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Where did money come from?

<div class="theconversation-article-body"> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/steven-hail-1302961">Steve<em>n Hail</em></a><em>, <a href="https://www.torrens.edu.au/">Torrens University Australia</a></em></p> <p>For the most part, economists continue to believe a story of money told to generations of students by a series of textbooks over the past 150 years.</p> <p>This story asks us to imagine a pre-monetary barter economy, where people bought goods and services by trading them for other goods and services.</p> <p>Eventually a suitable commodity – perhaps gold or silver – emerged as both an acceptable means of exchange for conducting trade and a convenient unit of account for expressing value.</p> <p>Later, coins were issued – eventually to be monopolised by governments – and later still paper money, credit, and banking systems.</p> <p>The problem with this story is that there is no historical evidence to support it. As was <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2802221?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">noted</a> by prominent anthropologist Caroline Humphreys:</p> <blockquote> <p>No example of a barter economy, pure and simple, has ever been described, let alone the emergence from it of money … all available ethnography suggests that there has never been such a thing.</p> </blockquote> <p>So where did money come from exactly? One difficulty we face is that writing about money – what gives it value, and how monetary systems work – is not something young economists are generally encouraged to do.</p> <p>As a consequence, among the best articles ever written about money are two now more than 100 years old by British economist Alfred Mitchell-Innes, entitled “<a href="https://www.community-exchange.org/docs/what%20is%20money.htm">What is Money</a>?” and “<a href="https://cooperative-individualism.org/innes-a-mitchell_credit-theory-of-money-1914-dec-jan.pdf">The Credit Theory of Money</a>”.</p> <p>These papers, until recently almost completely ignored by the economics profession, tell a different story, rejecting the idea that money evolved naturally from barter.</p> <p>We can now be confident this version is closer to the truth. And it has big implications for how we think about the role of governments within monetary systems, and what gives money value. Acknowledging the true story of money would force a paradigm shift among economists – no wonder a lot of them don’t want to think about it.</p> <h2>Actually, early governments invented money</h2> <p>The truth is that money predates markets. <a href="https://youtu.be/7cLDFjTt4Bs?si=fDTafcZD_u1S23kD">Governments invented money</a> – it did not emerge independently from pre-existing barter systems.</p> <p>Market economies simply could not develop until money existed. For much of history, the currency tokens people regarded as money had little or no intrinsic value, taking the form of clay tablets, hazelwood tally sticks, base metals, shells or paper.</p> <p>The earliest forms of what Keynes called “modern money” – to distinguish it from gift tokens used for ceremonial purposes in communal groups – go back to the origins of taxation, accounting, and even literacy and numeracy. These early currencies were units of account used to assess the tributes that had to be paid to early governmental institutions in the Middle East.</p> <p>The word shekel is still used as a currency unit, but dates to ancient Babylon and the emergence of money itself, over 5,000 years ago.</p> <p>The idea that the need to pay taxes is what creates a demand for a currency was well understood by colonial governments. They knew how to introduce their currencies into countries they had invaded. To force locals to supply labour or goods to the government, they imposed a tax liability – often, a hut tax. This tax could only be paid using the currency of the colony.</p> <p>Locals had to either work for the colonial government or supply goods to others who did, else they wouldn’t have the specific currency needed to pay taxes. This created a demand for the colonial power’s currency, which the government could then spend.</p> <p>If such a government spent more overall than it withdrew in taxation – running a budget deficit – the community could add the remaining currency to its savings. Taxation and the legal system created a demand for the government’s money and provided the impetus for the development of a monetary economy.</p> <p>Even today, it’s the tax system that drives the monetary system. Demand for a government’s money is guaranteed because people need it to pay federal taxes.</p> <h2>But banks create money too</h2> <p>Actual physical cash makes up a tiny proportion of the money in circulation. Most of what we regard as money is held in our bank deposits, effectively a bunch of numbers on a ledger. Most of these bank deposits are created by banks when they make loans to us, and this is not government money at all – it is private money, created by the banks themselves.</p> <p>When a bank makes a loan to you, that loan becomes an <em>asset</em> for the bank, because you have to pay it back with interest. But at the same time, the loan appears as a deposit of funds in your account, which is a <em>liability</em> for the bank. Technically, you both owe each other.</p> <p>On paper, this means there’s now money in the system that wasn’t there before. The bank hasn’t actually lent you someone else’s money, the loan deposited in your account represents the bank’s IOU to you.</p> <p>Both the loan and the deposit are created by the bank, using nothing more than a computer keyboard. The bank has promised to use its holdings of government money to make payments on your behalf, including tax payments to the government, or to provide you with government money in the form of physical cash.</p> <p>As economist Hyman Minsky once said, “anyone can create money – the problem lies in getting it accepted”.</p> <p>Obviously, private banks don’t issue government currency. The Commonwealth government and its agent, the Reserve Bank of Australia, sit at the top of our own monetary system.</p> <p>Government-issued currency will always have value because it’s the unit of account needed to assess and pay our taxes. How much value the currency holds depends on how much the economy produces, how difficult it is to obtain the currency and on how much tax we have to pay.</p> <p>Here is some food for thought. If we accept that money and markets did not emerge naturally but had to be created by governmental institutions and legal systems, this means that there is no such thing as a genuinely free market, no such thing as a natural rate of unemployment, and no such thing as a natural distribution of income and wealth.</p> <p>The theory that money emerged naturally in the private sector encourages people to believe that free markets are natural systems in which governments only interfere. But in truth, early governments invented the very institutions of money and markets, and the regulatory frameworks that determined how those markets work and in whose interests.</p> <p>Exchange economies have always depended on systems of law and they always will. The more pertinent question concerns who writes those laws – and in whose interests those regulations are applied.</p> <hr /> <p><em>Correction: This article has been amended to reflect that a loan deposit represents a bank’s IOU to the customer, not to a bank’s other customers, as originally reported.</em><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/229481/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <hr /> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/steven-hail-1302961"><em>Steven Hail</em></a><em>, Associate Professor, <a href="https://www.torrens.edu.au/">Torrens University Australia</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-did-money-come-from-229481">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Money & Banking

Kick up your heels – ballroom dancing offers benefits to the aging brain and could help stave off dementia

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/helena-blumen-1231899">Helena Blumen</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/albert-einstein-college-of-medicine-3638">Albert Einstein College of Medicine</a></em></p> <h2>The big idea</h2> <p>Social ballroom dancing can improve cognitive functions and reduce brain atrophy in older adults who are at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. That’s the key finding of my team’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/japa.2022-0176">recently published study</a> in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity.</p> <p>In our study, we enrolled 25 adults over 65 years of age in either six months of twice-weekly ballroom dancing classes or six months of twice-weekly treadmill walking classes. None of them were engaged in formal dancing or other exercise programs.</p> <p>The overall goal was to see how each experience affected cognitive function and brain health.</p> <p>While none of the study volunteers had a dementia diagnosis, all performed a bit lower than expected on at least one of our dementia screening tests. We found that older adults that completed six months of social dancing and those that completed six months of treadmill walking improved their executive functioning – an umbrella term for planning, reasoning and processing tasks that require attention.</p> <p>Dancing, however, generated significantly greater improvements than treadmill walking on one measure of executive function and on processing speed, which is the time it takes to respond to or process information. Compared with walking, dancing was also associated with reduced brain atrophy in the hippocampus – a brain region that is key to memory functioning and is particularly affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers also know that this part of our brain can undergo neurogenesis – or grow new neurons – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0611721104">in response to aerobic exercise</a>.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/unmbhUvnGow?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">Research shows those who regularly dance with a partner have a more positive outlook on life.</span></figcaption></figure> <p>While several previous studies suggest that dancing has beneficial effects <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afaa270">on cognitive function in older adults</a>, only a few studies have compared it directly with traditional exercises. Our study is the first to observe both better cognitive function and improved brain health following dancing than walking in older adults at risk for dementia. We think that social dancing may be more beneficial than walking because it is physically, socially and cognitively demanding – and therefore strengthens a wide network of brain regions.</p> <p>While dancing, you’re not only using brain regions that are important for physical movement. You’re also relying on brain regions that are important for interacting and adapting to the movements of your dancing partner, as well as those necessary for learning new dance steps or remembering those you’ve learned already.</p> <h2>Why it matters</h2> <p>Nearly 6 million older adults in the U.S. and 55 million worldwide <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2019.01.010">have Alzheimer’s disease</a> or a <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia">related dementia</a>, yet there is no cure. Sadly, the efficacy and ethics surrounding recently developed drug treatments <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2022.2129858">are still under debate</a>.</p> <p>The good news is that older adults can potentially <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30367-6">lower their risk for dementia</a> through lifestyle interventions, even later in life. These include reducing social isolation and physical inactivity.</p> <p>Social ballroom dancing targets both isolation and inactivity. In these later stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a better understanding of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23337214211005223">indirect effects of COVID-19</a> – particularly those that increase dementia risk, such as social isolation – is urgently needed. In my view, early intervention is critical to prevent dementia from becoming the next pandemic. Social dancing could be a particularly timely way to overcome the adverse cognitive and brain effects associated with isolation and fewer social interactions during the pandemic.</p> <h2>What still isn’t known</h2> <p>Traditional aerobic exercise interventions such as treadmill-walking or running have been shown to lead to modest but reliable improvements in cognition – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617707316">particularly in executive function</a>.</p> <p>My team’s study builds on that research and provides preliminary evidence that not all exercise is equal when it comes to brain health. Yet our sample size was quite small, and larger studies are needed to confirm these initial findings. Additional studies are also needed to determine the optimal length, frequency and intensity of dancing classes that may result in positive changes.</p> <p>Lifestyle interventions like social ballroom dancing are a promising, noninvasive and cost-effective path toward staving off dementia as we – eventually – leave the COVID-19 pandemic behind.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194969/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/helena-blumen-1231899">Helena Blumen</a>, Associate Professor of Medicine and Neurology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/albert-einstein-college-of-medicine-3638">Albert Einstein College of Medicine</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/kick-up-your-heels-ballroom-dancing-offers-benefits-to-the-aging-brain-and-could-help-stave-off-dementia-194969">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Mind

Terminal lucidity: why do loved ones with dementia sometimes ‘come back’ before death?

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/yen-ying-lim-355185">Yen Ying Lim</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/monash-university-1065">Monash University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/diny-thomson-1519736">Diny Thomson</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/monash-university-1065">Monash University</a></em></p> <p>Dementia is often described as “the long goodbye”. Although the person is still alive, dementia slowly and irreversibly chips away at their memories and the qualities that make someone “them”.</p> <p>Dementia eventually takes away the person’s ability to communicate, eat and drink on their own, understand where they are, and recognise family members.</p> <p>Since as early as the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21764150/">19th century</a>, stories from loved ones, caregivers and health-care workers have described some people with dementia suddenly becoming lucid. They have described the person engaging in meaningful conversation, sharing memories that were assumed to have been lost, making jokes, and even requesting meals.</p> <p>It is estimated <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20010032/">43% of people</a> who experience this brief lucidity die within 24 hours, and 84% within a week.</p> <p>Why does this happen?</p> <h2>Terminal lucidity or paradoxical lucidity?</h2> <p>In 2009, researchers Michael Nahm and Bruce Greyson coined the term “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21764150/">terminal lucidity</a>”, since these lucid episodes often occurred shortly before death.</p> <p>But not all lucid episodes indicate death is imminent. <a href="https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.13667">One study</a> found many people with advanced dementia will show brief glimmers of their old selves more than six months before death.</p> <p>Lucidity has also been <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167494311001865?via%3Dihub">reported</a> in other conditions that affect the brain or thinking skills, such as meningitis, schizophrenia, and in people with brain tumours or who have sustained a brain injury.</p> <p>Moments of lucidity that do not necessarily indicate death are sometimes called <a href="https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.12579">paradoxical lucidity</a>. It is considered paradoxical as it defies the expected course of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia.</p> <p>But it’s important to note these episodes of lucidity are temporary and sadly do not represent a reversal of neurodegenerative disease.</p> <h2>Why does terminal lucidity happen?</h2> <p>Scientists have struggled to explain why terminal lucidity happens. Some episodes of lucidity have been reported to occur in the presence of loved ones. Others have reported that <a href="https://psywb.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s13612-014-0024-5">music can sometimes improve lucidity</a>. But many episodes of lucidity do not have a distinct trigger.</p> <p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300957223002162">A research team from New York University</a> speculated that changes in brain activity before death may cause terminal lucidity. But this doesn’t fully explain why people suddenly recover abilities that were assumed to be lost.</p> <p>Paradoxical and terminal lucidity are also very difficult to study. Not everyone with advanced dementia will experience episodes of lucidity before death. Lucid episodes are also unpredictable and typically occur without a particular trigger.</p> <p>And as terminal lucidity can be a joyous time for those who witness the episode, it would be unethical for scientists to use that time to conduct their research. At the time of death, it’s also difficult for scientists to interview caregivers about any lucid moments that may have occurred.</p> <p>Explanations for terminal lucidity extend beyond science. These moments of mental clarity may be a way for the dying person to say final goodbyes, gain closure before death, and reconnect with family and friends. Some believe episodes of terminal lucidity are representative of the person connecting with an afterlife.</p> <h2>Why is it important to know about terminal lucidity?</h2> <p>People can have a variety of reactions to seeing terminal lucidity in a person with advanced dementia. While some will experience it as being peaceful and bittersweet, others may find it deeply confusing and upsetting. There may also be an urge to modify care plans and request lifesaving measures for the dying person.</p> <p>Being aware of terminal lucidity can help loved ones understand it is part of the dying process, acknowledge the person with dementia will not recover, and allow them to make the most of the time they have with the lucid person.</p> <p>For those who witness it, terminal lucidity can be a final, precious opportunity to reconnect with the person that existed before dementia took hold and the “long goodbye” began.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202342/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/yen-ying-lim-355185"><em>Yen Ying Lim</em></a><em>, Associate Professor, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/monash-university-1065">Monash University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/diny-thomson-1519736">Diny Thomson</a>, PhD (Clinical Neuropsychology) Candidate and Provisional Psychologist, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/monash-university-1065">Monash University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/terminal-lucidity-why-do-loved-ones-with-dementia-sometimes-come-back-before-death-202342">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Mind

"I was angry": Julia Morris comes clean about Dr Chris Brown's departure

<p>We are all well aware that Dr Chris Brown, beloved former co-host of the jungle rollercoaster known as <em>I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!</em>, bid farewell to the show last year. Host Julia Morris, renowned for her vivacious wit and boundless charm, recently shed some light on her inner turmoil when her long-time partner in jungle antics decided to hop over to rival network Seven.</p> <p>The departure of Chris, after nine glorious seasons of quips and critters, left Julia in a state of bewilderment. "I was shocked," Morris <a href="https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/julia-morris-admits-she-was-angry-when-chris-brown-quit-im-a-celebrity-004322904.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Yahoo! News</a>. "I was angry, but I was also fine because it's what my friend needed to do. It was a super confusing time."</p> <p>Morris then faced the daunting prospect of finding a new partner-in-crime; enter Robert Irwin, the youthful wildlife enthusiast and heir to the Crocodile Hunter legacy. After a rigorous audition process involving around six Aussie personalities, Robert emerged as the chosen one. Julia described the moment as if the clouds parted, and a celestial spotlight shone down on young Irwin. "Everybody dissolved immediately and everybody knew it," Julia recounted. </p> <p>Now, the burning question on everyone's minds: Will Julia be just as flirtatious with the sprightly 20-year-old Irwin as she was with Chris? On that matter, Julia has remained coy: "I don't know how and why it's already working so beautifully." she teased.</p> <p>Julia also reassures us that she and Robert have already formed a bond akin to that of two koalas clinging to the same eucalyptus tree. "Now we have fun. I'm learning along the way from Robert, which is fantastic," she gushed. And thus, a new era dawns in the jungle, where critters roam, celebrities squirm and Julia Morris reigns supreme as the queen of quips and camaraderie.</p> <p><em>Image: Network 10</em></p>

What are the four waves of feminism? And what comes next?

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sharon-crozier-de-rosa-122804">S<em>haron Crozier-De Rosa</em></a><em>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-wollongong-711">University of Wollongong</a></em></p> <p>In Western countries, feminist history is generally packaged as a story of “waves”. The so-called first wave lasted from the mid-19th century to 1920. The second wave spanned the 1960s to the early 1980s. The third wave began in the mid-1990s and lasted until the 2010s. Finally, some say we are experiencing a fourth wave, which began in the mid-2010s and continues now.</p> <p>The first person to use “waves” was journalist Martha Weinman Lear, in her 1968 New York Times article, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1968/03/10/archives/the-second-feminist-wave.html">The Second Feminist Wave</a>, demonstrating that the women’s liberation movement was another <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth">“new chapter</a> in a grand history of women fighting together for their rights”. She was responding to anti-feminists’ framing of the movement as a “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth">bizarre historical aberration</a>”.</p> <p><a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/718868">Some feminists</a> criticise the usefulness of the metaphor. Where do feminists who preceded the first wave sit? For instance, Middle Ages feminist writer <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/bibliomania/2023/08/30/christine-de-pizan/">Christine de Pizan</a>, or philosopher <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wollstonecraft/">Mary Wollstonecraft</a>, author of <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-woman-9780141441252">A Vindication of the Rights of Woman</a> (1792).</p> <p>Does the metaphor of a single wave <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth">overshadow</a> the complex variety of feminist concerns and demands? And does this language exclude the <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/718868">non-West</a>, for whom the “waves” story is meaningless?</p> <p>Despite these concerns, countless feminists <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317322421_Finding_a_Place_in_History_The_Discursive_Legacy_of_the_Wave_Metaphor_and_Contemporary_Feminism">continue to use</a> “waves” to explain their position in relation to previous generations.</p> <h2>The first wave: from 1848</h2> <p>The first wave of feminism refers to the campaign for the vote. It began in the United States in 1848 with the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/women-fight-for-the-vote/about-this-exhibition/seneca-falls-and-building-a-movement-1776-1890/">Seneca Falls Convention</a>, where 300 gathered to debate Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments, outlining women’s inferior status and demanding suffrage – or, the right to vote.</p> <p>It continued over a decade later, in 1866, in Britain, with the presentation of a <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/parliamentary-collections/1866-suffrage-petition/presenting-the-petition/">suffrage petition</a> to parliament.</p> <p>This wave ended in 1920, when women were granted the right to vote in the US. (Limited women’s suffrage had been introduced in Britain two years earlier, in 1918.) First-wave activists believed once the vote had been won, women could use its power to enact other much-needed reforms, related to property ownership, education, employment and more.</p> <p>White leaders dominated the movement. They included longtime president of the the International Woman Suffrage Alliance <a href="https://cattcenter.iastate.edu/home/about-us/carrie-chapman-catt/">Carrie Chapman Catt</a> in the US, leader of the militant Women’s Social and Political Union <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emmeline-Pankhurst">Emmeline Pankhurst</a> in the UK, and <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/spence-catherine-helen-4627">Catherine Helen Spence</a> and <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/goldstein-vida-jane-6418">Vida Goldstein</a> in Australia.</p> <p>This has tended to obscure the histories of non-white feminists like evangelist and social reformer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sojourner-Truth">Sojourner Truth</a> and journalist, activist and researcher <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett">Ida B. Wells</a>, who were fighting on multiple fronts – including anti-slavery and anti-lynching – as well as feminism.</p> <h2>The second wave: from 1963</h2> <p>The second wave coincided with the publication of US feminist Betty Friedan’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-feminine-mystique-9780141192055">The Feminine Mystique</a> in 1963. Friedan’s “<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/powerful-complicated-legacy-betty-friedans-feminine-mystique-180976931/">powerful treatise</a>” raised critical interest in issues that came to define the women’s liberation movement until the early 1980s, like workplace equality, birth control and abortion, and women’s education.</p> <p>Women came together in “consciousness-raising” groups to share their individual experiences of oppression. These discussions informed and motivated public agitation for <a href="https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/HaeberlenPolitics">gender equality and social change</a>. Sexuality and gender-based violence were other prominent second-wave concerns.</p> <p>Australian feminist Germaine Greer wrote <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780007205011/the-female-eunuch/">The Female Eunuch</a>, published in 1970, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-female-eunuch-at-50-germaine-greers-fearless-feminist-masterpiece-147437">urged women to</a> “challenge the ties binding them to gender inequality and domestic servitude” – and to ignore repressive male authority by exploring their sexuality.</p> <p>Successful lobbying saw the establishment of refuges for women and children fleeing domestic violence and rape. In Australia, there were groundbreaking political appointments, including the world’s first Women’s Advisor to a national government (<a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/audio/landmark-women/transcripts/landmark-women-elizabeth-reid-181013.mp3-transcript">Elizabeth Reid</a>). In 1977, a <a href="https://www.whitlam.org/women-and-whitlam">Royal Commission on Human Relationships</a> examined families, gender and sexuality.</p> <p>Amid these developments, in 1975, Anne Summers published <a href="https://theconversation.com/damned-whores-and-gods-police-is-still-relevant-to-australia-40-years-on-mores-the-pity-47753">Damned Whores and God’s Police</a>, a scathing historical critique of women’s treatment in patriarchal Australia.</p> <p>At the same time as they made advances, so-called women’s libbers managed to anger earlier feminists with their distinctive claims to radicalism. Tireless campaigner <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rich-ruby-sophia-14202">Ruby Rich</a>, who was president of the Australian Federation of Women Voters from 1945 to 1948, responded by declaring the only difference was her generation had called their movement “<a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-296328435/findingaid">justice for women</a>”, not “liberation”.</p> <p>Like the first wave, mainstream second-wave activism proved largely irrelevant to non-white women, who faced oppression on intersecting gendered and racialised grounds. African American feminists produced their own critical texts, including bell hooks’ <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Aint-I-a-Woman-Black-Women-and-Feminism/hooks/p/book/9781138821514">Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism</a> in 1981 and Audre Lorde’s <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/198292/sister-outsider-by-audre-lorde/">Sister Outsider</a> in 1984.</p> <h2>The third wave: from 1992</h2> <p>The third wave was announced in the 1990s. The term is popularly attributed to Rebecca Walker, daughter of African American feminist activist and writer <a href="https://alicewalkersgarden.com/about/">Alice Walker</a> (author of <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/alice-walker/the-color-purple-now-a-major-motion-picture-from-oprah-winfrey-and-steven-spielberg">The Color Purple</a>).</p> <p>Aged 22, Rebecca proclaimed in a 1992 Ms. magazine <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200404030632/http:/heathengrrl.blogspot.com/2007/02/becoming-third-wave-by-rebecca-walker.html">article</a>: “I am not a post-feminism feminist. I am the Third Wave.”</p> <p>Third wavers didn’t think gender equality had been more or less achieved. But they did share <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1464700119842555">post-feminists</a>’ belief that their foremothers’ concerns and demands were obsolete. They argued women’s experiences were now shaped by <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2016.1190046">very different</a> political, economic, technological and cultural conditions.</p> <p>The third wave has been described as “an <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/beauty/meet-the-woman-who-coined-the-term-third-wave-feminism-20180302-p4z2mw.html">individualised feminism</a> that can not exist without diversity, sex positivity and intersectionality”.</p> <p>Intersectionality, <a href="https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf">coined</a> in 1989 by African American legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, recognises that people can experience intersecting layers of oppression due to race, gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity and more. Crenshaw notes this was a “lived experience” before it was a term.</p> <p>In 2000, Aileen Moreton Robinson’s <a href="https://www.uqp.com.au/books/talkin-up-to-the-white-woman-indigenous-women-and-feminism-20th-anniversary-edition">Talkin’ Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and Feminism</a> expressed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s frustration that white feminism did not adequately address the legacies of dispossession, violence, racism, and sexism.</p> <p>Certainly, the third wave accommodated <a href="https://paromitapain.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/10.10072F978-3-319-72917-6.pdf#page=112%22">kaleidoscopic views</a>. Some scholars claimed it “grappled with fragmented interests and objectives” – or micropolitics. These included ongoing issues such as sexual harassment in the workplace and a scarcity of women in positions of power.</p> <p>The third wave also gave birth to the <a href="https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/brief-history-riot-grrrl-space-reclaiming-90s-punk-movement-2542166">Riot Grrrl</a> movement and “girl power”. Feminist punk bands like <a href="https://bikinikill.com/about/">Bikini Kill</a> in the US, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/28/pussy-riot-beaten-jailed-exiled-taunting-putin">Pussy Riot</a> in Russia and Australia’s <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/mbknev/little-ugly-girls-tractor-album-single-premiere-2018">Little Ugly Girls</a> sang about issues like homophobia, sexual harassment, misogyny, racism, and female empowerment.</p> <p>Riot Grrrl’s <a href="https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/riotgrrrlmanifesto.html">manifesto</a> states “we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak”. “Girl power” was epitomised by Britain’s more sugary, phenomenally popular Spice Girls, who were accused of peddling “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/sep/14/spice-girls-how-girl-power-changed-britain-review-fabulous-and-intimate">‘diluted feminism’ to the masses</a>”.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tAbhaguKARw?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption><span class="caption">Riot Grrrrl sang about issues like homophobia, sexual harassment, misogyny and racism.</span></figcaption></figure> <h2>The fourth wave: 2013 to now</h2> <p>The fourth wave is epitomised by “<a href="https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol25/iss2/10/">digital or online feminism</a>” which gained currency in about <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth">2013</a>. This era is marked by mass online mobilisation. The fourth wave generation is connected via new communication technologies in ways that were not previously possible.</p> <p>Online mobilisation has led to spectacular street demonstrations, including the #metoo movement. #Metoo was first founded by Black activist <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/tarana-burke">Tarana Burke</a> in 2006, to support survivors of sexual abuse. The hashtag #metoo then went viral during the 2017 Harvey Weinstein <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/28/1131500833/me-too-harvey-weinstein-anniversary">sexual abuse scandal</a>. It was used at least <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563221002193">19 million times</a> on Twitter (now X) alone.</p> <p>In January 2017, the <a href="https://www.womensmarch.com/">Women’s March</a> protested the inauguration of the decidedly misogynistic Donald Trump as US president. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Womens-March-2017">Approximately 500,000</a> women marched in Washington DC, with demonstrations held simultaneously in <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Remembering-Womens-Activism/Crozier-De-Rosa-Mackie/p/book/9781138794894">81 nations</a> on all continents of the globe, even Antarctica.</p> <p>In 2021, the <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/8564388">Women’s March4Justice</a> saw some 110,000 women rallying at more than 200 events across Australian cities and towns, protesting workplace sexual harassment and violence against women, following high-profile cases like that of Brittany Higgins, revealing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/29/brittany-higgins-bruce-lehrmann-defamation-trial-evidence-stand-rape-allegations-liberal-party-ntwnfb#:%7E:text=Bruce%20Lehrmann%20has%20brought%20a,Wilkinson%20are%20defending%20the%20case.">sexual misconduct</a> in the Australian houses of parliament.</p> <p>Given the prevalence of online connection, it is not surprising fourth wave feminism has reached across geographic regions. The Global Fund for Women <a href="https://www.globalfundforwomen.org/movements/me-too/">reports</a> that #metoo transcends national borders. In China, it is, among other things, #米兔 (translated as “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/61903744-9540-11e8-b67b-b8205561c3fe">rice bunny</a>”, pronounced as “mi tu”). In Nigeria, it’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we-F0Gi0Lqs">#Sex4Grades</a>. In Turkey, it’s #<a href="https://ahvalnews.com/sexual-harrasment/dozens-turkish-womens-organisations-issue-statement-backing-latest-metoo-movement">UykularınızKaçsın</a> (“may you lose sleep”).</p> <p>In an inversion of the traditional narrative of the Global North leading the Global South in terms of feminist “progress”, Argentina’s “<a href="https://www.auswhn.com.au/blog/colour-green/">Green Wave</a>” has seen it decriminalise abortion, as has Colombia. Meanwhile, in 2022, the US Supreme Court <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade-but-for-abortion-opponents-this-is-just-the-beginning-185768">overturned historic abortion legislation</a>.</p> <p>Whatever the nuances, the prevalence of such highly visible gender protests have led some feminists, like <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2020.1804431">Red Chidgey</a>, lecturer in Gender and Media at King’s College London, to declare that feminism has transformed from “a dirty word and publicly abandoned politics” to an ideology sporting “a new cool status”.</p> <h2>Where to now?</h2> <p>How do we know when to pronounce the next “wave”? (Spoiler alert: I have no answer.) Should we even continue to use the term “waves”?</p> <p>The “wave” framework was first used to demonstrate feminist continuity and solidarity. However, whether interpreted as disconnected chunks of feminist activity or connected periods of feminist activity and inactivity, represented by the crests and troughs of waves, some believe it encourages binary thinking that produces <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2016.1190046">intergenerational antagonism</a>.</p> <p>Back in 1983, Australian writer and second-wave feminist Dale Spender, who died last year, <a href="https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/feminism/radical-books-dale-spender-theres-always-been-a-womens-movement-this-century-1983/">confessed her fear</a> that if each generation of women did not know they had robust histories of struggle and achievement behind them, they would labour under the illusion they’d have to develop feminism anew. Surely, this would be an overwhelming prospect.</p> <p>What does this mean for “waves” in 2024 and beyond?</p> <p>To build vigorous varieties of feminism going forward, we might reframe the “waves”. We need to let emerging generations of feminists know they are not living in an isolated moment, with the onerous job of starting afresh. Rather, they have the momentum created by generations upon generations of women to build on.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224153/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sharon-crozier-de-rosa-122804"><em>Sharon Crozier-De Rosa</em></a><em>, Professor, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-wollongong-711">University of Wollongong</a></em></p> <p><em>Image </em><em>credits: Getty Images </em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-the-four-waves-of-feminism-and-what-comes-next-224153">original article</a>.</em></p>

Caring

Dancing with the Stars line-up revealed

<p>A star-studded cast of celebrities have been unveiled for this year's Dancing with the Stars, with some unexpected names in the mix. </p> <p>Four-time Gold Logie-winning actress Lisa McCune will be showing her moves on the dance floor, as will <em>Masterchef Season 1</em> winner Julie Goodwin.</p> <p>AFL legend and 7NEWS Sport presenter Ben Cousins and <em>Home and Away </em>hunk James Stewart will also be putting on their dance shoes, as will <em>SAS Australia </em>ex-special forces officer Ant Middleton. </p> <p><em>Better Homes and Gardens</em>’ DIY guru Adam Dovile is also set to flaunt his moves, right after BHG's Charlie Albone’s appearance on the show last year. </p> <p>Model and designer Nadia Bartel, Olympian and former senator Nova Peris, AFL star Shane Crawford, comedian Nikki Osborn, singer Samantha Jade and TV cook Hayden Quinn are also competing for the Mirror Ball Trophy. </p> <p>Each celebrity will be competing for their chosen charities and chance to win the coveted trophy. </p> <p>Although fans had to say goodbye to Daryl Somers last year, they are in for a treat this year, with TV vet Dr Chris Brown set to co-host the show alongside Sonia Kruger.</p> <p>The judges for this year are: Craig Revel Horwood, Sharna Burgess, Helen Richey and Mark Wilson.</p> <p><em>Image: 7News</em></p>

World's most powerful women come together to mark the end of an era

<p>A group of the most powerful and influential women in the worlds of fashion and entertainment have joined forces to appear on a legendary cover of <em>British Vogue</em>. </p> <p>The iconic cover shoot occurred to celebrate the magazine's editor Edward Enninful, who is stepping back from the role after six years at the helm. </p> <p>Enninful gathered his muses for the history-making "Legendary" edition, featuring the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, Selma Blair, Salma Hayek, Victoria Beckham, Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa, and many more. </p> <p>"To get one of these women on a cover takes months. To get 40? Unheard of," Cyrus remarked in an on-set video.</p> <p>In a post to social media, Selma Blair remarked that she "didn't want the day to end". </p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3FtXApL8_O/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3FtXApL8_O/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by British Vogue (@britishvogue)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The shoot also included models Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne, Karlie Kloss, alongside the original '90s supermodels – Naomi Campbell, Iman, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford.</p> <p>Evangelista said of the iconic shoot, "I've met so many people today on my bucket list".</p> <p>Hayek also posted about the experience on Instagram, saying, "So honoured to be part of this legendary cover of British Vogue and Edward Enninful's muses, especially because they are my muses too!" </p> <p>Jane Fonda summed up the energy of the day on set, saying, "Women understand the importance and power of the collective."</p> <p><em>Image credits: Instagram </em></p> <p> </p>

Beauty & Style

"Please come home": Family's emotional plea to missing woman

<p>The devastated husband and father of missing Victorian woman Samantha Murphy have issued an emotional plea for the 51-year-old to come home. </p> <p>Samantha, a keen runner from Ballarat, set off for her daily run through the Canadian State Forest early Sunday morning and has not been seen since. </p> <p>Emergency services are continuing their search for the woman, as her husband Mick and daughter Jessica pleaded to the community for information. </p> <p>Speaking out on Thursday in an emotional press conference, Mick said "someone has got to know something."</p> <p>“People just don’t vanish into thin air. You know, whether it be any little thing that you might think is relevant, just call the police, let them know,” Mick said.</p> <p>“You know, it’ll give us a bit of peace of mind if we get some hope."</p> <p>Jess then spoke through tears, saying her “mum is a really strong woman and is far too determined to give up this fight”.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3EbznCPk_Z/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3EbznCPk_Z/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by 9News Melbourne (@9newsmelbourne)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>“I know she’s out there somewhere, so if you could please continue to search for her to give us something to work with we would really appreciate it."</p> <p>“Mum, please come home soon I can’t wait to see you and give you the biggest hug and to tell you off for giving us so much stress. I love you.”</p> <p>Police also spoke for the first time about the search and urged the community to come forward with any information at all, as anything could be relevant.</p> <p>“We’re keeping an open mind and we’re hopeful,” Acting Inspector Lisa McDougall said.</p> <p>"We throwing resources at it in the hope we find Samantha and get answers for her family, who are obviously concerned."</p> <p>Amidst the high-profile case, Mick also asked people to be considerate as more information rolls in. </p> <p>“You can respect our privacy too. If we’ve got something we will come out and say it.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: 9News</em></p>

Caring

Larry Emdur shares emotional first dance with his daughter

<p>Larry Emdur has shared a behind the scenes glimpse at his daughter's wedding day, sharing the emotional moment they shared their father-daughter dance. </p> <p>The Morning Show host walked his daughter Tia, 24, down the aisle as she married her long-term boyfriend Rowell Jauco at Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral on Saturday. </p> <p>Larry posted a photo of the moment he gave his daughter away, and also shared a small clip of their father-daughter dance together at the wedding reception. </p> <p>In the clip, Larry was every inch the father of the bride as the pair tenderly danced to the classic hit <em>Lean On Me</em>, performed by friend and performer Guy Sebastian.</p> <p>On Sunday, the TV star wrote a heartfelt essay about the big day, writing, “Yesterday was one of the happiest, most tearful days of my life.”</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/C24RL-wroyk/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C24RL-wroyk/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by @larryemdur</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>“Yesterday, I walked my baby girl down the aisle, at the end of the aisle I had to place her hand on his, I didn’t want to let her hand go, but it was time, and it was right.”</p> <p>“I gently placed Tia’s hand on Ro’s and sat down to cry a bit more — and just when I thought I didn’t have any tears left, it was time for the daddy/daughter dance,” he said.</p> <p>“More tears, more love, more moments I’ll treasure until the day I die.”</p> <p>“A million Thank You’s and man hugs to the beyond brilliant Guy Sebastian for the most personalised, beautiful, powerful and tear-jerking version of this song I’ve ever heard.</p> <p>“The best Daddy Daughter dance song I’ve ever heard — Tia you know you can always lean on me.”</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/C25qPg6htDr/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C25qPg6htDr/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by @larryemdur</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Emdur then later shared a photo of the newlyweds together, writing, “Dear Ro, please look after my baby girl."</p> <p>Larry announced Tia's engagement in November last year, sharing his wishes for his daughter in the next chapter of her life. </p> <p>“All a father like me can hope and pray for is that one day his baby girl finds a partner who will love and adore, respect and admire, cherish and protect her the way he’s tried to,” Larry wrote.</p> <p>“Well, that partner has arrived and we feel very, very blessed."</p> <p><em>Image credits: Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

Amid allegations of price gouging, it’s time for big supermarkets to come clean on how they price their products

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sanjoy-paul-1141384">Sanjoy Paul</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a></em></p> <p>With inflation driving up the cost of living, many are dreading not just the hassle of a big grocery shop, but also the bruising cost.</p> <p>But while Australians struggle with their budget and spending, several major supermarkets made large profits in 2022–23. Coles and Woolworths, for example, made net profits of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/aug/23/woolworths-posts-162bn-profit-with-dramatic-lift-in-margins-despite-cost-of-living-crisis">A$1.1 billion and A$1.62 billion</a>, respectively.</p> <p><a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/coles-and-woolworths-chief-executives-to-face-senate-inquiry-into-supermarket-price-hikes/news-story/0f74b6d4cac20ee65b818642f4f554ba">Allegations of price gouging</a> by Australian supermarkets have even led to a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-03/greens-move-to-establish-senate-inquiry-into-supermarkets/103179656">Senate inquiry</a> into supermarket pricing.</p> <p>Coles chief executive Leah Weckert has <a href="https://www.colesgroup.com.au/media-releases/?page=coles-group-statement-on-senate-inquiry-into-supermarket-prices">promised</a> to appear at the inquiry, saying the company “works hard to keep prices affordable for Australian households […]” and is ready to “engage in an informed discussion on the factors that influence supermarket pricing.”</p> <p>Woolworths Group chief executive Brad Banducci, meanwhile, <a href="https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/au/en/media/latest-news/2023/woolworths-group-confirms-ceo-will-appear-at-senate-inquiry-on-s.html">said</a> he welcomes the chance to explain to the Senate “how we are working to balance the needs of our customers, our team and our suppliers in the context of economy-wide inflationary pressure”.</p> <p>But why wait until a Senate inquiry to explain all that? There’s an opportunity <em>now</em> for the big supermarkets to be more transparent about how they decide what prices to put on products.</p> <h2>Allegations of price gouging</h2> <p>It’s not just <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-03/greens-move-to-establish-senate-inquiry-into-supermarkets/103179656">politicians</a> and <a href="https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/woolworths-photo-exposes-everything-wrong-with-supermarkets-002726485.html">customers</a> complaining about supermarket prices.</p> <p>Australian farmers have also accused Coles and Woolworths of price gouging for <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/aussie-farmer-shipping-beautiful-melons-to-japan-rather-than-deal-with-coles-and-woolworths/news-story/bd685cd91f934f31c02c764097f496ae">fruits and vegetables</a>, claiming supermarkets profit too much from their crops.</p> <p>The National Farmers’ Federation has <a href="https://www.freshplaza.com/oceania/article/9583132/farmers-call-for-price-transparency-beyond-supermarket-inquiry/">called</a> for greater transparency from the supermarkets on how they decide prices.</p> <p>A recent <a href="https://www.freshplaza.com/oceania/article/9583132/farmers-call-for-price-transparency-beyond-supermarket-inquiry/">survey</a> by AUSVEG (the peak industry body for the Australian vegetable and potato industries) found 34% of vegetable growers are considering leaving the industry in the next 12 months as they <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/aussie-farmer-shipping-beautiful-melons-to-japan-rather-than-deal-with-coles-and-woolworths/news-story/bd685cd91f934f31c02c764097f496ae">struggle</a> to turn a profit.</p> <p>When asked about calls for more transparent pricing, a Woolworths spokesperson told The Conversation:</p> <blockquote> <p>We publish both our average gross margin and EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) margin transparently in our public financial reports.</p> <p>Supply chain costs are different for every product and they are constantly fluctuating, as are our buying costs in the case of fresh food like fruit and vegetables.</p> <p>Shoppers are very savvy. We operate in a highly competitive industry and we know our customers will – and do – shop around to find the best value.</p> <p>As we start to see the rate of inflation ease, we will continue to focus on delivering savings to our customers.</p> </blockquote> <p>Coles was also contacted for comment but did not reply before publication deadline.</p> <h2>Factoring in many costs</h2> <p>When a retailer buys products from their suppliers, it involves a supply chain that includes supply, manufacturing, transportation and distribution, warehouse and storage.</p> <p>There are several costs – such as product costs, transportation fees, labour, rent, inventory and more – involved at every step of the process.</p> <p>The supermarket must factor in all costs, as well as its profit margin, when it sets the selling price for a product.</p> <p>Organisations usually have these cost breakdowns as part of their internal decision-making – but they don’t typically disclose these calculations to their customers.</p> <h2>Not disclosing the cost breakdowns</h2> <p>The problem for supermarkets is that when they don’t disclose details such as their buying price or supply chain costs, it can contribute to anger among customers and suppliers.</p> <p>Apple and Pear Australia Limited – the national peak industry body for apple and pear growers – has <a href="https://apal.org.au/retailers-need-to-demonstrate-greater-price-transparency/">called for</a> retailers to demonstrate greater price transparency, saying, “frustration at the behaviour of the major retailers has again angered many growers”.</p> <p>Of course, supermarkets use several pricing strategies to win customer support – such as locking in prices for a certain period of time, everyday low prices on key products, specials, price-matching and discounts.</p> <p>Supermarkets spend millions of dollars on these price-related advertisements, but perhaps they would get more community support by simply disclosing cost breakdowns on their websites and in-store to show their commitment to transparent and fair pricing.</p> <h2>Transparent and fair pricing</h2> <p>Research shows price transparency helps businesses build trust with their <a href="https://fastercapital.com/content/The-Importance-of-Price-Transparency-in-Pricing-Psychology.html">customers</a>.</p> <p>Many major retailers already have this information for internal decision-making, so could display this online and in stores.</p> <p>Yes, prices change constantly due to factors outside their control – such as fuel prices, shipping problems or even supply chain issues linked to global conflict. But being more open with customers about these issues could help repair relationships and their public image.</p> <p>Perhaps there may even be a role for government, which could collaborate with supermarkets and retailers to develop policies for transparent and fair pricing.</p> <p>Everyday Australians deserve to be treated fairly and given the information they need about how major supermarkets price their products, so they can make informed decisions at the checkout.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219316/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sanjoy-paul-1141384"><em>Sanjoy Paul</em></a><em>, Associate Professor, UTS Business School, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/amid-allegations-of-price-gouging-its-time-for-big-supermarkets-to-come-clean-on-how-they-price-their-products-219316">original article</a>.</em></p>

Money & Banking

"Like the cash cow had come out": Commuters puzzled by money bundles on motorway

<p>Motorists in Perth have been left puzzled after bundles of cash were spotted flying across a motorway. </p> <p>On Monday evening, several members of the public called Western Australia police after up to $40,000 in cold hard cash was seen flying across the Mitchell Fwy in Connolly, in the city’s northern suburbs. </p> <p>According to Commissioner Col Blanch, honest civilians bundled up some of the mysterious money and “came forward with large wads of cash”.</p> <p>“We believe that up to $40,000 has been recovered,” he said.</p> <p>Police believe that the money came from an alleged drug deal gone wrong, but the incident is still under investigation. </p> <p>"It looks like it was a total fiasco by the person involved and probably not one of our smartest (alleged) offenders," Mr Blanch said.</p> <p>"It's like the cash cow had come out, and there was cash flying everywhere."</p> <p>"There's no more money on the freeway … let's not go there."</p> <p>After police attended the scene, they arrested a man close by who had another $8,000 in his possession, along with 51g of cocaine. </p> <p>Despite some people stopping to retrieve the money to hand over to police, the free money prompted some motorists to stop their cars to retrieve a share for themselves.</p> <p>Talk on social media suggested one commuter even pocketed about $10,000. </p> <p><em>Image credits: WA Police</em></p>

Travel Trouble

Why we feel like Christmas comes around more quickly each year

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ruth-ogden-1182467">Ruth Ogden</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/liverpool-john-moores-university-1319">Liverpool John Moores University</a></em></p> <p>Think back to your childhood. December was the longest of months. It might have been filled with rehearsing school nativity performances, writing up your wishlist and savouring the morning’s advent calendar chocolate. But at times it felt like Santa would never arrive.</p> <p>As an adult it’s a different experience. One minute it’s summer holidays, barbecues and sunburn and then, in the blink of an eye, it’s mince pies, tinsel and turkey. Is it just me, or is Christmas coming around faster?</p> <p>If you cannot believe the festive season is upon us already, you’re not alone. My colleagues and recently conducted a survey of 918 adults in the UK (full results still to be published) and found 77% of respondents agreed Christmas seems to arrive more rapidly each year.</p> <p>One reason may be the way we experience the <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/time/9/3/article-p275_275.xml">passage of time changes as we age</a>, often resulting in the feeling that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0961463x13478052">time speeds up as we get older</a>. For a seven-year- old, the 12 months between Christmases are a huge proportion of their life. For a 45-year-old, those same 12 months are a small portion of their experience. This <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2466/pms.1975.41.1.235">difference in ratio</a> compresses the relative time between Christmases each year.</p> <p>Our experience of time also changes because we rely on memory to estimate duration. When we judge how long something lasted for, we base our estimate on <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2004-18721-003">how many memories we made during the period of interest</a>. Whether we are trying to remember the length of a film, car journey or relationship, the number of memories we encoded during it will serve as an indicator of its length.</p> <p>Periods of time in which fewer new memories are made, either because there was a lack of stimulating tasks, novel activities or heightened emotions, are interpreted by <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/BLORAP">our brains as short</a>.</p> <h2>Where has the year gone</h2> <p>As we age, memory becomes more fallible and we recall less from our day to day lives. We’re also less likely to try new things than when we were younger. Together these factors may contribute to the sensation that less time has passed since last Christmas than we were expecting.</p> <p>Because what we do has such a strong influence on how we experience time, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235871">changes to our routine distort the passage of time</a>. A predictable day helps time to flow steadily.</p> <p>This was illustrated on a global scale during the pandemic. One minute we were all going about our daily lives. Then all of a sudden, our routines were scrambled. People from <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comments?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266261">Buenos Aries</a> to <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266877">Bagdad</a> reported an overwhelming sense time did not pass as normal during the pandemic.</p> <p>While Christmas does not cause the same level of disruption as a global pandemic, it disrupts our habits.</p> <h2>Can’t wait ‘til it’s Christmas?</h2> <p>Another factor which may make us feel like Christmas is here too fast is the amount of energy we put into anticipating it. For many children, Christmas is arguably the most eagerly awaited event of the year. Advent calendars count down the days until Father Christmas arrives. All this excitement means children pay a lot of attention to the passage of time in the run up to Christmas. Unfortunately for them, focusing on the passage of time <a href="https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/facbooks/472/">typically makes it drag</a>.</p> <p>For most adults, Christmas is less thrilling. So adults probably think less about the countdown. Paying less attention to time <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35902608/">makes it pass more quickly</a>. The effect may have been particularly pronounced this year because, in the post-pandemic normality, life is busier than ever and we have even less time to think about Christmas.</p> <p>Technological change also affects our perception of time. Advances in technology enable us to accomplish more tasks, more quickly, than ever before. This acceleration in the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2466/pms.1975.41.1.235">pace of life</a> over the past 20 years may also contribute to the sensation that Christmas now comes around too soon.</p> <h2>Running out of time</h2> <p>Despite paying less attention to time, adults experience significantly more demands on their schedules than children in the run up to Christmas. For children, Christmas happens by magic. For adults however the festive mystique is replaced by large amounts of planning, shopping, wrapping and cooking. The added time pressure created by Christmas may contribute to time passing more quickly.</p> <p>The lack of control children have over Christmas likely increases their level of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810015300465">temporal uncertainty</a>. Not knowing when, or indeed if, something will happen can also slow the passage of time.</p> <p>However, maybe we feel like Christmas comes around faster each year because it really does. In years gone by Christmas advertising wasn’t seen until the start of Advent. Nowadays it is normal to see chocolate Santas on the supermarket shelves in early October. This literal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165176505002284">shifting of the Christmas timeline</a> undoubtedly adds to the psychological sense of Christmas coming earlier.</p> <p>However, retailers’ attempts to increase profits by starting the festive period earlier each year come at a price. When retailer Very.com launched it’s Christmas <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2022/10/10/christmas-advert-in-october-from-very-outrages-viewers-17534895/">advertising campaign on October 7</a> in 2021 there was public outrage. We don’t want to actually see Christmas coming around more quickly. Very didn’t repeat their mistake this year.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194575/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ruth-ogden-1182467"><em>Ruth Ogden</em></a><em>, Reader in Experimental Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/liverpool-john-moores-university-1319">Liverpool John Moores University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-feel-like-christmas-comes-around-more-quickly-each-year-194575">original article</a>.</em></p>

Mind

Harry Connick Jnr finally comes clean on feud with Kyle

<p>Kyle Sandilands and Harry Connick Jr. have hashed out their rumoured ongoing feud, calling a truce live on air. </p> <p>The radio shock jock welcomed the singer on <em>The Kyle and Jackie O Show</em> on Wednesday morning to discuss his upcoming Australian tour, when Sandilands brought up their long-running beef. </p> <p>“You know what I admire about Harry, and I’ve watched Harry too,” he told co-host Jackie O when Connick Jr. was on the line.</p> <p>“When you think some doesn't like you, you watch them, you, over-analyse them and you start getting in your head, ‘I wonder why he doesn’t like me?’”</p> <p>Kyle then discussed some lessons he had learned from Harry during their time on Australian Idol together, “What I do know about Harry, and he told the Idol contestants this last year, is read the room. You’ve got to perform to whoever is there, whether it’s an auditorium or it’s to three people on a TV show.”</p> <p>Rather than welcoming the compliment, Connick Jr. thought Sandilands was being sarcastic and "tricky" by stirring the pot. </p> <p>“I see how tricky you are, slipping in there that I don’t like you,” the star said on air. “I don’t know where you got that from. I do like you very much and I really enjoyed our time together. So I see you trying to flip that in there, but you’re not gonna get that past me, pal.”</p> <p>Henderson said Sandilands may have been “paranoid”, while he agreed he “misread” the situation.</p> <p>“So this whole time, I should’ve maybe asked,” he told Connick Jr, who replied: “I love my wife and kids, and I’ve been very lucky in may career. Life is too short for any kind of … I just love life. So when you say I don’t like you, I’m not sure where that comes from, but for the record, I do like you very much and so everything is cool from my end.”</p> <p>While he accepted the explanation, Sandilands also remained slightly sceptical because Connick Jr “is a very good actor” after all, he said.</p> <p>“But Kyle the thing about actors is we don’t lie – we tell the truth,” replied Connick Jr.</p> <p>“You gotta tell the truth in the scene because, if you’re lying, you’re not being true to your character.”</p> <p>Sandilands then urged listeners to forget “everything I’ve ever said about Harry”.</p> <p><em>Image credits: KIIS FM / Getty Images</em></p>

When it comes to weight, your ‘diet’ is much more than what you eat

<p>Atkins, keto, palaeo, gluten-free, low-carb, low-fat, high-fat, raw, vegan, vego, pescatarian – phew, that’s a lot of different diets!</p> <div class="copy"> <p>And it’s by no means an exhaustive list.</p> <p>The old adage ‘you are what you eat’ has come to be a mantra for good diet and health. It was originally coined by 19th-century German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, himself drawing on commentary by an earlier French gourmand Anthelme Brillat-Savarin.</p> <p>Increasingly, science is finding new connections between diet and our overall picture of health. You may have heard how our gut microbiome acts as a second brain, or that avoiding unprocessed foods can lead to all-cause mortality.</p> <p>But when it comes to many fad diets that promise quick weight loss or improved health, the science can sometimes be skimp. This can change over time as researchers test the influence of diet on general health, weight management and as a medical treatment.</p> <p>The <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/mediterranean-diet-heart-dementia/">Mediterranean diet</a> is probably closest to the mark as a lifestyle of choice, in terms of overall health, nutrition, and diet science. It emphasises <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/nutrition/plant-based-diets-could-prevent-type-2-diabetes/">fruit and vegetable</a> consumption, with some wholegrain breads and cereals, legumes, nuts, seeds and fish, with olive oil as a primary fat source.</p> <p>This diet is either explicitly endorsed by many health authorities around the world such as the <a href="https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/nutrition-basics/mediterranean-diet" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">American Heart Association</a>, the <a href="https://www.racgp.org.au/clinical-resources/clinical-guidelines/handi/handi-interventions/nutrition/mediterranean-diet-for-reducing-cardiovascular-dis" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Royal Australian College of General Practitioners</a> as a diet for lowering cardiovascular disease risk, or used as a basis for other recommendations. The World Health Organization also <a href="https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/07-05-2018-fostering-healthier-and-more-sustainable-diets-learning-from-the-mediterranean-and-new-nordic-experience" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">advises</a> on ways for the Mediterranean and similar New Nordic diets to be implemented as <a href="https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/326264/9789289053013-eng.pdf?sequence=3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">health policy</a>.</p> <p>But diet might be better considered about more than what goes in one’s mouth.</p> <p>Dr Evangeline Mantzioris, Program Director of the Nutrition and Food Sciences Degree at the University of South Australia, says a truer interpretation of the world extends beyond merely food and drink.</p> <p>“The word diet actually derives from the Greek word <em>diaita</em>, which means the way you choose to live your life,” Mantzioris told the <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/tag/debunks/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Debunks</em> podcast.</a></p> <p>“So it’s not just about the food, it’s about the exercise, it’s about the social interaction, it’s about the rest. It’s about the sleep. It’s all of that.”</p> <p>The WHO’s 2019 Health Evidence Network Synthesis Report also acknowledges both social and sleep components of the lifestyle, noting shared eating practices, post-meal siestas and lengthy meal times all contribute to positive health effects.</p> <p>In terms of the nutritional component, Mantzioris notes that adherence to the diet requires not just an uptake of olive oil, but cutting down on less beneficial foods and an active lifestyle.</p> <p>“It’s not just the olive oil, it’s dropping down the meat, it’s mainly a plant food diet, it’s purposeful exercise,” she says.</p> <p>“I’m always a little bit nervous when people just talk about the diet and the food without considering the rest of it.</p> <p>“In the 60s, when the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet were seen […] they were out there harvesting, growing their food, preparing their food, doing all that sort of purposeful exercise in the outdoor environment, often in quite steep terrain. So that is just as important.</p> <p>“The Mediterranean diet continues to be shown to be quite healthy and beneficial in terms of improving chronic disease risk, even without weight loss.”</p> <p>Mantzioris says that the diet has also been shown to improve cognitive and mental health outcomes.</p> <p>Diet is the focus of the latest episode of <em>Debunks</em> from Cosmos and 9Podcasts, where we dive not simply into what makes a good diet, but the principles that dieticians and nutritionists look for when recommending one for a patient to consider.</p> <p><iframe title="Weight: Do diets actually work?" src="https://omny.fm/shows/debunks/weight-do-diets-actually-work/embed?style=Artwork" width="100%" height="180" frameborder="0"></iframe>  <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=287991&title=When+it+comes+to+weight%2C+your+%E2%80%98diet%E2%80%99+is+much+more+than+what+you+eat" width="1" height="1" loading="lazy" aria-label="Syndication Tracker" data-spai-target="src" data-spai-orig="" data-spai-exclude="nocdn" /></div> <div class="copy"> </div> <div><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</em></div> <div> </div> <div><em><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/body-and-mind/diet-is-much-more-than-what-you-eat/">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/matthew-agius/">Matthew Ward Agius</a>. </em></div>

Body

Darryl Somers jumps the gun with major Dr Chris Brown announcement

<p>Darryl Somers, the man who made <em>Dancing with the Stars</em> a glittering extravaganza of dance and dazzling outfits, has decided to take centre stage once again.</p> <p>After months of speculation about Dr Chris Brown taking over the hosting reins, Somers took it upon himself to make a rogue announcement on his Facebook page that was about as expected as a cha-cha-cha in a tango.</p> <p>Rumours have been swirling for some time now about Channel Seven's big reveal, scheduled for their upfronts event, a time when media executives and TV buffs gather to find out what fresh television delights are in store. But Somers, always one to seize the spotlight, decided to drop the bombshell himself.</p> <p>"Hi All, Just want to confirm the speculation that I will not be hosting Dancing With The Stars in 2024. Seven let me know recently that they have signed Chris Brown to the network full-time, and amongst his commitments, he will be hosting DWTS," Somers wrote on Facebook.</p> <p>In a heartfelt message, Somers went on to share his gratitude for the 20-year journey he's had with <em>Dancing with the Stars</em>, dating back to 2004. He's completed ten series, with his last one being a "huge ratings success". And what better way to pass the torch than with a mirror ball, the symbol of dancefloor triumph, presented personally by Somers to Chris Brown.</p> <p>Somers also expressed his fondness for his co-host, Sonia Kruger, and the judges, Todd McKenney and Mark Wilson. It seems that while he will miss the sequins and glitter, he's "now unencumbered to pursue the projects [he] put on hold during Covid and shall have some exciting news on that score early next year." We can't wait to find out what Somers has hidden up his well-tailored sleeves. </p> <p>But let's not forget the man of the hour: Dr Chris Brown. Not only will he be grooving to the tunes of <em>Dancing with the Stars</em>, but he's also going to be hosting a brand new show titled <em>Dream Home</em>. It's not about dreaming of a dream home; it's about couples turning a run-down shack into a palace, all while winning some cold hard cash. If we know Brown, he's probably going to charm the participants into renovating their homes with just a smile and a stethoscope.</p> <p>Before all of this unfolded, there was speculation that Brown might take over for Kochie when he retired from <em>Sunrise</em> after 21 years – but of course that Big Chair went to Olympian Matt Shirvington.</p> <p>In the world of Australian television, the tango of hosting changes continues, with Somers' premature announcement adding an unexpected twist. It seems that even after 20 years of dancing with the stars, you can still surprise everyone with a perfectly timed leap and a graceful pirouette into the unknown.</p> <p><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

"Health always comes first": Tina Arena's shock announcement

<p>Tina Arena has shocked her fans after making the "difficult decision" to cancel her upcoming Australian tour. </p> <p>The Aussie songstress announced the news on social media, saying the remainder of her shows on the Australian leg of the Love Saves World tour would be postponed due to illness. </p> <p>This is the first time in her long career that the 55-year-old musician has had to cancel a show.</p> <p>Sharing the announcement on Thursday night, Arena shared a black-and-white photo of her band behind the scenes along with the bad news for her fans.</p> <p>“Hi everyone, for the very first time, I have to postpone the rest of my Australian shows,” she wrote.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CySpmXGB9ds/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CySpmXGB9ds/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Tina Arena (@tinaarena)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>“Believe me when I say, it was a hard decision. But remember, health always comes first. Therefore, to ensure it won’t happen again... here we are.” </p> <p>She told concertgoers to “hold onto your tickets”, stressing there would be more information to come.</p> <p>“I wish you all the very best, and my sincere apologies for any inconvenience,” she ended the post, signing off with “T”.</p> <p>The remainder of her Australian shows are expected to be postponed until 2024. </p> <p>Tina Arena completed two shows of her tour, one in Perth and one in Sydney, with shows in Queensland, South Australia and Victoria being cancelled. </p> <p><em>Sunrise</em> entertainment editor Peter Ford says the decision is significant because Arena “doesn’t miss shows, she’s old school - if you have a gig booked you do it”.</p> <p>“On her Instagram post, she actually said that this is the first time ever (that she has cancelled). Now, how long has Tina been around... 40 years?”</p> <p>“Fingers crossed she is getting good care and the attention that she needs,” Ford said.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Caring

Coming to terms with the past is more important than ever. The Voice referendum is a vital first step

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/heidi-norman-859">Heidi Norman</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a></em></p> <p>This Saturday is the final day of voting in the Voice to Parliament referendum, which asks Australians to support recognition of First Peoples in the Constitution and enable First Peoples’ representation on relevant policies and programs.</p> <p>Over the last several weeks, I have attended many events supporting and advocating for the Voice referendum. In these forums, my fellow Australians talk about the Constitution, the role of government and how power is exercised in modern democracy. Some have never read or thought about the Constitution before.</p> <p>I’ve seen young First Nations lawyers explaining to a mixed crowd how the Constitution works, what is included in it and what a constitutionally enshrined Voice would mean. I have been invigorated by such sincere participation in understanding how our democracy works, and could work better.</p> <p>This serious contemplation was getting underway at the Referendum Council’s Aboriginal regional dialogues I attended in 2017. With other Aboriginal people, we discussed what change could look like. I have supported the implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and played my small part supporting the “yes” vote at my university and with my family and community.</p> <h2>How opinions have differed</h2> <p>Debates around the Voice have presented three competing narratives to the Australian public.</p> <p>The “yes” position addresses the outstanding business of the place of First Peoples in the life of the nation. This position is an offer of peace, to walk together towards settlement. It also believes that if First Peoples are able to work with and through government – with power devolved to local-level decision-making – the everyday experiences of the disadvantaged will be changed.</p> <p>The Voice proposal is a modest, middle path. It’s a compromise position that was believed to have the greatest chance of gaining support from progressives, liberals and conservatives.</p> <p>The “no” position refuses to acknowledge the unique place of First Peoples in the life of the nation and rejects any perceived “special treatment” based on either disadvantage or cultural difference.</p> <p>A third, minority group is the so-called “progressive no” vote, which rejects the Voice referendum as an unacceptable compromise with limited utility as a mechanism to advance First Peoples’ rights. It argues Voice is not enough, and it’s time instead for recognition of sovereignty.</p> <p>Each of these narratives draws from competing versions of the story of the nation’s past and future. We can see that understanding our history is more important than ever in addressing the politics of disruption and disinformation and the toxic social and political discourse that has dominated the campaign.</p> <h2>Right-wing tactics of division</h2> <p>Debate over the referendum has played out in a different way to other referendums and general election campaigns. The debate has often been discourteous, relying on a swarm of cruel, derogatory and racist social media posts. Some leading “no” campaigners have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/28/we-forgive-but-never-forget-yes-campaigner-rachel-perkins-responds-to-warren-mundine-on-uluru-statement">presented</a> increasingly extremist and sensational views intended to dominate the news cycle and social media.</p> <p>In many ways, the “no” campaign has followed patterns of right-wing campaigning from overseas, which is intended to destabilise the social relations, trust and confidence we have in one another and seed division.</p> <p>Consider the Brexit debate in the UK, and or US Capitol insurrection and claims of a stolen election by former President Donald Trump. Each provided a platform for people to express white nationalist sentiments and their deep distrust in the institutions of democratic government.</p> <p>The “no” campaign’s tactics have also sought to <a href="https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/8813">link</a> a host of disparate themes to the referendum, from climate change denial to anti-vaccination beliefs. The common theme is grievance against the perceived extension of the distrusted government into people’s lives. Disinformation has played a key role.</p> <p>Other concerns have also been publicly raised about the Voice, such as that it would be a risk to <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-the-voice-to-parliament-would-not-force-people-to-give-up-their-private-land-212784">people’s private land</a>. These concerns are sincerely feared, but totally unfounded.</p> <h2>Difficulties confronting our history</h2> <p>What sits beneath this right-wing rhetoric in Australia is the highly charged debate over the nation’s past and its future.</p> <p>Contesting views about Australia’s history should not come as a surprise. Since historians became more interested in the telling of Australian history “from the other side” and writing First Peoples back into the nation’s story, it has been met with an equal measure of resistance and shock.</p> <p>The ongoing difficulty of “coming to terms” with colonial histories can be attributed to a number of things:</p> <ul> <li> <p>historical amnesia, disbelief or cultural differences over what counts as historical knowledge</p> </li> <li> <p>the strategic use of “forgetting” to protect a social group’s self-image</p> </li> <li> <p>and the belief that engaging in these difficult histories is somebody else’s responsibility rather than our own.</p> </li> </ul> <p>The Voice Referendum and Uluru Statement introduce a new nationalism underpinned by a different origin story: the process of a settlement between First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians with a recognition of how our continent’s much deeper history can be a gift, or inheritance, to all Australians.</p> <p>In this vision for the future, the worlds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders narrate the story of the country over much longer timeframes through an entirely different archive and knowledge system.</p> <p>The idea of inheritance of a much deeper and longer history of country is less concerned with colonial settler-Indigenous relations. Rather, it is a transformed sense of history that extends over thousands of generations and speaks to place.</p> <h2>Playing a role in the future of the nation</h2> <p>The aim of the Voice is to strengthen democracy by meaningfully engaging with those who have the knowledge and expertise, in local conditions and contexts, to improve government decisions in Indigenous policy and programs.</p> <p>The Voice proposal eschews a rights framework in favour of <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/its-our-country-paperback-softback">providing</a></p> <blockquote> <p>the impetus for a profound paradigmatic shift between Indigenous peoples and the state. While this “power of influence” on one hand seeks to improve policy and programs and services on the ground, it also seeks to shape a new and meaningful relationship between Indigenous Peoples and political institutions.</p> </blockquote> <p>There is a legitimate and important role for government to play in First Peoples’ lives, but this role can be improved by greater participation and local-level input in the design and implementation of policy and programs.</p> <p>For too long, First Peoples have experienced the worst excesses of government and its various instruments – namely the police and judiciary. There’s a reason why many people hold a deep and abiding fear and suspicion of government. It has been responsible for many traumas:</p> <ul> <li> <p>the brutal dislodging of kinship connections</p> </li> <li> <p>the taking of land without any legal basis or compensation</p> </li> <li> <p>the violent dispersal of people from their land, which has rendered many destitute and without means to care for their families</p> </li> <li> <p>the removal of people’s children, denial of basic services and assistance, and management of people’s lives by a cruel and underfunded protection board</p> </li> <li> <p>the <a href="https://www.monash.edu/law/research/centres/castancentre/our-areas-of-work/indigenous/the-northern-territory-intervention/the-northern-territory-intervention-an-evaluation/what-is-the-northern-territory-intervention">empowering</a> of police and military to seize people’s community assets.</p> </li> </ul> <p>And yet, the Voice referendum, supported by the overwhelming majority of First Peoples, seeks to improve the relationship with governments to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness of policies intended to improve lives.</p> <p>At one Sydney “yes” rally, we walked from Redfern Park along Cleveland Street to Victoria Park. It was a massive turnout that far exceeded expectations. The mood was serious, yet joyous. People came from all over Sydney and brought their place with them – the crew from “The Shire” got a big cheer from the crowd.</p> <p>This gathering was not looking for division, but rather a heart-filled yearning to come together as a community of people and play a role in the future of a nation that’s accepting of the fact it’s our country, too.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215152/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/heidi-norman-859">Heidi Norman</a>, Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Central Land Council - PR Image</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coming-to-terms-with-the-past-is-more-important-than-ever-the-voice-referendum-is-a-vital-first-step-215152">original article</a>.</em></p>

Caring

What not to say when someone comes out as LGBTQ+ (and what to say instead)

<p><strong>"Are you sure?"</strong></p> <p>People who identify as LGBTQ+ often struggle a great deal with their own feelings before they make the nerve-wracking decision to come out. Despite your best intentions, responding to this by asking, “Are you sure?” may be seen as calling into question the emotional journey that brought them to that point.</p> <p>Instead of expressing what might be interpreted as doubt, you could perhaps say, “It’s always good to know what you like and want. Thanks for coming out to me.”</p> <p><strong>"It must have been tough for your parents"</strong></p> <p>Yes, it could have been tough for the parents. But guess what? It was harder on the individual for even longer – and in more intense ways than you can imagine. Staying in the closet is not a very comfortable position for a self-accepting person, but it’s an even harder journey to get to that point of self-acceptance. LGBTQ+ individuals have battled real fears of being attacked, abandoned, discriminated against and disadvantaged.</p> <p>In fact, LGBTQ+ youth are three times more likely to commit suicide than their heterosexual counterparts. Although it’s reasonable to show empathy for their parents, it’s poorly-timed here. Instead, try, “I hope you are coping well with your parents’ response. I am here to talk if you need to. Thanks for coming out me.”</p> <p><strong>"Why didn't you tell me before?"</strong></p> <p>Well, it’s likely because they were afraid. It’s not because you are a monster, but because they love you and feared losing you as a result of coming out. The important thing is to not take it personally. When a loved one comes out, you are being called on to show targeted and urgent empathy. While your pain of being “left out” is real, it can wait a day or two.</p> <p>Right now, your focus should be how to celebrate your loved one’s life and the choices they’ve made, including the one of having just come out to you. Kick off the celebration by saying, “I am so proud that you have chosen to live your truth in front of me. Thanks for being authentic with me.”</p> <p><strong>"Are you the man or the woman in the relationship?"</strong></p> <p>More than anything, this question demonstrates a fundamental ignorance of the concept of same-sex love. It also misplaces the focus on the sexual act (rather than on identity) at a time when they’re in a vulnerable state. When a person comes out, they’re opening their hearts to you and sharing the emotional reality of who they are as individuals.</p> <p>Instead of asking this question, reinforce how grateful you are that the person has had the courage to come out to you, and say, “I accept you for who you are. Thank you for coming out to me.”</p> <p><strong>"Would you be my gay bestie?"</strong></p> <p>People who identify as LGBTQ+ can be good (or insufferable) company just like any other human being, but the point is, they are human beings and not objects or accessories as the pop culture depiction of the “gay bestie” might have you believe.</p> <p>Instead of this response, take this opportunity to reaffirm your loving, supportive relationship: “You are brave and honest, and this makes me respect you even more. Thanks for coming out to me.”</p> <p><strong>"I knew it!"</strong></p> <p>This particularly hurtful response is generally remarked when a “feminine” man or “butch” woman comes out. Many gender non-conforming individuals try very hard to either tone-down or manage their sexuality in public for fear of homophobia.</p> <p>By saying “I knew it!,” you’re inadvertently suggesting that their sexuality or gender non-conformity was being gossiped about behind their back in a sneaky, judgmental manner, which could, in turn, lead the person to feel that staying in the closet was a safer option than coming out. To avoid this situation, stick with a response of, “I’m honoured you chose to come out to me. Thank you.”</p> <p><strong>"But you're so masculine!"</strong></p> <p>On the opposite end of the spectrum lies this response, indicating disbelief that a “manly” man could be gay, or that a “feminine” woman could be lesbian. Being in the closet is an alienating experience; responding to an individual’s coming-out with a comment that suggests they don’t conform to their “new” sexual identity either can be just as alienating.</p> <p>A better response could be, simply, “I didn’t know, but I’m so grateful you came out to me. Thank you.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/true-stories-lifestyle/relationships/what-not-to-say-when-someone-comes-out-as-lgbtq-and-what-to-say-instead" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>. </em></p> <p> </p>

Relationships

Royal family's 175-year-old right to hunt comes to an end

<p>The royal family can no longer hunt at the five-century old Abergeldie Estate that is next door to Balmoral Castle. </p> <p>Abergeldie's new owner, Alastair Storey, has terminated the royal family's sporting rights lease, established by Prince Albert in 1852, which means they can no longer go hunting, deer stalking or fishing at the estate, ending the 175-year-old tradition. </p> <p>Storey reportedly has plans to "transform" buildings on the estate into private accommodation and hunting lodges, according to the <em>Daily Telegraph</em>.</p> <p>Planning documents filed with Aberdeenshire council confirmed this: "For the last 175 years the Royal family have leased the sporting rights at Abergeldie but this has now ceased, and will be actively run by the new Laird.</p> <p>"To facilitate the transformation and to effectively run the estate, new facilities will be required."</p> <p>The documents also stated that the buildings around the farmhouse "facilitate accommodation for the running of the estate and will include a social space for paying visitors to support the sporting activities on the estate".</p> <p>This is a huge change from the original agreements Prince Albert drew up with the Gordon family, who previously owned the estate. </p> <p>This also comes after the late Queen agreed to pay more for the shooting and hunting rights on the sporting estate 25 years ago, after she was asked to increase the nominal rent that was being paid by the royal family for access. </p> <p>The 11,532-acre estate is nestled between the late Queen Elizabeth's former estate and the King's residence, Birkhall. </p> <p>It was sold in 2021 after the death of the 21st Baron of Abergeldie, John Gordon, to Storey who bought the estate for £23 million. </p> <p>Although Storey purchased 34 properties dotted around the vast estate, he has not bought out Abergeldie Castle, which still belongs to the Gordon family.</p> <p>Storey, 70, is a Scottish businessman and chief executive of WSH, and was labelled the "most influential man in the UK hospitality industry" in 2012. </p> <p>He was made an Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth in 2017.</p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p> <p> </p>

Family & Pets

It’s warming up and mozzies are coming. Here’s how to mosquito-proof your backyard

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/cameron-webb-6736">Cameron Webb</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a></em></p> <p>The weather is warming up and that means more time in the backyard. It also means more mosquitoes.</p> <p>Here are five ways you can mosquito-proof your backyard that <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-battle-against-bugs-its-time-to-end-chemical-warfare-111629">don’t rely on spraying insecticides</a>.</p> <h2>1. Get rid of water</h2> <p>Mosquitoes need water to complete their life cycles. They <a href="https://theconversation.com/feel-like-youre-a-mozzie-magnet-its-true-mosquitoes-prefer-to-bite-some-people-over-others-128788">need blood</a> – but water and warmth are just as important.</p> <p>Getting rid of water around your backyard will go a long way to keeping mosquitoes away. Water trapped in blocked roof gutters, drains and tarpaulin covering boats and trailers can be a great home for mosquitoes.</p> <p>Mosquitoes can exploit the tiniest of water sources too. It may just be the upturned lid of a discarded plastic drink bottle. If it traps water, mosquitoes will find it and lay eggs in it.</p> <p>Flush out your bird bath once a week to disrupt the mosquito’s life cycle.</p> <p>If you have a pond, installing a fountain will discourage mosquitoes. If you can’t keep water clean and circulating, consider filling it with sand and gravel to create an interesting garden bed for succulents or other plants.</p> <p>Mosquitoes will avoid clean and chlorinated swimming pools but will quickly move into “green pools”. If you’re not using your pool, consider <a href="https://www.krg.nsw.gov.au/Environment/Your-local-environment/Wildlife/Living-with-wildlife/Pool-to-pond/How-to-convert-your-pool">converting it to a “pond”</a> so that fish can help keep mosquito numbers down.</p> <h2>2. Screen up – windows, doors and rainwater tanks</h2> <p>If you can’t get rid of permanent water, at least stop mosquitoes getting to it (or you).</p> <p>Ensure <a href="https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/clean-and-green/natural-environment-and-water/water/water-smart-homes/rainwater-tanks/using-your-rainwater-tank">rainwater and septic tanks</a> have screens to stop mosquitoes entering.</p> <p>Screen windows and doors to stop mosquitoes entering the home. There are plenty of flexible screening options for windows, doors and balconies.</p> <p>If you live in a mosquito-prone area, creating a screened outdoor area (such as a pergola, courtyard, or balcony) will give you the opportunity to spend time outdoors without being hassled by mozzies.</p> <h2>3. Choose your garden plants carefully</h2> <p>Some plants <a href="https://bioone.org/journals/Journal-of-the-American-Mosquito-Control-Association/volume-25/issue-3/09-0016.1/Are-Commercially-Available-Essential-Oils-from-Australian-Native-Plants-Repellent/10.2987/09-0016.1.short">contain essential oils and other chemicals</a> that, when extracted and concentrated, provide protection against biting mosquitoes. But there isn’t a lot of evidence that the whole plant will keep mosquitoes away from your garden.</p> <p>Some types of plants are even marketed as “mozzie blockers” or “mosquito repelling”. But there isn’t <a href="https://www.veranda.com/outdoor-garden/a40592197/do-mosquito-repelling-plants-work/">any evidence of effectiveness</a>. In fact, some of these plants, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1440-6055.2009.00736.x">such as melaleucas</a>, also happen to be associated with <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/36/4/515/903838">hot spots of mosquito breeding</a> in coastal Australia.</p> <p>The plants to <em>avoid</em> around the home are those that help mosquitoes breed, such as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1440-6055.2008.00641.x">bromeliads</a>, which trap water.</p> <h2>4. Encourage the animals that eat mosquitoes</h2> <p>Mosquitoes are food for a range of animals including birds, bats, fish, frogs, lizards, insects, spiders and <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2656.13965">dragonflies</a>. But don’t expect them to eat enough to keep all mosquitoes away.</p> <p>Bats are often promoted as a good “biological control” options but studies have shown mosquitoes are <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0077183">more likely to be a snack food</a> for small bats, not an irresistible staple of their diet.</p> <p>For garden ponds, frogs will eat a few adult mosquitoes but tadpoles of Australian frogs generally <a href="https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-the-american-mosquito-control-association/volume-21/issue-4/8756-971X(2006)21%5b492%3aTOFCAF%5d2.0.CO%3b2/TADPOLES-OF-FOUR-COMMON-AUSTRALIAN-FROGS-ARE-NOT-EFFECTIVE-PREDATORS/10.2987/8756-971X(2006)21%5B492:TOFCAF%5D2.0.CO;2.short">don’t eat many mosquito “wrigglers”</a>.</p> <p>Australian native fish <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15532929/">will readily eat mosquitoes</a> and may be useful for backyard ponds.</p> <p>But not all fish are good. While “mosquitofish” (aka “plague minnow”) is distributed overseas to assist in mosquito control, <a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/australian-zoologist/article/30/3/316/134508/Does-predation-by-the-fish-Gambusia-holbrooki">it’s a disaster for local wildlife</a> and, <a href="https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/aquatic-biosecurity/pests-diseases/freshwater-pests/finfish-species/gambusia">along with other exotic fish species</a>, should not be released into local waterways.</p> <p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13157-019-01133-2">Healthier habitats promote fewer mosquitoes</a> so the best thing you can do is create habitats for the animals that eat mosquitoes.</p> <h2>5. Avoid traps and other gadgets</h2> <p>There are lots of devices purported to catch, kill, or repel mosquitoes from your garden. Some may catch a mosquito or two but they’re not very effective in knocking out big numbers.</p> <p>“Bug zappers” with bright lights will collect lots of flying insects. It’s just that mosquitoes make up a very small proportion of collections.</p> <p>Electrocuting devices, again, don’t seem to attract a lot of mosquitoes.</p> <p>Devices that <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-buzz-from-your-smartphone-wont-stop-mosquito-bites-92611">emit high frequency sounds</a> won’t help either.</p> <p>The best devices are typically those that are baited with carbon dioxide. These are a mainstay of state and territory <a href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/mosquito-borne/Pages/surveillance.aspx">mosquito and arbovirus surveillance programs</a>. For a mosquito, the C0₂ tricks them into thinking the trap is a warm-blooded animal. The only problem is these can be expensive to run and don’t seem quite as effective for mosquito control <a href="https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-the-american-mosquito-control-association/volume-22/issue-3/8756-971X(2006)22%5b490%3aTATTFA%5d2.0.CO%3b2/Traps-and-Trapping-Techniques-for-Adult-Mosquito-Control/10.2987/8756-971X(2006)22%5B490:TATTFA%5D2.0.CO;2.short">unless used in large numbers</a>.</p> <h2>Yes, you’ll still need repellent</h2> <p>Perhaps the best way to avoid mosquito bites is to pick an insect repellent <a href="https://www.phrp.com.au/issues/december-2016-volume-26-issue-5/a-review-of-recommendations-on-the-safe-and-effective-use-of-topical-mosquito-repellents/">recommended by health authorities</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/mozzies-biting-heres-how-to-choose-a-repellent-and-how-to-use-it-for-the-best-protection-150183">apply it</a> to ensure all exposed areas of skin are covered. These products and safe, affordable and effective.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212711/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/cameron-webb-6736"><em>Cameron Webb</em></a><em>, Clinical Associate Professor and Principal Hospital Scientist, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-warming-up-and-mozzies-are-coming-heres-how-to-mosquito-proof-your-backyard-212711">original article</a>.</em></p>

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Shop

Catalogues

Newspaper

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Entertainment

Travel

Health

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Finance

Property

Compare

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Information

Keep up to date

Search

Where did money come from?

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