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Influencer’s extensive list of plane etiquette rules reignites age-old debate

A travel influencer has shared an extensive list of what you should and shouldn’t do on a plane, reigniting an age-old debate about in-flight etiquette. Ben Keenan, a frequent traveller from Seattle in the US, posted his list of dos and don’ts in a now-viral TikTok, saying it is “disgusting” for a passenger to take off their shoes and you should always check behind before reclining your seat. Keenan begins his list with his least controversial point, saying travellers should always greet their flight attendants when boarding the plane, pointing out that it costs nothing to be friendly and polite. He then broaches the topic of taking off your shoes on a plane, which was met with mixed responses. “Do not take off your shoes or socks when you’re sitting in your seat, you disgusting people,” he said. He went on to urge people not to pick an aisle seat if you plan on sleeping through your journey. “When selecting your seat before the flight, go ahead and determine what type of flyer you are. Are you someone that sleeps or are you someone that’s awake?” he said. “Because if you’re on an aisle seat, you need to be prepared to stand up and move out of the way multiple times during the flight – and I know this sucks but that truly means that you should not be a sleeper.” He continued, “Speaking of sleeping on the plane, if you’re going to recline your seat to do that, go ahead and make sure the people behind you aren’t resting their head on your seat or using that tray table because do you know how many times I’ve been smashed in the head by somebody who just aggressively leans back.” Keenan’s list of etiquette rules was met with a mixed response, with people both praising and criticising certain unspoken rules. “Nope … definitely taking my shoes off! And I’m not turning back to check … I will recline gently though,” one traveller said. “If it is a long flight, shoes are allowed to come off (8+ hours),” another wrote. One flyer agreed with Keenan’s rules, admitting, “I approach every flight like I'm being graded, and the flight attendants will give me an A+ for my flight etiquette.” Another bemused viewer put it simply, writing, “I’ve never flown but this all seems like common sense?” Image credits: TikTok

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The rich are pouring millions into life extension research – but does it have any ethical value?

Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/03/08/1069523/sam-altman-investment-180-million-retro-biosciences-longevity-death/">recently invested</a> US$180 million into Retro Biosciences – a company seeking to extend human lifespans by <a href="https://retro.bio/announcement/">ten healthy years</a>. One way it plans to achieve this is by “rejuvenating” blood. This idea is based on studies that found old mice <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/young-blood-renews-old-mice">showed signs of reversed ageing</a> when given the blood of young mice. Altman isn’t the only Silicon Valley entrepreneur supporting life extension efforts. PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Google cofounder Larry Page have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/feb/17/if-they-could-turn-back-time-how-tech-billionaires-are-trying-to-reverse-the-ageing-process">poured millions</a> into projects that could profoundly affect how we live our lives. The first question raised is scientific: could these technologies work? On this front the jury is still out, and there are grounds for both <a href="https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2021-01-14/How-close-are-we-to-radical-life-extension-and-is-it-a-good-idea--X03UFbnMWs/index.html">optimism</a> and scepticism. The second question is just as important: even if lifespan extension is feasible, would it be ethical? We explain why some common ethical arguments against lifespan extension aren’t as solid as they might seem – and put forth another, somewhat overlooked explanation for why trying to live forever might not be worth it. <h2>Is it worth it if you still die anyway?</h2> One might argue lifespan extension merely pushes back the inevitable: that we will die. However, the problem with this view is that any life saved will only be saved temporarily. A lifespan extension of ten years is akin to saving a drowning swimmer, only for them to die in a traffic accident ten years later. Although we might be sad about their eventual death, we’d still be glad we saved them. The same is true of conventional medicine. If a doctor cures my pneumonia, I will eventually die of something else, but that doesn’t mean the doctor or I will regret my being saved. It’s also worth taking a longer view of where lifespan extension research could lead us. In the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC423155/">most optimistic scenarios</a> put forth by experts, even modest short-term gains could help people add centuries to their life, since the benefits of each intervention could cascade. For example, each extra year of life would increase the likelihood of surviving until the next big breakthrough. <h2>Is it worth it if immortality could get boring?</h2> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953604004691">Many</a> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0890406510000757">have argued</a> against lifespan extension on ethical grounds, saying they wouldn’t use these technologies. Why might somebody be opposed? One worry is that a very long life might be undesirable. Philosopher <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/problems-of-the-self/makropulos-case-reflections-on-the-tedium-of-immortality/9180185912980E017EE675254B2F4169">Bernard Williams</a> said life is made valuable through the satisfaction of what he calls “categorical desires”: desires that give us reason to want to live. Williams expects these desires relate to major life projects, such as raising a child, or writing a novel. He worries that, given a long enough life, we will run out of such projects. If so, immortality would become tedious. It’s unclear whether Williams is right. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09672559.2012.713383">Some philosophers</a> point out human memories are fallible, and certain desires could resurface as we forget earlier experiences. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10892-015-9203-8">Others</a> emphasise that our categorical desires evolve as our life experiences reshape our interests – and might continue to do so over the course of a very long life. In either case, our categorical desires, and hence our reason for living, would not be exhausted over a very long life. Even if immortality did get tedious, this wouldn’t count against modest lifespan extensions. Many would argue 80-something years isn’t enough time to explore one’s potential. Personally, we’d welcome another 20 or even 50 years to write a novel, or start a career as a DJ. <h2>Is it worth it if poor people miss out?</h2> Another worry regarding lifespan extension technologies is egalitarian. These technologies will be expensive; it seems unjust for Silicon Valley billionaires to celebrate their 150th birthdays while the rest of us mostly die in our 70s and 80s. This objection seems convincing. Most people welcome interventions that promote health equality, which is reflected in broader societal demands for universal healthcare. But there’s important nuance to consider here. Consider that universal healthcare systems promote equality by improving the situation of those who aren’t well off. On the other hand, preventing the development of lifespan extension technologies will worsen the situation of those who are well off. The ethical desirability of equality based on “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9329.00041">levelling down</a>” is unclear. The poorest Australians are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-poorest-australians-are-twice-as-likely-to-die-before-age-75-as-the-richest-and-the-gap-is-widening-139201">twice as likely</a> to die before age 75 than the richest. Yet few people would argue we should stop developing technologies to improve the health of those aged over 75. Moreover, the price of lifespan extension technologies would eventually likely come down. <h2>The real problem</h2> However, we think there’s one serious ethical objection that applies to extreme cases of life extension. If humans routinely lived very long lives, this could reduce how adaptable our populations are, and lead to social stagnation. Even modest increases in life expectancy would radically increase population size. To avoid overpopulation, we’d need to <a href="https://theconversation.com/thinking-of-having-a-baby-as-the-planet-collapses-first-ask-yourself-5-big-ethical-questions-196388">reduce birth rates</a>, which would drastically slow generational turnover. As one of us (Chris) has explored in previous <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jmp/article/40/6/696/2747126">research</a>, this could be incredibly harmful to societal progress, because it may: <ol> <li>increase our vulnerability to extinction threats</li> <li>jeopardise individual wellbeing, and</li> <li>impede moral advancement.</li> </ol> Many fields benefit from a regular influx of young minds coming in and building on the work of predecessors. Even if the brains of older scientists remained sharp, their “confirmation bias” – a tendency to seek and interpret information in ways that confirm one’s prior beliefs – could slow the uptake of new scientific theories. Moral beliefs are also prone to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-020-00252-1">confirmation bias</a>. In a world of extended lifespans, individuals whose moral views were set in their youth (perhaps more than 100 years ago) will remain in positions of power. It seems likely our society’s moral code is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10677-015-9567-7">badly mistaken</a> in at least some respects. After all, we think past societies were catastrophically mistaken in theirs, such as when they endorsed slavery, or rendered homosexuality illegal. Slowing generational turnover could delay the point at which we recognise and fix our own moral catastrophes, especially those we can’t yet see. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rich-are-pouring-millions-into-life-extension-research-but-does-it-have-any-ethical-value-201774" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Caring

"A three-storey, luminous birdcage with suspended hanging gardens and an extensive crypt below": Sydney Modern is open at last

The Sydney Modern Project had the odds stacked against it since its inception in 2013. It has surely been the most controversial state gallery extension to be built in Australia. <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/about-us/people/art-gallery-of-nsw-executive/dr-michael-brand/">Michael Brand</a> – a Canberra-born, ANU and Harvard trained art historian with an outstanding museum career in Australia and America – was appointed as director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2012. This was on the retirement of Edmund Capon, who held the post for the preceding 33 years. Brand <a href="https://www.thecultureconcept.com/sydney-modern-designing-an-art-museum-for-the-21st-century">launched</a> the unfunded plan for a new building in 2013, the Tokyo firm SANAA <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/tokyos-sanaa-architects-win-art-gallery-of-nsw-sydney-modern-design-competition-20150527-ghamun.html">won</a> the architectural competition in 2015 and construction commenced in 2019 with a budget of A$344 million. The knives were quickly out for Brand and his project. Some, like Paul Keating, did not like the location and called it a “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/paul-keating-slams-art-gallery-of-nsw-expansion-as-land-grab-masquerading-as-art-20151124-gl6xuz.html">gigantic spoof</a>”. Others did not like the design; a <a href="https://www.cultureheist.com.au/">book</a> was published by a former gallery employee attacking the project; and the new culture at the gallery. Prominent people in the Sydney art scene lined up to attack the project and the director. <figure></figure> There were some people who simply did not like Brand. He is a reserved, scholarly individual with a brilliant eye, in total contrast with the flamboyant, media savvy Capon. There were faults with the original architectural design and significant modifications were implemented before construction commenced. There were also external circumstances that impacted on the project: the murky world of NSW state government politics, bush fires that shrouded Sydney in smoke, COVID-19. However, Sydney Modern, now that it is open, is a spectacular achievement. The floorspace of the gallery has almost doubled, creating a gallery precinct (Brand prefers to call it a “gallery campus”) with two buildings connected by an art garden. On one side we have the stately neo-classical building that looks like a traditional 19th century art gallery with a series of extensions by Andrew Anderson, on the other side, a new 21st century structure. <h2>A luminous birdcage</h2> The new building may be described as a three-storey, luminous birdcage with suspended hanging gardens and an extensive crypt below. The main architectural concept is that of three limestone-clad, cascading pavilions leading down towards the water with a huge supporting rammed earth wall. Below is the crypt, locally called the “tank”, in recognition of its origins as a fuel storage reservoir secretly and speedily constructed at the start of the second world war to store fuel for Allied shipping. It reminds me of the huge water cisterns in Istanbul constructed by the Byzantines to store water for the city. The tank is presently occupied by Adrián Villar Rojas’ “time-travelling sculptural forms” dramatically lit by constantly changing light sources. The smoke and mirrors display is deliberately disorientating, evoking more of a mood than a visual assessment of the artwork. In the upstairs birdcage, it is very easy to orient yourself and be aware of your location and the various possible exits. In the crypt all is murky and unpredictable as you gradually negotiate the spaces and dodge the pillars and protruding sharp edges of the sculptures. <h2>Indigenous art at the heart</h2> Although there is an emphasis on Indigenous art with the transfer of the Yiribana Gallery from the basement of the old building to the entry gallery of the new one, this is more than simply a symbolic gesture to have Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the heart of the gallery. Indigenous art is found at all levels of the new building and is integrated into the display of non-Indigenous Australian and international art. One of the highlights for me are the newly commissioned woven metal pieces by Lorraine Connelly-Northey. Her huge metal handbags made from discarded, well-weathered metal sheets from the outback have a stark sense of presence and are laced with wit. Her work looks out onto the most ambitious project, the sprawling art garden by Jonathan Jones scheduled to open mid-2023. Less a deliberate policy and more as part of the process of what Brand describes as selecting the most interesting new art, women artists make up 53% of the 900 exhibitors in the new building. The major thematic groupings, or exhibitions, in the new building are Dreamhome: Stories of art and shelter, Making worlds, Outlaw and Rojas’s The end of imagination in the crypt. These will remain in place for the next six months before there is a new set of exhibitions. <h2>An elegant build</h2> Despite the slings and arrows, Sydney Modern (now known somewhat unimaginatively as the North Building of the Art Gallery of NSW) has come to fruition. Possibly not the most magnificent art gallery in the world, as the NSW premier and his arts minister spruiked at the opening, but an elegant, formidable and very functional new building. Politicians in Australia have always been very good at throwing money at new buildings, the true test will come if this doubling in size of the gallery will be accompanied by a substantial increase to the operating budget of the institution. With new gallery spaces projected for Melbourne, Adelaide and possibly Canberra, funding is required for more than rammed earth, glass, bricks and mortar. Australia does not need a stampede of white elephants. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-three-storey-luminous-birdcage-with-suspended-hanging-gardens-and-an-extensive-crypt-below-sydney-modern-is-open-at-last-194451" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Art

NSW Premier announces lockdown extension

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced that the Greater Sydney lockdown will be extended for at least two more weeks with the current settings. The lockdown, which was set to end on the 16th of July at midnight will now be extended to at least July 30th. The lockdown covers all regions of Sydney, as well as the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour. The extension means that schools located within the lockdown areas will continue remote learning. The extension comes after 97 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the 24 hours to 8 pm last night, which brings the total number of infections in NSW to 864. Berejiklian said that the number of infectious people in the community needs to drop before lockdown can be lifted. "That is the number, the 24 number is what we need to get down to is close to zero as possible," she said. Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry CHant said that a number of suburbs are a concern and need to have higher levels of testing. <div class="liveblog-entry-content"> The areas of concern are Fairfield local government area, Roselands, Rosebury, Canterbury, Belmore, Sutherland shire, the St George area, Windsor, St Ives, Penrith and Bayside local government area," she said. "I am highlighting that the risk is ever present and remember, what I'm reading you today is what has happened overnight so tomorrow, there might be different sites," Dr Chant said. "That really reinforces the message that whenever you leave the house, you've got to assume you can come into contact with someone who is infectious with covid." </div>

News

Deputy Premier confirms lockdown extension

<div class="body_text redactor-styles redactor-in"> NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro has confirmed to morning show Sunrise that the lockdown will not be ending on Friday as scheduled. This is due to 112 new local COVID cases being recorded, with 46 out in the community for part or all of their infectious period. Speaking to Sunrise on Tuesday, Barilaro said “I don’t think we’ve hit a peak yet” and that case numbers are “still rising”. “There is no question that this has got out of control and what we’re now doing is fighting hard, working with our community to make sure we get on top of it so we can come out of lockdown sooner rather than later,” he told Natalie Barr. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> “There is no question that this has got out of control" NSW Deputy Premier <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnBarilaroMP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JohnBarilaroMP</a> says COVID-19 case numbers in Sydney are "still rising" and confirms the city "won't be coming out of lockdown at the end of the week." <a href="https://t.co/VDlKl86kgo">pic.twitter.com/VDlKl86kgo</a> — Sunrise (@sunriseon7) <a href="https://twitter.com/sunriseon7/status/1414703067186941976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 12, 2021</a></blockquote> “I expect today to be the same as yesterday,” he added. “Therefore, the Premier touched on it yesterday, we won’t be coming out of lockdown at the end of the week.” He also admitted that the lockdown should have been implemented earlier, saying that "hindsight is a beautiful thing". “If we got to rewrite history, of course you’d go down harder and earlier if you knew what was coming, but we didn’t know that.” “We made those decisions with the advice we were given by health at the time, but what we have seen is there is mobility at the community, people are out and about, people aren’t adhering to the strict restrictions and that’s not not helping the cause.” </div>

News

This browser extension is secretly recording everything you do online

Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox internet users may have had their entire online history recorded and stored by third-party developers. Security researcher Robert Theaton discovered a popular plugin for the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox was recording everything users did online. The software add-on “Stylish” is designed to let users customise the appearance of webpages, but it has been hijacked by spyware. The extension, which has more than 1.8 million users worldwide, may have been recording the browsing history of everyone who uses it. Theaton, a software engineer from San Francisco, found the software had been recording browser history since January 2017, when it was bought by new owners SimilarWeb. Writing on his blog, Mr Theaton said: “It only takes one tracking request containing one session cookie to permanently associate a user account with a Stylish tracking identifier. “This means that Stylish and SimilarWeb still have all the data they need to connect a real-world identity to a browsing history, should they or a hacker choose to.' Stylish sends complete browsing activity back to its servers with a unique identifier, he claims. This includes your Google search history, which could allow SimilarWeb to connect an individual with all of their online activity. According to a statement from SimilarWeb back in 2017, when the company took over and updated its privacy policy, tracking was added to improve the browser extension, according to reports in <a href="http://www.alphr.com/security/1009689/stylish-spyware-google-chrome-extension" target="_blank">Alphr</a>.

Technology

How to reopen a browser tab you accidentally closed

Lisa Du is director of <a href="https://readytechgo.com.au/" target="_blank">ReadyTechGo</a>, a service that helps people gain the confidence and skills to embrace modern technology. What's a browser? Browser is short for Web Browser, and is your way of browsing the internet and exploring websites. Leading Internet Browsers include: <ul> <li>Google Chrome</li> <li>Microsoft Internet Explorer</li> <li>Mozilla Firefox</li> <li>Apple Safari</li> <li>Microsoft Edge</li> </ul> What's a "tab"? In your browser, you can use tabs. Tabs allow you to open multiple web pages in your single browser window. Why would you do this? For example, if you are looking up movie sessions for the weekend, and you would like to find tickets at different cinemas and would like to compare the times. You can use multiple tabs in your browser! Tabs: I love tabs! I usually have 20 tabs opened at once when I work (probably not very efficient). As I make my way around the internet, I've had instances when I'm in the middle of something - either reading a page on the internet or searching for information, and I accidentally close the tab. It's incredibly frustrating, and I'm sure you can all relate. Instead of spending time trying to get back to where you were... TRY THIS: Apple Mac Users: Press command + shift + T Windows Users: Press ctrl + shift + T This will reopen the last closed tab.

Technology

3 great tips for Microsoft Edge

Lisa Du is director of <a href="http://www.readytechgo.com.au/" target="_blank">ReadyTechGo</a>, a service that helps people gain the confidence and skills to embrace modern technology. Microsoft Edge is an internet browser that is included in Windows 10, replacing Internet Explorer as the default web browser. Microsoft Edge gives you new ways to find information, read and write on the internet, and get help from personal assistant, Cortana. Windows 10 certainly has a lot of us baffled so we were absolutely delighted when one of our readers Ian Adair sent through some of his favourite tricks that are available in Microsoft Edge. Ian’s top tips for using Microsoft Edge: 1. Strip the junk from articles with reading mode My pet hate is when I'm trying to read a news article, and giant banner ads push the text down, or videos pop up on the page. Take all this junk away by enabling Reader Mode. My personal favourite! <img width="500" height="218" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/33499/1_500x218.jpg" alt="1 (159)"/> 2. Make a web note Microsoft Edge is the only browser that lets you take notes, write, doodle and highlight directly on pages that you reading. For example, you could make a note on recipes, or doodle a moustache on celebrities! Click on the Make a web note icon in Microsoft Edge, and use the Pen to write with your touchscreen or mouse, Highlight, or Type a note and then Share it. <img width="321" height="189" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/33500/2.png" alt="2 (158)"/> <img width="500" height="360" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/33501/image-3_500x360.jpg" alt="Image 3 (4)"/> 3. Save your web note to the reading list Click on the floppy disk icon to save your Web Note into the Reading List. <img width="393" height="202" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/33502/image-4.png" alt="Image 4 (2)"/> To open your Reading list again, click on The Hub, and then click Reading List. <img width="342" height="182" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/33503/image-5.png" alt="Image 5 (1)"/> For more tech tips, visit <a href="/%20https:/readytechgo.com.au/">ReadyTechGo</a>. Related links: <a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/technology/2017/01/how-to-take-a-screenshot/">How to take a screenshot</a> <a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/technology/2016/12/internet-tips-to-make-your-life-better/">4 internet tips to make your life better</a> <a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/entertainment/technology/2016/12/what-to-do-to-when-you-lose-unsaved-documents/">What to do to when you lose unsaved documents</a>

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Influencer’s extensive list of plane etiquette rules reignites age-old debate

The rich are pouring millions into life extension research – but does it have any ethical value?