a forklift back and forth across the century-old deck. Not only does it have forklift damage, but someone has purposefully lit a fire inside at one point which added further damages. However, it's not all bad news. The ceiling still retains much of its art deco styling, and that small office is currently tenanted. The theatre has also had its roof refurbished recently, and with quite a lot of love, we can imagine the Lyric becoming a popular tourist attraction, or maybe even a quaint, boutique hotel. Regardless of its many faults, anything of this size and potential in the current property market seems like a certifiable bargain. Good luck to the new owners! Images: Domain.com.au

Real Estate

Life Savers celebrates a century with new range of treats

Shoppers across the country are in for a treat, with a brand new range from one of Australia’s favourite lolly brands hitting the shelves. Life Savers, the star of many an Aussie childhood, is celebrating its 100th birthday with a new selection of confectionaries and chocolate treats. Those who enjoy a tingly kick can try the new Life Savers STIX Sherbert Fizz, featuring soft and tangy raspberry or green apple flavoured tubes with a fizzy sherbet centre. There’s also the Life Savers STIX Mixed Sherbert Fizz with green apple, raspberry and tropical flavoured tubes. “Joining the party and sweetening the deal are the new Life Savers 5 Flavours Jelly Beans with the classic five flavours that have stood the test of time, including juicy raspberry, pineapple, orange, watermelon, and blackcurrant flavour — and the Life Savers Gummy Rings Duo,” Aimee Cutajar, senior marketing manager at Life Savers said. “And it doesn’t stop here. Also joining the Life Savers family on shelves nationwide are Life Savers Blackcurrant Pastilles, Fruit Pastilles Bags, Fruit Tingles Bags and Fruit Tingles Chocolate Balls.” Ms Cutajar said for those who prefer to indulge in something creamy and smooth, Life Savers has reinvented its classic Fruit Tingles with the new Life Savers Fruit Tingles & Raspberry Jellies Milk Chocolate Block. “Made with creamy Darrell Lea Milk Chocolate, this new kid around the block is jam packed with soft, chewy raspberry jellies, alongside crunchy and tingling Fruit Tingles. The new block is guaranteed 100 per cent palm oil-free and all chocolate is made using 100 per cent sustainably sourced cocoa.” Ms Cutajar confirmed there won’t be any changes to the traditional Life Savers range. Images: News.com.au

Food & Wine

“Prince Charles wasn’t happy”: Royal cake-maker spills on Charles and Diana’s wedding creation

Dave Avery, the man who designed and made Prince Charles and Diana's wedding cake for their big day, has revealed it was the prince who called him to make changes to the design – after Diana had approved it. The head baker of the Royal Naval Cookery School, Avery designed the couple's five-tier fruit cake which stood at 165cm for the July wedding 40 years ago in 1981. Avery, then 37, had been selected to bake the royal wedding cake – an auspicious task but one that he was more than capable of. Avery, now 78, told 9Honey via Zoom from the UK, he still clearly remembers walking into Buckingham Palace for his first meeting with Princess Diana – known at the time as ‘Lady Di.’ “I’ll never forget it," says Avery. "She was beautiful. She was very pleasant, very polite, we had a few little chats.” Avery had been given the task of designing the wedding cake and he’d gone to the palace to show his plans to Diana. She had approved the designs with no changes but when Avery arrived back at the Royal Navy Cookery School in Chatham, he received word from the palace that Prince Charles was not happy. "I got a phone call that Prince Charles wasn't happy," says Avery. But thankfully, it wasn't a criticism but rather – something the Prince wanted added. "We hadn't put on the Red Dragon," says Avery. Once we added the Red Dragon symbol of Wales, which was Prince Charles' call sign when he was flying helicopters with the Navy, the Prince was happy. The cake’s design included hand-painted symbols representing Prince Charles' military roles, the Prince of Wales emblem, St Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace and Highgrove – one of which took eight hours to complete. How big was this Wedding Cake of the Century? The five-tier cake stood at 165cm and took some time to bake with the bottom tier alone taking Avery 12 hours. As well, Avery used a spirit level and set square to ensure the dimensions were perfect. He was sworn to secrecy during the 14-week process of designing and making the cake and says the pressure was on to get everything perfect: "If there was anything wrong, the whole world would have known about it, not just me," he says. When it came to the baking of the cake, Avery turned to a favourite recipe he had from his mother for a rich fruit cake. "But I had to take things out and add things in to improve it. I had worked on that recipe for up to five years until I got it absolutely perfect." As perfect as it is, Avery says he won’t be sharing this recipe: “I’ve been asked many times, but no,” he adds. The Wedding of the Century 2021 marks 40 years since Prince Charles married Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral on July 29th - a wedding which drew a global television audience of more than 750 million people. A new documentary has been made to mark the occasion which will screen on BritBox Australia, aptly titled Wedding of the Century. The original documentary includes remastered footage of the wedding plus never-before-seen interviews with those closely involved in the wedding planning, including the florist and one of the photographers. Was it all successful? After the wedding, Avery received a letter from the new Prince and Princess of Wales saying "how thrilled they were with the cake." They even saved the second tier to use at Prince William's christening on August 4th, 1982. Diana loved Avery's work so much she asked him to make William's first birthday cake, too, "a sponge with nursery rhymes around it.” These days Avery has retired from the Royal Navy after serving for 22 years. He went on to open a cake shop, baking wedding cakes (naturally) before going back into teaching. As Avery says: "It's the wedding of the century, it's the cake of the century.” Image: Getty Images

Food & Wine

Jamie Oliver's wife shares hilarious post to mark couple's 21st anniversary

Jamie Oliver's wife, Jools, has paid tribute to her husband of over two decades in a social media post. To mark the couple's 21st wedding anniversary, the mum-of-five shared a photo of herself in her wedding dress followed by a hilarious video, apologising for what the celebrity chef has had to put up with since the big day. "What you thought you were getting….what you actually got," Jools captioned the Instagram post. <blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CQfv4_HNX6U/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="13" 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:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:16px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CQfv4_HNX6U/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"> <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;"><svg width="50px" height="50px" viewBox="0 0 60 60" version="1.1" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><g stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"><g transform="translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)" fill="#000000"><g><path d="M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631"></path></g></g></g></svg></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></a><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 href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CQfv4_HNX6U/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Jools Oliver (@joolsoliver)</a></div></blockquote> <script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script> "Thank you for loving me just the way I am!!!! You now have 5 bonkers children who secretly all take after me when it comes to a kitchen dance off," she joked. "Love you so much my absolute legend husband!" After thanking her wedding dress designer Neil Cunningham, the blogger says wistfully: "wish we could go back 21 years and do it again". The couple first met when they were just teenagers and tied the knot on June 24, 2000, at All Saints Church in Essex, when they were both 25. They'd known each other almost a decade before the big day, having met on a double date when they were 17. "It was a double date, I had my Fiesta with lowered suspension and a sound system," The Naked Chef star said in a 2012 episode of talk show Chatty Man with Alan Carr. "We were driving there that night and then I went smashing into the back of another car. "[Jools] felt sorry for me. She thought 'the way he drives, he needs support in life'." The couple have gone on to have five kids together — Poppy, 19; Daisy, 18; Petal, 12; Buddy, 10; and River, four.

Relationships

Climate change is the most important mission for universities of the 21st century

Universities are confronting the possibility of <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/3392469/Australian-Universities-COVID-19-Financial-Management.pdf">profound sector-wide transformation</a> due to the continuing effects of COVID-19. It is prompting much needed debate about what such transformation should look like and what kind of system is in the public interest. This is now an urgent conversation. If universities want a say in what the future of higher education will look like, they will need to generate ideas quickly and in a way that attracts wide public support. This will involve articulating their unique role as embedded, future-regarding, ethical generators of crucial knowledge and skills, well-equipped to handle coming contingencies and helping others do the same. And this means higher education changes are entangled with another major force for transformation – climate change. How can universities credibly claim to be preparing young people for their futures, or to be working with employers, if they do not take into account the kind of world they are helping to bring about? A vital role in a climate changed world Whether indexed by the continual climb in <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heat-and-humidity-are-already-reaching-the-limits-of-human-tolerance/">extreme heat and humidity</a>, the <a href="http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/">melting of Arctic ice</a>, the eruption of <a href="https://www.science.org.au/news-and-events/news-and-media-releases/australian-bushfires-why-they-are-unprecedented">unprecedented mega-fire events</a> or the <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/">rapid degradation of ecosystems</a> and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/05/26/2008198117">disruption of human settlements</a>, climate change is here. It is rapidly exacerbating environmental and social stress across the globe, as well as directly and indirectly impacting all institutions and areas of life. And worse still, global greenhouse gas concentrations are moving in exactly the opposite direction to what we need, with <a href="https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy.html">carbon emissions growing by 2.0% in 2019, the fastest growth for seven years</a>. Much-needed transitions towards low carbon and well-adapted systems are emerging. But they are too piecemeal and slow relative to what is needed to avoid large scale <a href="https://www.deepsouthchallenge.co.nz/projects/climate-change-cascade-effect">cascading</a> and <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/compound-costs-how-climate-change-damages-australias-economy/">compounding impacts to our planet</a>. Universities, along with all other parts of our society, will feel the effects of climate change. The cost of the devastation at the Australian National University due to the summer’s fires and hailstorm, for instance, is estimated to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-27/coronavirus-hail-bushfires-cause-225m-loss-at-anu/12290522">be A$75 million dollars</a>. Failure to appropriately adapt to the increasing likelihood of such events <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0715-2">threatens to undermine research of all sorts</a>. Whether due to climate impacts (such as <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/09/06/npr-coastal-labs-studying-increased-flooding-consider-moving-due-to-increased-floodin">the effects of sea level rise on coastal laboratories</a>) or policy and market shifts away from carbon-intensive activities (such as coal powered energy), research investments face the risk of becoming <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-stranded-assets-matter-and-should-not-be-dismissed-51939">stranded assets</a>. Not only could expensive infrastructure and equipment be rendered redundant, but certain skills, capabilities and projects could too. Universities are key to enabling Australian society to transition to a safer and lower emissions pathway. They are needed to provide the knowledge, skills and technologies for this positive transition. And they are also needed to <a href="https://climateoutreach.org/system-change-vs-behaviour-change-is-a-false-choice-covid-19-shows-how-theyre-connected/">foster the social dialogue and build the broad public mandate</a> to get there. This means old ideas of universities as isolated and values-free zones, and newer notions of them as cheap consultants to the private sector, fundamentally fail to fulfil the role universities now need to play. They must become public good, mission-driven organisations devoted to rapidly progressing human understanding and action on the largest threat there has ever been, to what they are taken to represent and advance – human civilisation. Universities must become more sustainable… Inaction will erode the trust on which universities rely, especially among the key constituencies universities are meant to serve – young people and the private, community and public sectors. <a href="https://globalclimatestrike.net/">Students</a>, <a href="https://www.asyousow.org/report/clean200-2019-q1">businesses</a>, <a href="https://en.unesco.org/events/climate-change-and-ngos-eight-international-forum-ngos-official-partnership-unesco">not-for-profit organisations</a> and certain <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/09/climate-change-report-card-co2-emissions/">governments</a> are already acting far more forcefully than universities, even as the latter claim to be intellectual leaders. Who universities invest in, fund, partner with and teach, and how, will increasingly be judged through a climate change lens. All actors in the fossil fuel value chain – including <a href="https://www.marketforces.org.au/marsh-mclennan-present-greenwash-at-agm/">insurance brokers</a> and <a href="https://gofossilfree.org/australia/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/09/ExposeTheTies_digital.pdf?_ga=2.89096216.248025022.1590905170-1969762787.1590905170">researchers</a> – are coming under pressure to stop facilitating a form of production that enriches a few while endangering all. Networks such as the <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/03/universities-form-global-network-climate-change">International Universities Climate Alliance</a>, the <a href="http://www.gauc.net/about/about.html">Global Alliance of Universities on Climate</a> and <a href="https://www.acts.asn.au/">Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability</a> are pushing for change in and by the sector. In 2019, <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20190710141435609">three global university networks organised an open letter</a> signed by more than 7,000 higher and further education institutions. It called for the sector to reduce emissions and invest in climate change research, teaching and outreach. Even more have signed the <a href="https://www.sdgaccord.org/climateletter">SDG (sustainable development goals) Accord’s climate emergency declaration</a>, which calls for: <ul> <li>mobilising more resources for action-oriented climate change research and skills creation</li> <li>committing to going carbon neutral by 2030 or 2050 at the very latest</li> <li>increasing the delivery of environmental and sustainability education across curriculum, campus and community outreach programs.</li> </ul> Some universities are already starting to build aspects of climate change into their operations. Most prominent have been efforts to divest university finances from direct support of fossil fuels. While some institutions are still dragging their feet, the University of California has announced it will <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-19/uc-fossil-fuel-divest-climate-change">fully divest </a> its US$126 billion endowment from fossil fuels. Pressure is similarly growing for <a href="https://unisuperdivest.org/">Unisuper to stop investing</a> Australian university staff superannuation into corporations that endanger the very future staff are saving for. University campuses are being refigured as sites of energy production and consumption. <a href="https://www.strathmore.edu/serc/">Strathmore University in Kenya </a>and <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2019/nov/rmit-leads-the-way-on-renewable-energy">RMIT University in Australia</a> are among those who produce their own renewable energy. Although <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-universities-are-not-walking-the-talk-on-going-low-carbon-72411">few universities are working towards absolute reductions in emissions</a>, or have appropriate climate adaptation plans, initiatives such as the <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/top-universities-climate-action">Times Higher Education Impact Index</a> are increasing interest in visible climate action. … and they must change teaching and research Teaching and research too must change. University students can <a href="https://study.curtin.edu.au/offering/course-pg-masters-of-environment-and-climate-emergency--mc-envclm/">choose programs and optional modules dedicated to climate change</a>. But this isn’t enough. Climate change has to be integrated in all disciplines. It is essential universities do not quarantine climate change as some kind of specialist topic. A <a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/full/10.5465/amp.2018.0183.summary">recent analysis of management studies</a> found a profound lack of engagement across the discipline with the implications of climate change. As Cornell University’s Professor of Engineering Anthony Ingraffea argues, when it comes to educating the future generation, <a href="https://www.enr.com/articles/48389-a-call-to-action-for-engineers-on-climate-change">“doing the right thing on climate change should be baked into an engineer’s DNA”</a>. This means recognising the strong overlap between work that has instrumental value for climate change action and work that celebrates the intrinsic value of human understanding. The intellectual and social challenges presented by climate change are perhaps the greatest justification yet for why we need open-minded, open-ended exploration and dialogue of the sort universities can provide. Universities produce the knowledge galvanising others to act. It is time for them to act too. It is time for all of us who work in or with universities to reappraise our institutions in light of the changes needed, the changes coming, and the changes already here. This is the public mission of universities in the 21st century. And it is the most pressing mission there is. Written by Lauren Richards and Tamson Pietsch. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-the-most-important-mission-for-universities-of-the-21st-century-139214">The Conversation.</a>

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