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TheConversationAU
Endure – or peter out? Here’s what Northern Rivers organisers and Stop Adani can teach us about building climate groups
Over the last decade, several groups in Australia have successfully mobilised against fossil fuel interests. But which ones have gone the distance? The urgent global threat of climate change might suggest groups running large-scale campaigns are the ones likely achieve lasting change. But my research suggests groups focused on local efforts are often more successful. I’ve studied coalitions and campaigns, the climate movement and people-power globally. I’ve found groups with strong local roots can evolve and endure better than larger, more dispersed groups. The trajectory of two major environmental groups in Australia demonstrate the point. The first is focused around the Northern...
‘I don’t believe I would have gotten into university’: how early entry schemes help Year 12 students experiencing disadvantage
During September, many Australian universities start making early offers to Year 12 students for a place next year. This is ahead of the main rounds of offers, due in January. These early entry schemes have been around for many years. But offers soared during COVID, with more than 40,000 school-leavers estimated to have received an early offer in 2021 and again in 2022. These numbers saw early entry schemes slammed for lacking the “transparency” of the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), being an aggressive recruitment strategy by universities, and encouraging students to “slacken off” in their final exams. In February, federal...
Friday essay: We all live in the world of Ayn Rand, egomaniac godmother of libertarianism. Can fiction help us navigate it?
Love her or loathe her, Ayn Rand is an undeniably influential figure. Her contemporary admirers range from celebrities – Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Rob Lowe – to politicians, including Donald Trump. Cultural commentator Lisa Duggan has called her “the ultimate mean girl”. Rand was implacably opposed to all forms of altruism, social welfare programs and governmental oversight. She also harboured a lifelong hatred of communism. She was “one of the first American writers to celebrate the creative possibilities of modern capitalism and to emphasize the economic value of independent thought,” according to intellectual biographer Jennifer Burns. And while Rand founded a...
Grattan on Friday: US rate cut puts pressure on RBA - and things could get heated
Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock might need her flak jacket when she fronts the media next Tuesday after the bank’s two-day board meeting. This week’s United States Federal Reserve interest rate cut of a hefty half a percentage point (defying most more modest predictions) will put a lot of public pressure on the RBA, which is expected to hold Australia’s official rate at 4.35%. Bullock (who must surely abandon musings about a rate hike) can argue Australia’s situation is different – that inflation remains too high and unless that’s dealt with, we’ll all end up worse off. Also, US rates...
Tupperware has filed for bankruptcy – is multi-level marketing in trouble?
Tupperware is one of the few iconic brands with which nearly every Australian has come into contact at some stage. Some, like me, will have grown up watching their mums host “Tupperware parties” for their friends on the weekend. Others used the unmistakably colourful containers to carry their lunches to work or produce microwave meals of marvel. So what could have gone so badly wrong that the company has now filed for bankruptcy in the United States? Tupperware is one of the world’s most famous proponents of a business model called “multi-level marketing”. But its model came under serious new...
Unemployment of 4.2% is a sign of RBA success, but it might not last. Here’s why
Today’s news that an extra 47,500 Australians found work in August while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.2% is a sign of success for both the government and Reserve Bank. It’s a sign of success in dealing with the difficult task of bringing inflation down without too much economic damage. Then Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe, in a speech shortly before he handed over the reins to Michele Bullock, said that success in this task would require navigating a narrow path. To keep to the narrow path would mean inflation returns to the target band within a...
Yes, you do need to clean your tongue. Here’s how and why
Has your doctor asked you to stick out your tongue and say “aaah”? While the GP assesses your throat, they’re also checking out your tongue, which can reveal a lot about your health. The doctor will look for any changes in the tongue’s surface or how it moves. This can indicate issues in the mouth itself, as well as the state of your overall health and immunity. But there’s no need to wait for a trip to the doctor. Cleaning your tongue twice a day can help you check how your tongue looks and feels – and improve your breath. What...
I think my child is having panic attacks. What should we do?
In the movie Inside Out 2, 13-year-old Riley, who has recently started puberty, has a panic attack during a hockey game timeout. Anxiety (the emotion responsible for the panic attack) becomes completely frenzied and there is a sense Riley is losing control. After a while, Anxiety calms down and Riley’s panic attack subsides. The movie does a great job of conveying the experience of having a panic attack. But panic attacks (and anxiety) don’t just arise in teenagers – younger children can also have them. Being aware of what to look out for and how to respond to anxiety or panic is...
Donald Trump insists a ‘strongman’ leader will help America. My new book explains why he’s wrong
It is well known former US President Donald Trump admires the power strongman leaders wield. What is less well known are the problematic long-term constitutional consequences of this kind of strongman governance. My new book reveals these consequences. It shows today’s strongmen rely on what I call the “constitutional dark arts”. This is a belief the constitutional centralisation of power in a leader is a better way to secure democracy, sovereignty and economic development. Strongmen like Vladimir Putin in Russia, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey do not disband democratic institutions such as courts,...
Victorian households are poorly prepared for longer, more frequent heatwaves – here’s what needs to change
Heatwaves in Australia are expected to become hotter, longer and more frequent under climate change. They can seriously affect our health and wellbeing, and even kill people. But how well-prepared are Australian households for life in a hotter world? Our new research explored this question in Victoria. We examined how households cope with, adapt to and endure summers and heatwaves. We found they overwhelmingly considered summer heat a temporary disruption – something to just get through. This is consistent with the approach taken by authorities, which generally treat heatwaves as isolated emergencies. This needs to change. Governments, emergency services and households...
‘Side job, self-employed, high-paid’: behind the AI slop flooding TikTok and Facebook
TikTok, Facebook and other social media platforms are being flooded with uncanny and bizarre content generated with artificial intelligence (AI), from fake videos of the US government capturing vampires to images of shrimp Jesus. Given its outlandish nature and tenuous relationship with reality, you might think this so-called “AI slop” would quickly disappear. However, it shows no sign of abating. In fact, our research suggests this kind of low-quality AI-generated content is becoming a lucrative venture for the people who make it, the platforms that host it, and even a growing industry of middlemen teaching others how to get in...
Australians are flocking to play futsal, a sport that helped launch many elite soccer careers
It’s the next global sporting event on a busy 2024 calendar – the 10th FIFA Futsal World Cup is underway in Uzbekistan. While the indoor soccer variant might be on your radar as a fun kids’ sport, or a high-energy weeknight hobby, proponents like Football Australia say the FIFA-governed game is actually one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. Here’s a few reasons why it’s gaining players and fans – and might even be breeding our next Socceroo or Matilda. What is futsal? Futsal is a relatively modern sport. It was invented in Uruguay in the early 1930s with the name deriving from...
Clones in the classroom: why universities must be wary of embracing AI-driven teaching tools
The university sector in Aotearoa New Zealand is at a tipping point due to chronic underfunding, shifting enrolments and increasing costs from inflation. In response, the government has established two working groups to assess the health of the sector and provide recommendations for the future. Meanwhile, universities find themselves increasingly beholden to the education technology (EdTech) industry, which claims to improve student learning by selling hardware and software – often built with artificial intelligence (AI). Most universities already pay for services from EdTech companies such as Turnitin, Grammarly, CampusTalk and Studiosity, all of which use AI in their products. But critics...
E-scooter riders flouting rules, blocking footpaths and causing accidents? We need to use smart solutions (and bust the myths)
Recent decisions by several Australian and New Zealand cities to discontinue shared e‑scooter services have again thrust misperceptions and moral panic into the limelight. Some city councils have terminated contracts with one operator of shared e‑scooters over allegations relating to exceeding caps on numbers. Other councils have cited public concerns about footpath riding, accidents, reckless use and parking to explain their decisions. There have been calls for tougher policing of e-scooters. However, recent research and innovations in the industry offer better, more cost-effective solutions that will ease the pressure on police resources. These solutions include using readily available technology, including...
The US election has put the spotlight on Haiti. Its history reveals extensive exploitation by the US – and France
Since the recent US presidential debate, Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance have doubled down on claims that Haitian immigrants are causing crime and disorder in Springfield, Ohio. These claims spread rapidly because of the bogus assertion that pets were being stolen and eaten. The claims fit a pattern of assertions by Republicans – particularly around election time – about immigrant-fuelled crime. Trump also repeated false claims that the town of Aurora in Colorado has been taken over by Venezuelan gangs. In 2016, Trump made similar claims about El Salvadoran gangs on Long Island. Although false, these claims play...
Astronomers just detected the biggest black hole jets ever seen – and named them Porphyrion
The largest known black hole jets, 23 million light years across, have been discovered in the distant universe. This pair of particle beams launched by a supermassive black hole is over a hundred times larger than our galaxy, the Milky Way. In 2022, we announced the discovery of one of the largest black hole jets in the night sky, launched from a (relatively) nearby galaxy called NGC2663. Using CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in Western Australia, we confirmed that NGC2663’s jet is one of the largest in the sky. In other words, it appears to be the largest when...
The genes tell a story: new research offers much-needed certainty for autistic New Zealanders
A global rise in autism diagnoses is putting the spotlight on this relatively common neurodevelopmental difference. A recent study identified autism in 1.3% of four- to five-year-olds in Aotearoa New Zealand. This matches estimates overseas of 1% to 2% of eight-year-olds. In our new research, we looked at how genetic testing could support how people in New Zealand are diagnosed. Genetic screening of 201 autistic individuals, as well as 101 non-autistic family members, found almost 13% of autistic participants had a clearly identified genetic variant. An additional 16% had a DNA change that likely explained their autism. Importantly, our analysis was successful...
Even the heaviest particles experience the usual quantum weirdness, new experiment shows
One of the most surprising predictions of physics is entanglement, a phenomenon where objects can be some distance apart but still linked together. The best-known examples of entanglement involve tiny chunks of light (photons), and low energies. At the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, the world’s largest particle accelerator, an experiment called ATLAS has just found entanglement in pairs of top quarks: the heaviest particles known to science. The results are described in a new paper from my colleagues and me in the ATLAS collaboration, published today in Nature. What is entanglement? In everyday life, we think of objects as being either “separate”...
Hannah Arendt wanted political thinking to be urgent and engaged. She is a philosopher for our times
Lyndsey Stonebridge begins We Are Free to Change the World, her illuminating biography of Hannah Arendt, by reminding us of her subject’s continuing relevance. Arendt is sometimes thought of as a lofty and abstract thinker. Yet her thinking was highly responsive to the shock of Nazism and the rise of fascism, which left her stateless and acutely vulnerable for many years. After World War II, she discarded any ready-made theories. These included comfortable notions that Nazism and Stalinism were aberrations from the eventual global triumph of Western democracy. As Stonebridge points out, Arendt wanted political thinking to be urgent and...
How we think about ‘obesity’ and body weight is changing. Here’s why
From doctors’ offices to family gatherings, larger-bodied people report being bombarded with unsolicited advice about their eating and exercise habits. The underlying message? They “just need to lose weight” to fix almost any health problem. Society’s focus on weight has shaped how most Australians view health and body weight, often pushing them towards unhealthy thoughts and behaviours in the pursuit of an “ideal” body shape. However, the way society thinks about ob*sity and body weight is changing, with science backing the shift. *Historical reflections on the word “obesity” reveal its offensive origins, with advocates suggesting the term ob*sity should be used...
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