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Crown Princess Mary set to make history

Crown Princess Mary is set to make history, after a surprise announcement from Queen Margrethe has shaken up the Danish royal family. On New Year's Eve, Queen Margrethe, who is currently Europe's longest-serving monarch, announced that she would be stepping down as the Danish monarch from January 14th, making her eldest son, Crown Prince Frederik, the country's new King. The Crown Prince will be known as King Frederik X, and his wife, Australian-born Crown Princess Mary, will be his Queen Consort, and will be known as Queen Mary. While there have been monarchs known as Queen Mary in the past, the Tasmanian native will be the first ever Australian to hold the title. Unlike the British royal family, King Frederik and Queen Mary will not be crowned in a coronation service. Instead, a proclamation of the new reign will be made at Christiansborg Palace on January 14th, as the prime minister has proclaimed each new monarch on the balcony of the Danish palace since the early 1900s. The announcement from Queen Margrethe was made during her annual New Year's Eve speech, where she reflected on having surgery on her back in February 2023. “The surgery naturally gave rise to thinking about the future – whether the time had come to leave the responsibility to the next generation,” she said in the televised speech. “I have decided that now is the right time. On 14 January 2024 – 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father – I will step down as queen of Denmark,” she said. “I leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik,” she added. Image credits: Getty Images

Family & Pets

The sky’s the limit: A brief history of in-flight entertainment

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/olusola-adewumi-john-1490381">Olusola Adewumi John</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-regina-3498">University of Regina</a> As the winter holidays draw near, many of us are already booking flights to see friends and family or vacation in warmer climates. Nowadays, air travel is synonymous with some form of in-flight entertainment, encompassing everything from the reception offered by the aircrew to the food choices and digital content. These services all add value to flying for customers. Passengers are now so familiar with in-flight entertainment that to travel without it is unthinkable. <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/10/19/2762903/0/en/In-Flight-Entertainment-Connectivity-Market-to-Worth-21-03-Bn-by-2030-Exhibiting-With-a-15-9-CAGR.html">The in-flight entertainment and connectivity market grew to US$5.9 billion as of 2019</a>, a testament to its economic impact on both the airlines and the GDP of countries with airline carriers. In-flight entertainment is so ubiquitous that, even if all other airline services were offered, <a href="https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/19427/will-airlines-compensate-me-if-my-entertainment-system-is-not-working">the airline ensures a refund is made to the passenger affected</a> if television content cannot be accessed. <h2>A brief history</h2> In-flight entertainment has evolved significantly over the years. Before in-flight entertainment media was introduced, passengers entertained themselves by reading books or with food and drink services. The original aim of bringing in-flight entertainment into cabins was to attract more customers, drawing inspiration from a variety of sources, including the theatrical and domestic media environments. It was not initially for the comfort and ease of travelling, as it is today. <a href="https://www.academia.edu/5023683/A_History_of_INFLIGHT_ENTERTAINMENT">Inflight entertainment began as an experiment</a> in 1921, when 11 Aeromarine Airways passengers were shown the film Howdy Chicago! on a screen hung in the cabin during the flight. Four years later, another experiment was carried out in 1925 when 12 passengers on board an Imperial Airlines flight from London were shown the film The Lost World. <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/when-did-inflight-movies-become-standard-on-airlines-180955566/">It wasn’t until the 1960s</a> that in-flight movies became mainstream for airlines. Trans World Airlines became the first carrier to regularly offer feature films during flights, using a unique film system developed by <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/06/02/inflight">David Flexer, then-president of Inflight Motion Pictures</a>. Starting in 1964, in-flight entertainment evolved to include various media types like 16-mm film, closed-circuit television, live television broadcasts and magnetic tape. In the 1970s, for example, airplanes might feature a large screen with a 16-mm projector in one part of the plane, while small screens hung overhead in another section. <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/reviews-and-advice/when-did-airlines-install-seatback-entertainment-20190711-h1g51b.html">Seatback screens were introduced in 1988</a> when Airvision installed 6.9-centimetre screens on the backs of airline seats for Northwest Airlines. They have since morphed into the larger screens we are familiar with today, which are found on nearly every airline. <h2>In-flight entertainment today</h2> Most airlines nowadays have personal televisions for every passenger on long-haul flights. On-demand streaming and internet access are also now the norm. Despite initial concerns about speed and cost, in-flight services are becoming faster and more affordable. In-flight entertainment now includes movies, music, radio talk shows, TV talk shows, documentaries, magazines, stand-up comedy, culinary shows, sports shows and kids’ shows. However, the rise of personal devices, like tablets and smartphones, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/comment/the-weird-and-wonderful-history-of-in-flight-entertainment/">could spell the end for seatback screens</a>. A number of U.S. airlines, including American Airlines, United Airlines and Alaska Air, have <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-09/airline-seatback-screens-may-soon-become-an-endangered-species">removed seatback screens from their domestic planes</a>. This decline is par for the course. To arrive at the complex system used by aircraft today, in-flight entertainment went through a number of different stages, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0641-1_10">as identified by aviation scholar D.A. Reed</a>. It started with an idea phase, which saw the conception of the idea, followed by an arms race phase where most airlines adopted some form of it. Currently, airlines are facing challenges in the final — and current — phase of evolution, and are dealing with failures linked to business concept flaws or low revenue. Now that most air travellers carry electronic devices, fewer airlines are installing seatback screens. From an economic standpoint, this makes sense for airlines: removing seatback screens <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/business/airlines-travel-entertainment.html">improves fuel costs</a> and allows airlines to <a href="https://www.flightglobal.com/systems-and-interiors/united-ups-757-density-with-new-slimline-seats/126574.article">install slimmer seats</a>, allowing for more passengers. <h2>More than entertainment</h2> At some point in the evolution of in-flight entertainment, it started to serve as more than just a form of entertainment or comfort. Now, it’s also a competitive tool for airline advertisements, and a form of cultural production. In-flight entertainment has become an economic platform for investors, business people, manufacturers and entertainment providers, especially Hollywood. It also plays a key role in promoting the national culture of destination countries. However, the evolution of in-flight entertainment hasn’t been without its challenges. As a form of cultural production, it often reflects the interests of advertisers, governments and business entities. It also follows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0641-1_10">certain ideas, products and cultures are sold to passengers</a> via in-flight entertainment. The lucrative practice of capturing and selling passengers’ attention to advertisers was not limited to screens, either. In-flight magazines have always been packed with advertisements, and by the late 1980s, these advertisements had spread to napkins and the audio channels. Despite its shortcomings and precarious future, in-flight entertainment still offers passengers a sense of comfort, alleviating concerns about being suspended over 30,000 feet above sea level. If you end up flying during the holidays, remember your comfort is partly thanks to this innovation.<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/218996/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/olusola-adewumi-john-1490381">Olusola Adewumi John</a>, Visiting Researcher, Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-regina-3498">University of Regina</a> Image credits: Shutterstock 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/the-skys-the-limit-a-brief-history-of-in-flight-entertainment-218996">original article</a>.

Travel Tips

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

<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> 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. 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. 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. 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. <h2>How opinions have differed</h2> Debates around the Voice have presented three competing narratives to the Australian public. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. <h2>Right-wing tactics of division</h2> 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. <h2>Difficulties confronting our history</h2> What sits beneath this right-wing rhetoric in Australia is the highly charged debate over the nation’s past and its future. 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. The ongoing difficulty of “coming to terms” with colonial histories can be attributed to a number of things: <ul> <li> historical amnesia, disbelief or cultural differences over what counts as historical knowledge </li> <li> the strategic use of “forgetting” to protect a social group’s self-image </li> <li> and the belief that engaging in these difficult histories is somebody else’s responsibility rather than our own. </li> </ul> 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. 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. 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. <h2>Playing a role in the future of the nation</h2> 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. 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> <blockquote> 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. </blockquote> 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. 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: <ul> <li> the brutal dislodging of kinship connections </li> <li> the taking of land without any legal basis or compensation </li> <li> the violent dispersal of people from their land, which has rendered many destitute and without means to care for their families </li> <li> 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 </li> <li> 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. </li> </ul> 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. 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. 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" /> <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> Image credits: Central Land Council - PR Image 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>.

Caring

What your family history says about your eyesight

Eye disorders can be caused by many things such as infection and injury but did you know it can also be genetic? We know looking up our family history is important for our health but it’s also vitally important to do so for our eyes. Genetics do play a role in determining your family’s susceptibility to certain eye diseases so it’s a good idea to check your family history as well as record any eye issues you have for future generations. Here are some of the most common hereditary eye conditions. Glaucoma Not all glaucoma is inherited but the most common type, primary open-angle glaucoma, is hereditary. According to the Glaucoma Research Foundation, a family history of glaucoma increases your risk around four to nine times. Coupled with the fact glaucoma is much more common as you age, it’s a good idea to get your eyes checked regularly. Glaucoma can lead to the reduction in peripheral vision and even blindness. Signs include bulging eyes, excessive tearing and abnormal sensitivity to light. Age-related macular degeneration Scientist have found that genetics may contribute to the risk of having macular degeneration but it’s not always the case. Some people never develop it even though both parents may have it while others get it even though there is no family history. The current research shows that genetics contribute to macular degeneration anywhere from 40 to 70 percent. However, whether you have a family history or not it’s important to get your eyes checked as age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in people aged 50 and over. Colour blindness A misnomer as people are not ‘blind’ but colour vision deficient. People who are colour blind usually cannot distinguish between certain colours such as red and green. Inherited colour blindness is common in men with women rarely affected. There is no treatment and most people adjust to the condition. Retinitis pigmentosa A mutated gene causes the retina to degenerate which can lead to night blindness and vision loss. Most cases are inherited and it usually appears in childhood but vision loss doesn’t occur until later in life. There is unfortunately no cure and no treatments but researchers are making significant progress in identifying the genes that cause retinitis pigmentosa. Achromatopsia An inherited condition (only if both parents have the recessive gene) that affects 1 in 33,000 people. The condition is associated with decreased vision, sensitivity to light and colour blindness. Optic atrophy Optic atrophy may be inherited or caused by brain trauma, inflammation, degenerative disorders, haemorrhage or tumour. The breakdown of the optic nerve causes vision loss. Image credits: Getty Images

Body

The strange history of these 5 common superstitions

Where superstitions come from You probably engage in many of these superstitions as second nature, but have you ever thought about where they come from? Superstition: Black cats are bad omens The backstory: Despite centuries of royal treatment (Egyptians worshipped them; the Norse goddess Freya rode in a chariot pulled by them), cats took a big hit to their reputation in the 1200s, when Pope Gregory IX, waging a culture war on pagan symbols, damned cats as servants of Satan. As a result, cats – especially black ones – were killed across Europe. One unintended consequence, according to some historians: The cat-deprived continent may have allowed disease-carrying rodents to flourish and spread the bubonic plague of 1348. Rumours that the feline’s fangs and fur were venomous persisted, and by the witch-hunting days of the 1600s, many Puritans believed black cats to be “familiars” – supernatural demons that serve witches – and avoided them (to borrow an apt phrase) like the plague. Superstition: Never walk under a ladder The backstory: Depending on your background, a ladder leaning against a wall can represent an honest day’s work, a textbook geometry problem, or a symbol of the Holy Trinity that, if breached, will damn your soul. That last bit is what some ancient Christians believed – that any triangle represented the Trinity, and disrupting one could summon the Evil One. These days, our under-ladder phobia is a smidge more practical: Avoid it because you might get beaned by falling tools, debris, or an even less lucky human. Superstition: Break a mirror and see seven years of bad luck The backstory: Numerous ancient cultures agree: Your reflection doesn’t just reveal whether you’re having a bad hair day – it also holds a piece of your soul. To break a mirror, then, is to fracture your very essence, leaving you vulnerable to bad luck. So why should the sentence last seven years? Some writers cite the ancient Romans, who are said to have believed that the human body and soul fully regenerate every seven years. Any poor pleb who fractured his or her soul in the looking glass would therefore have to endure the bad karma until the soul renewed again. Superstition: A full moon brings out the crazies The backstory: Ever wonder where the word lunatic came from? Look no further than luna, the Latin word for the moon. Many Greeks knew that the moon and its goddess, Luna, held the tides in their thrall, and Aristotle considered the human brain – the “moistest” organ – particularly susceptible to Luna’s pull. Ancient physician Hippocrates agreed, writing, “One who is seized with terror, fright and madness during the night is being visited by the goddess of the moon.” Today, some emergency room workers still believe the full moon means trouble. Superstition: Say “God bless you” after a sneeze or risk something worse than a cold The backstory: You’ve probably heard the myth that a sneeze stops the heart (it doesn’t) or separates body from soul (science declines to comment there). But to explain the ritual of post-sneeze “blessing,” we can look to another pope. During the first recorded plague pandemic, in the sixth century, severe sneezing often portended sudden death. As a desperate precaution, Pope Gregory I supposedly asked followers to say “God bless you” every time someone sneezed. Today, it’s just polite. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/culture/this-is-the-history-behind-these-5-common-superstitions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>.

Caring

Ozempic is in the spotlight but it’s just the latest in a long and strange history of weight-loss drugs

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/laura-dawes-1445353">Laura Dawes</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-national-university-877">Australian National University</a> Losing weight conveniently, cheaply, safely. That’s been the holy grail of weight-loss ever since 19th century English undertaker and weight-loss celebrity William Banting’s 1863 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/57545/57545-h/57545-h.htm">Letter on Corpulence</a> spruiked his “miraculous” method of slimming down. Since then, humans have tried many things – diet, exercise, psychotherapy, surgery – to lose weight. But time and again we return to the promise of a weight-loss drug, whether it’s a pill, injection, or tonic. A “diet drug”. The <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674281448#:%7E:text=Childhood%2520Obesity%2520in%2520America%2520traces,problem%2520facing%2520American%2520children%2520today.">history of diet drugs</a> is not a glowing one, however. There have been so many popular drug treatments for excess weight over the years. All, however, have eventually lost their shine and some have even been banned. <h2>Ozempic is a recent arrival</h2> <a href="https://www.novonordisk.com/our-products/our-medicines.html">Ozempic and its sister drug Wegovy</a>, both manufactured by Novo Nordisk, are the latest offerings in a long history of drug treatments for people who are overweight. They contain the same active ingredient – semaglutide, which mimics a hormone, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1544319118303273">GLP-1</a> (glucagon-like peptide-1) that acts on the hypothalamus (the brain’s “hunger centre”) to regulate appetite. As an obesity treatment, semaglutide appears to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5573908/">work</a> in part by reducing appetite. These are injections. And there can be <a href="https://www.novonordisk.com.au/content/dam/nncorp/au/en/pdfs/Ozempic-1mg-cmi-v3.0.pdf%22%22">side effects</a>, most commonly nausea and diarrhoea. Although marketed as treatments for chronic obesity and diabetes, they have <a href="https://www.forbes.com/health/body/ozempic-for-weight-loss/#footnote_1">exploded in popularity</a> as diet drugs, largely thanks to social media. This has helped drive a <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/safety/shortages/information-about-major-medicine-shortages/about-ozempic-semaglutide-shortage-2022-and-2023#:%7E:text=Why%2520the%2520Ozempic%2520shortage%2520happened,label%2520prescribing%2520for%2520weight%2520loss.">shortage of Ozempic</a> for diabetes treatment. <h2>From ‘gland treatment’ to amphetamines</h2> But Ozempic is not the first weight-loss drug. For example, organotherapy (gland treatment) was <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674281448#:%7E:text=Childhood%20Obesity%20in%20America%20traces,problem%20facing%20American%20children%20today.">hugely popular</a> in the 1920s to 1940s. It rode on a wave of enthusiasm for endocrinology and specifically the discovery that “ductless glands” – such as the thyroid, pituitary and renal glands – secreted chemical messengers (or “hormones”, as they came to be known). These hormones coordinate the activities and growth of different parts of the body. Doctors prescribed overweight people extracts of animal glands – either eaten raw or dried in pill form or injected – to treat their <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674281448#:%7E:text=Childhood%20Obesity%20in%20America%20traces,problem%20facing%20American%20children%20today.">supposedly “sluggish glands”</a>. For slaughterhouse companies, this was a lucrative new market for offal. But organotherapy soon fell from favour. There was no evidence excess weight was usually caused by underperforming glands or that gland extracts (thyroid in particular) were doing anything other than <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21741-thyrotoxicosis">poisoning you</a>. <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814776391/on-speed/">Amphetamines</a> were first used as a nasal decongestant in the 1930s, but quickly found a market for weight-loss. Why they worked was complex. The drug operated on the hypothalamus but also had an effect on mental state. Amphetamine is, of course, an “upper”. The theory was it helped people feel up to dieting and gave pleasure not found on a plate. Amphetamines too, <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2007.110593">fell from treatment use</a> in the 1970s with Nixon’s “war on drugs” and recognition they were addictive. <h2>Another decade, another drug</h2> Each decade seems to produce its own briefly popular weight-loss drug. For example, the popular <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/23/science/how-fen-phen-a-diet-miracle-rose-and-fell.html">diet drug</a> of the 1980s and 90s was fen-phen, which contained appetite suppressants fenfluramine and phentermine. During the height of its craze, vast numbers of users testified to dramatic weight loss. But after users experienced heart valve and lung disease, fen-phen was <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9688104/">withdrawn</a> from the market in 1997. Its producer allocated a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-08-23/pfizer-asks-end-to-fen-phen-suits-linked-to-lung-ailment">reported US$21 billion</a> to settle the associated lawsuits. The hormone <a href="https://www.webmd.com/obesity/features/the-facts-on-leptin-faq">leptin</a> aroused excitement in the mid-1990s. Leptin seemed, for a brief moment, to hold the key to how the hypothalamus regulated fat storage. Pharmaceutical company Amgen <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.7732366">wagered millions</a> buying the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30532682/">rights</a> to the research in the hope this discovery could be turned into a treatment, only to discover it didn’t translate from mice into people. Far from not having enough leptin, people with obesity tend to be <a href="https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/leptin-101">leptin-resistant</a>. So taking more leptin doesn’t help with weight-loss. Amgen <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/01/obesity-reviving-the-promise-of-leptin/">sold</a> the rights it had paid so much for. <a href="https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ephedra-sinica">Ephedra</a> was popular as a weight-loss treatment and as a stimulant in the 1990s and 2000s, finding buyers among athletes, body builders and in the military. But the US Food and Drug Administration <a href="https://ods.od.nih.gov/HealthInformation/Ephedra.aspx">banned</a> the sale of dietary supplements containing ephedra in 2004 after it was linked to <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc1502505">health problems</a> ranging from heart attacks and seizures to strokes and even death, and in Australia ephedra is <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2023L00864">prescription-only</a>. Now we have Ozempic. Just because the history of diet drugs has <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3362858/">been so dire</a>, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about new ones – Ozempic is not a drug of the 1920s or 1960s or 1990s. And as <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674281448#:%7E:text=Childhood%2520Obesity%2520in%2520America%2520traces,problem%2520facing%2520American%2520children%2520today.">history recognises</a>, multiple complexities can combine to push a drug into popularity or damn it to history’s rubbish bin. These include patients’, physicians’ and industry interests; social attitudes about drug treatment; evidence about safety and efficacy; beliefs and knowledge about the cause of excess weight. One noticeable contrast with past diet drug experiences is that now, many people are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/well/ozempic-diabetes-weight-loss.html">happy to talk</a> about using Ozempic. It seems to be increasingly socially acceptable to use a drug to achieve weight-loss for primarily aesthetic reasons. (Due to Ozempic shortages in Australia, though, doctors have been <a href="https://www.tga.gov.au/safety/shortages/medicine-shortage-alerts/ozempic-semaglutide-supply-update">asked</a> to direct current supplies to people with type 2 diabetes who satisfy certain criteria. In other words, it’s not really meant to be used just to treat obesity). <h2>Our enduring search for weight-loss drugs</h2> Ozempic is predicted to earn Novo Nordisk <a href="https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/comment/novo-nordisk-ozempic/">US$12.5 billion this year alone</a>, but it’s not just industry interests stoking this enduring desire for weight-loss drugs. Patients on an endless cycle of dieting and exercise want something more convenient, with a more certain outcome. And doctors, too, want to offer patients effective treatment, and a drug prescription is a workable option given the constraints of appointment times. The body positivity movement has not yet ousted anti-fat bias or stigma. And despite <a href="https://www.who.int/teams/health-promotion/enhanced-wellbeing/first-global-conference">decades of recognition</a> of the major role our physical and social environment plays in human health, there’s little political, public or industry appetite for change. Individuals are left to personally defend against an obesogenic environment, where economic, cultural, social, health and urban design policies can conspire to make it easy to gain weight but hard to lose it. It is no wonder demand for weight-loss drugs continues to soar.<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/209324/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/laura-dawes-1445353">Laura Dawes</a>, Research Fellow in Medico-Legal History, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-national-university-877">Australian National University</a> Image credits: Shutterstock 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/ozempic-is-in-the-spotlight-but-its-just-the-latest-in-a-long-and-strange-history-of-weight-loss-drugs-209324">original article</a>.

Body

UFO sightings: 15 most chilling sightings in history

“Unexplained aerial phenomena” When it comes to extra-terrestrial life and making contact with those from outer space, everyone has an opinion. Some think it’s all a hack, some are open to speculate, and others still are entirely taken with the tales and stories as old as time, cameras poised and tinfoil hats at the ready (one of many crazy conspiracy theories). UFOs have fascinated and confused us for years as each new flying saucer or hovercraft sighting makes national news and splits us into two camps. While it’s easy to debunk individual stories, it’s much harder to argue with the US Department of Defense. In videos leaked back in 2007 and 2017, the Pentagon has aimed to “clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real.” In the video, unidentified objects are seen spinning and hovering in the air and above the water while two navy pilots remark in shock and confusion over the two oblong, disk-shaped “objects.” Whether you’re a believer or a sceptic, UFO sightings bring out a little wonder (and a little fear!) in all of us. Take a look at these sightings and stories and make of it what you will. Most importantly, keep looking to the sky. Betty and Barney Hill It’s only fair that we begin with one of the most famous UFO and alien abduction cases in history: the Betty and Barney Hill case. The two were driving on a road in the US state of New Hampshire at night when a bright light seemed to start following them. When they eventually got home, it was daylight, their clothes were dirty and ripped, their watches had stopped working – and they couldn’t remember a thing. During sessions with a psychiatrist, they later recalled being probed and violated by aliens during an abduction. The case was investigated by Project Blue Book, a now declassified UFO secret. The Melbourne 350 More than 300 students and teachers of Westall High School in Melbourne, Australia saw an unbelievable sight on April 6, 1966, shares the New York Post. They were all looking incredulously at five planes that were attempting to corner and capture a UFO. This went on for a while before the UFO zipped away, out of sight. It is reported that the headmaster of the school and even strange men in black suits told the students and teachers never to say anything about it, even though it was witnessed by hundreds of people. Zimbabwe children and the end of the world In September of 1994, several UFOs allegedly hovered near a school in Ruwa, Zimbabwe, reports Vanity Fair. The children who observed these UFOs were terrified when they were asked to explain what had happened. They described beings with big heads, no nose (just two holes), no mouth, and long black hair. The children said they were dressed in dark suits and communicated telepathically. “‘I think it’s about something that’s going to happen,’” said one little girl. ‘What I thought was maybe the world’s going to end. They were telling us the world’s going to end. I don’t even know. It just popped up in my head. He never said anything. He talked just with his eyes.’” <div class="slide-image" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Rendlesham Forest Incident Known as “Britain’s Roswell,” the Rendlesham Forest Incident is one of the most famous UFO reports. The reason? Because the witnesses involved in the December 1980 event were, in fact, US military personnel and considered highly credible witnesses. They reported seeing an alien aircraft zoom through the forest. When they went to go check it out, it seemed as though strange hieroglyphics were written all over the craft. It turns out that this was most likely a prank played on the US soldiers by the British military. The O’Hare International Airport saucer On November 7, 2006, US United Flight 446 was about to depart from Chicago’s O’Hare International airport, when a dozen United Airlines employees spotted an odd metallic craft hovering over the gate. The employees reported that it hung in the air for several minutes before finally shooting up at breakneck speed into the clouds. The strangest part? The UFO did not register on the airport’s radar, despite all the witnesses. The FAA declined to investigate, chalking it up to a “weather phenomenon.” The Frederick Valentich Disappearance Australian pilot Frederick Valentich was flying over the Bass Strait when he encountered something that he couldn’t identify, according to News.com.au. He got on his radio to notify air control that there was a strange vessel the likes of which he had never seen before, circling him, as if taunting him. “It is hovering and it is not an aircraft,” were the last words Valentich said before he and his plane disappeared forever. Robert Matthews and missing time According to CBS Reality, an Airman named Robert Matthews got off of a bus in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA, to report for his first tour of duty back in 1966. Matthews saw strange lights appearing in the deserted area where the bus driver had told him to call and wait for a truck to pick him up and take him to base. Afraid, he used a payphone to call the base a second time, what he thought was five minutes later. The person who answered the phone told him that the truck had arrived to pick him up five minutes after he got off the bus, but that the driver couldn’t find Matthews. In actuality, an hour separated those two phone calls. This phenomenon is called “missing time” and is commonly associated with alien abduction cases. The Broad Haven Primary School drawings The BBC reports that in 1977, a group of school children from the Broad Haven Primary School claimed to have seen a UFO near their playground. The teachers of the school refused to believe them, but when the children were separated and asked to draw pictures of the experience, they all came up with the same drawing of a flying saucer. Barbara Lamb and the lizard man A woman named Barbara Lamb, a psychotherapist who observed crop circles, claimed that a reptilian figure appeared in her house one day, reports Vanity Fair. He was tall and had piercing yellow eyes. Normally not fond of snakes and lizards, the reptile appeared friendly and welcoming to Lamb, so she reached out to touch his hand. Then the lizard man vanished as suddenly as he appeared. Fred Crisman and Harold Dahl In 1947, Harold Dahl was out on the Puget Sound in Washington State, USA with his son and his dog. History.com recounts that Dahl saw six strange aircraft overhead, one of which fell an estimated 450 metres out of the sky and into the water below. The metal debris hurt his son and killed his dog. Dahl told his supervisor at work, Fred Crisman, what had happened and Crisman came and verified it for himself. Soon afterward, a man in a black suit supposedly came to Dahl and warned him not to speak of the incident again – it is said that this incident inspired the movie Men in Black. The Washington Merry-go-Round A 1952 incident where seven unidentified objects appeared over secure air space near the US Pentagon was captured on film. The crafts were registered on radar, and jets were immediately sent to investigate these suspicious, strange crafts. However, when the American jets approached that air space, those seven objects disappeared from the radar. When the jets landed, the objects returned to the radar screen once more. President Harry S. Truman was notified and Airforce Intelligence Director General Sanford held a press conference saying that there were reports “made by credible observers of relatively incredible things. It’s this group of observations that we are attempting to resolve.” There was no resolution. Japan Airlines Flight 1628 In 2001, former FAA official John Callahan told a conference of high ranking officials that in 1986, Japan Airlines Flight 1628 was on its way from Paris to Tokyo when crew members spotted several UFOs. In a television documentary, the American Heroes Channel reports that the JAL crew called in multiple UFOs surrounding the plane, including one that was four times their own size. They made an emergency landing in Anchorage, Alaska, where the ground crew confirmed the sighting. The Muscarello Exeter incident It was 1965 in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA, when a hitchhiker named Norman Muscarello saw five strange red flashing lights in the woods. As TV station WMUR recounts, the source of the lights suddenly came towards him at a frightening speed. Muscarello dove into a ditch to avoid being hit before flagging down a motorist. The police investigated the area, and they, too, saw the same aircraft with the same bright red lights speed off out of sight. Today, the event is celebrated with a yearly Exeter UFO Festival. A Knock on Rick Sorrells's Door In 2008, an unfathomably large aircraft hovered above Stephenville, Texas, USA. Many people in the community saw it, and according to the Mutual UFO Network, a pilot named Steven Allen reported that the unusual aircraft was flying at an estimated 4,800 kilometres per hour and was being chased by fighter jets. Then, a man named Rick Sorrells said he saw the same thing while hunting. Later, Sorrells says a strange man knocked on his door and said, “‘Son we have the same calibre weapons you have, but we have more of them. You need to shut your mouth about what you saw.” Richard French and the Drowned UFOs In the 1950s, it was Lieutenant Colonel Richard French’s job to explain away UFO phenomena for the government. There was only one problem: Lt. Col. French actually saw alien ships with his own eyes, reports the Daily Mail. At a Citizen Hearing on Disclosure in 2013, the then-83-year-old man told the truth for the first time about what he saw as a young man in the waters of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada: two UFOs that had crashed and sunk in the water, and aliens trying to fix them. They succeeded and took off. He didn’t mention UFOs in his report at the time. How’s that for a freaky government cover-up? Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/culture/15-most-chilling-ufo-sightings-ever-recorded?pages=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>. </div>

International Travel

‘Why didn’t we know?’ is no excuse. Non-Indigenous Australians must listen to the difficult historical truths told by First Nations people

<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> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/anne-maree-payne-440459">Anne Maree Payne</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a> Big things are being asked of history in 2023. Later this year, we will vote in the referendum to enshrine an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representative body – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-questions-about-the-voice-to-parliament-answered-by-the-experts-207014">Voice to Parliament</a> – in the Australian constitution. The Voice was introduced through the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which outlines reforms to advance treaty and truth, in that order. And it calls for “truth telling about our history”. Truth-telling has been key to restoring trust and repairing relationships in post-conflict settings around the world. Historical truth-telling is increasingly seen as an important part of restorative justice in settler-colonial contexts. The UN recognises the “<a href="https://www.un.org/en/observances/right-to-truth-day">right to truth</a>”. It’s important to restore dignity to victims of human rights violations – and to ensure such violations never happen again. But there’s also a collective right to understand historical oppression. The Uluru Statement, too, <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-nations-people-have-made-a-plea-for-truth-telling-by-reckoning-with-its-past-australia-can-finally-help-improve-our-future-202137">sees truth-telling</a> as essential for achieving justice for Australia’s First Nations people. A successful “Yes” referendum outcome has the potential to make history. The Voice will structure a more effective relationship between Aboriginal nations or peoples and government. It will better represent Indigenous interests and rights in Australia’s policy development and service delivery. However modest this reform, the Voice is outstanding business for the nation. But the Uluru statement’s call for “truth-telling about our history” will prove more difficult. <h2>Barriers to ‘truth hearing’</h2> “Why didn’t we know?” non-Indigenous Australians still lament when confronted with accounts of past violence and injustice against Indigenous Australians, despite decades of curriculum reform. Our current research reflects on the barriers to “truth hearing”. The barriers are not just structural. Negative attitudes need to be overcome, too. Researchers have noted <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340480495_NEW_Preface">the levels of</a> “disaffection, disinterest and denial of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history”. They’ve also lamented the piecemeal nature of current educational approaches. <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/historys-children_history-wars-in-the-classroom/">Anna Clark’s research</a> on attitudes in schools towards learning Australia history – particularly Indigenous history – shows that students experience Australian history as both repetitive and incomplete, “taught to death but not in-depth”. Bain Attwood has <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48554763">convincingly argued</a> that early settler denial of the violence of Indigenous dispossession was followed by a century of historical denial. History as a discipline, he argues, needs to reckon with the truth about its own role in supporting <a href="https://theconversation.com/truth-telling-and-giving-back-how-settler-colonials-are-coming-to-terms-with-painful-family-histories-145165">settler colonialism</a>. <h2>50+ years of Aboriginal history</h2> For more than 50 years, historians have produced an enormous body of work that’s brought Aboriginal perspectives and experiences into most areas of Australian history – including gender, class, race, <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-when-did-australias-human-history-begin-87251">deep history</a> and global histories. Until the late 1970s, academic interest in Aboriginal worlds was led by mostly white anthropologists and their gaze was set to the traditional north. But historians were then challenged to address the “silence” of their profession when it came to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They needed to write them into history. This meant “restoring” the Aboriginal worlds omitted in the Australian history texts of the 20th century. This called for new ways of doing research: oral history, re-evaluating the archive, drawing on a wider range of sources than the official and written text. Today, some historians work with scientists and traditional knowledge holders to tell stories over much longer time periods. For example, Australian National University’s <a href="https://re.anu.edu.au/">Centre for Deep History</a> is exploring Australia’s deep past, with the aim of expanding history’s time, scale and scope. And the <a href="https://www.monash.edu/arts/monash-indigenous-studies/global-encounters-and-first-nations-peoples">Global Encounters and First Nations Peoples</a> Monash project, led by Lynette Russell, applies interdisciplinary approaches to consider a range of encounters by First Nations peoples over the past millennium, challenging the view that the Australian history “began” with British colonisation. On the other side of the sandstone gates, an incredible flourishing of historically informed Aboriginal creative works has taken centre stage in Australian cultural life. This includes biographies, memoirs, literature, painting, documentary and performance: often with large audiences and readerships. They are all forms of truth-telling. In <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/black-words-white-page">Black Words, White Page</a> (2004), Adam Shoemaker details the extent of Aboriginal writing focused on Australian history from 1929 to 1988: writers like <a href="https://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/noonuccal-oodgeroo-18057">Oodgeroo Noonuccal</a>, <a href="https://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/davis-jack-17788">Jack Davis</a>, <a href="https://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/gilbert-kevin-john-18569">Kevin Gilbert</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/charles-perkins-forced-australia-to-confront-its-racist-past-his-fight-for-justice-continues-today-139303">Charles Perkins</a>. This body of work – and much more since – conveys an Aboriginal interpretation of past events, through oral history and veneration of leaders and heroes, drawing together the past and future. Some early examples include Wiradjuri man Robert (Bobby) Merritt’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-australian-plays-the-cake-man-and-the-indigenous-mission-experience-88854">The Cake Man</a> (1975), set on a rural mission, which explores causes of despair, particularly for Aboriginal men. It was performed by the then newly formed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Black_Theatre_(Australia)">Black Theatre</a> in Redfern in the same year it was published. Indigenous autobiographies, like Ruby Langford Ginibi’s <a href="https://www.uqp.com.au/books/dont-take-your-love-to-town-2">Don’t Take Your Love to Town</a> (1988), just reissued in UQP’s First Nations Classics series, and Rita Huggins’ biography <a href="https://shop.aiatsis.gov.au/products/auntie-rita-revised-edition">Auntie Rita</a> (1994) are realist accounts of Aboriginal lives, devoid of moralism or victimology. Many more have followed, including Tara June Winch’s novel <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-yield-wins-the-miles-franklin-a-powerful-story-of-violence-and-forms-of-resistance-142284">The Yield</a> (2019), winner of the 2020 Stella prize for literature. Through Wiradjuri language, she gathers the history of invasion and loss – and survival in the present. Indigenous artists are exploring ways to represent the past in the present: overlaid, but still present and continuous. Jonathon Jones’ 2020 <a href="https://mhnsw.au/whats-on/exhibitions/untitled-maraong-manaouwi/">artwork</a> to commemorate the reopening of the Sydney Hyde Park Barracks, built originally in 1817 to house convicts, is one example. Jones <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=374269496789482">explained</a> the installation’s interchangeable use of the broad arrow and maraong manaóuwi (emu footprint) as a matter of perspective: one observer will see the emu print, another the broad arrow. Each marker, within its own sphere of significance, served similar purposes. The emu print is known to be engraved into the sandstone ledges of the Sydney basin and marked a people and their place. The broad arrow inscribed institutional place and direction. Jones wants to show how the landscape can be written over – but never lost – to those who hold its memory. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WPGcFDw5c_s?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption>Jonathan Jones’ artwork is part of an incredible flourishing of historically informed Aboriginal creative works.</figcaption></figure> <a href="https://www.uapcompany.com/projects/the-eyes-of-the-land-and-the-sea">The Eyes of the Land and the Sea</a>, by artists Alison Page and Nik Lachajczak, commemorates the 250th anniversary of the 1770 encounter between Aboriginal Australians and Lt James Cook’s crew of the HMB Endeavour at Kamay Botany Bay National Park. This work, too, represents the duality of interpretation and meaning. The monumental bronze sculpture takes the form of the rib bones of a whale – and simultaneously, the hull of the HMB Endeavour. This body of work by dedicated educators, researchers, artists and families has been highly contested. <h2>Truth-telling, healing and restorative justice</h2> Many non-Indigenous Australians are interested in – but anxious about – truth-telling, our early research findings suggest. They don’t know how to get involved and are unsure about their role. Indigenous respondents are deeply committed to truth-telling. But they have anxieties about the process, too. Only 6% of non-Indigenous respondents to Reconciliation Australia’s most recent <a href="https://www.reconciliation.org.au/publication/2022-australian-reconciliation-barometer/">Reconciliation Barometer report</a> had participated in a truth-telling activity (processes that seek to engage with a fuller account of Australian history and its ongoing legacy for First Nations peoples) in the previous 12 months. However, 43% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents had participated in truth-telling. Truth-telling is seen as an important part of healing, but there is uncertainty about its potential to deliver a more just future for First Nations peoples. And it’s acknowledged that <a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-is-promising-truth-telling-in-our-australian-education-system-heres-what-needs-to-happen-191420">truth-telling</a> might emphasise divisions and differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. There are also concerns about <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-half-of-australians-will-experience-trauma-most-before-they-turn-17-we-need-to-talk-about-it-159801">trauma</a> and issues of cultural safety. But during the regional dialogues that led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the demand for truth-telling was unanimous from the Indigenous community representatives. Constitutional reform should only proceed if it “tells the truth of history”, they agreed. This was a key guiding principle that emerged from the process. Why does truth-telling remain a central demand? The final report of the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/constitutionalrecognition">Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples</a> described its multiple dimensions. Truth-telling is a foundational requirement for healing and reconciliation. It’s also a form of restorative justice – and a process for Indigenous people to share their culture and history with the broader community. It builds wider understanding of the intergenerational trauma experienced by Indigenous Australians. And it creates awareness of the relationship between past injustices and contemporary issues. “Truth-telling cannot be just a massacre narrative in which First Nations peoples are yet again dispossessed of agency and identity,” <a href="https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q6316/teaching-as-truth-telling-a-demythologising-pedagogy-for-the-australian-frontier-wars">argue</a> Indigenous educators Alison Bedford and Vince Wall. Indigenous agency and the long struggle for Indigenous rights need to be recognised. And there is an ongoing need to deconstruct Australia’s national foundational myths. A focus on military engagements overseas has obscured the violent dispossession of First Nations Australians at home. As Ann Curthoys argued more than two decades ago, white Australians positioned themselves as heroic strugglers to cement their moral claim to the land. This myth overlooked their role in dispossessing First Nations people. <h2>Makarrata Commission</h2> The Uluru Statement called for <a href="https://theconversation.com/response-to-referendum-council-report-suggests-a-narrow-path-forward-on-indigenous-constitutional-reform-80315">a Makarrata Commission</a> to be established to oversee “agreement-making” and “truth-telling” processes between governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. As part of its commitment to the full implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the current federal government committed $5.8 million in funding in 2022 to start the work of establishing the Commission. Yet few details have been provided so far about the form truth-telling mechanisms might adopt. And there’s been little acknowledgement that the desire to “tell the truth” about the past runs counter to the contemporary study of history, which sees history as a complex and ongoing process – rather than a set of fixed “facts” or “truths”. Worimi historian <a href="https://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/john-maynard">John Maynard</a> describes Aboriginal history research as generative: the work reinforces and sustains Aboriginal worlds – and it reflects a yearning for truth by Aboriginal people that was denied. The impact of colonisation not only targeted the fracturing of Aboriginal people but, as Maynard says, “a state of forgetting and detachment from our past”. Wiradjuri historian <a href="https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/bamblett-l">Lawrence Bamblett</a> develops a similar theme. “Our stories are our survival,” <a href="https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=61SLQ_INST:SLQ&search_scope=Everything&tab=All&docid=alma9915551944702061&lang=en&context=L&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&query=sub,exact,Australia%20--%20Race%20relations%20--%20History,AND&mode=advanced&offset=10">he says</a>, in his account of Aboriginal approaches to history. Consider the dedicated labour to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/heidi-norman-bob-weatherall-weve-got-to-bring-them-home/13962068">return Ancestral Remains to their country</a>. Consider the the work of Aboriginal people to restore the graves of their family and community on the old missions. And the work to document sites, such as <a href="https://youtu.be/gTh2rV_VuwQ">Tulladunna cotton chipping Aboriginal camp</a>, on the plains country of north west New South Wales. Some of this dedicated labour to care for the past is made possible by the recognition of Aboriginal land rights. Aboriginal communities are documenting their history in order to communicate across generations – and to create belonging, sustain community futures and know themselves. These processes of documenting and remembering Aboriginal stories of the past are less concerned with the state, and settler hostility. They are <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-dark-emu-debate-limits-representation-of-aboriginal-people-in-australia-163006">unburdened by categorising time</a>. The “old people” or “1788” appear irrelevant in the enthusiasm for living social and cultural history. That history is not confined to the “fixed in time” histories called upon in Native Title litigation, or the debates among historians and their detractors over method and evidence. Nor is it confined to the moral weight of such accounts in the national story. <h2>History and political questions</h2> When discussing Aboriginal history, there is an unbreakable link between the history being studied and the present. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis)">Presentism</a> – the concern that the past is interpreted through the lens of the present – and the concept of the “activist historian” can both impact on the way Aboriginal history is perceived or judged. Disdain for “presentism” has leaked into contemporary discussions recently. A <a href="https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/september-2022/is-history-history-identity-politics-and-teleologies-of-the-present">widely criticised column</a> by the president of the American Historical Association – James Sweet, a historian of Africa and the African diaspora – is a recent example. He argued that the increasing tendency to interpret the past through the lens of the present, plummeting enrolments in undergraduate history courses and a greater focus on the 20th and 21st centuries all put history at risk of being mobilised “to justify rather than inform contemporary political positions”. These are not new debates. They have taken place within and outside the academy across the world, including in Australia. But the realities of the histories of <a href="https://theconversation.com/eliza-batman-the-irish-convict-reinvented-as-melbournes-founding-mother-was-both-colonised-and-coloniser-on-two-violent-frontiers-206189">colonisation</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/unpapering-the-cracks-sugar-slavery-and-the-sydney-morning-herald-202828">slavery</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/empire-of-delusion-the-sun-sets-on-british-imperial-credibility-89309">imperialism</a> mean they continue to have an impact in the present. Reparations and apologies happen because of the work of historians and others. They are real-world, present impacts of the work being undertaken. It’s the role of historians to understand the past on its own terms – and to produce work relevant to contemporary political questions. Applied (or public) history produces this work. In this work, particularly historical work that sits outside the academy, we do often find “truth telling”. For example, in the important work done for the <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/bringing-them-home-report-1997">Bringing them Home</a> Commission, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-deaths-in-custody-inquests-can-be-sites-of-justice-or-administrative-violence-158126">Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Royal Commission</a> and Native Title claims in courts. But somehow, these efforts at truth-telling – and other historical research conducted since colonisation – seem not to have impacted on the overall “history” of Australia. <h2>Forgetting and resistance</h2> As the referendum vote edges closer, Australians are being asked to make provisions for the First Peoples to have a role in the political process – and the decisions that impact them. The challenge to address the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-great-australian-silence-50-years-on-100737">Great Australian Silence</a>” – to include First Peoples in the stories of the nation, where they were otherwise omitted – has been largely addressed by the significant body of historical work added over the last 50 or more years. That work, and the correction it has delivered, has generated discomfort and hostility. Yet Australians’ appreciation – and even awareness – of the history of its First Nations people remains deeply unsatisfactory. There is now little justification for the laments Why weren’t we told? or How come we didn’t know?. Our undergraduate students continue to ask these questions, though. Australia has a difficult relationship – a kind of historical amnesia; a forgetting and resistance – to hearing those First Nations stories. That resistance is much deeper than simply being told. The current focus on truth-telling will once again draw our attention to dealing with difficult history. This time, different questions need to be asked. Not why didn’t I know? But how can I find out? <hr /> Heidi Norman and Anne Maree Payne will be presenting their research at the upcoming 50th Milestones Anniversary of the Australian Historical Association. Heidi will deliver the keynote address, <a href="https://web-eur.cvent.com/event/f99aac02-b195-46e5-b1d9-bf5183aea6fc/websitePage:150e8a3c-395b-4de3-bf2b-98ac8be5929e">The End of Aboriginal History?</a><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/208780/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <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> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/anne-maree-payne-440459">Anne Maree Payne</a>, Senior Lecturer, Centre for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney-936">University of Technology Sydney</a> Image credits: Getty Images 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-didnt-we-know-is-no-excuse-non-indigenous-australians-must-listen-to-the-difficult-historical-truths-told-by-first-nations-people-208780">original article</a>.

Caring

Not just a youth movement: history too often forgets older protesters

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/effie-karageorgos-453765">Effie Karageorgos</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-newcastle-1060">University of Newcastle</a> Recent sustained anti-coal action by Blockade Australia in the Hunter Valley has brought public protest back into the news cycle. Activists have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-21/coal-protests-block-rail-lines-to-newcastle-port/102504056">occupied trains, railway lines and machinery</a> in an attempt to obstruct coal production and broadcast their message about the climate crisis. Under recent <a href="https://www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au/research/commentary/explainer-what-are-your-rights-to-protest-australia#:%7E:text=In%202022%2C%20Tasmania%20passed%20anti,%E2%80%9C%E2%80%A6">anti-protest legislation</a> in New South Wales, which has been matched by similar laws in other states, some protesters have been charged by police for their activism. Internationally, protesters faced with arrest have devised new ways to protest. Recently, Iranian activists have started engaging in “<a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/international-relations-security/civil-upheaval-iran-why-widespread">micro-protests</a>”, which are small-scale protests over a shorter period of time, to evade arrest. My historical research into the infrastructure of protest, using the anti-Vietnam War campaign in New South Wales as a case study, has found that many Australians who did not or could not actively or publicly protest similarly found “quieter” ways to express their opposition to the conflict. <h2>The youth are revolting</h2> In the popular Australian imagination, it seems the protester is a young person creating a public spectacle – holding up a sign, occupying a building or marching down a city street, even though older activists regularly play a part in protest movements. Many might think of figures like <a href="https://theconversation.com/lidia-thorpes-mardi-gras-disruption-is-the-latest-in-an-ongoing-debate-about-acceptable-forms-of-protest-at-pride-200713">Lidia Thorpe</a> disrupting the 2023 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade or ongoing protests by <a href="https://www.schoolstrike4climate.com/">School Strike 4 Climate</a>, which have shown how willing young people are to agitate for their collective futures. But, in fact, one of the two anti-coal activists charged on last month for occupying a train in Singleton, New South Wales, is <a href="https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/news?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGMTA3MTc3Lmh0bWwmYWxsPTE%3D">64 years old</a>. My research shows our public memory of protest doesn’t come close to capturing everyone who used their energies to protest Australian involvement in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, so we need to shift our idea of both protest and the protester to understand the potential scope of activism. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Thm03IUiJ6U?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>Quiet protest</h2> Vietnam War-era protest organisations, such as the Association for International Cooperation and Disarmament, Save Our Sons, Youth Campaign Against Conscription and the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign, were aware of how important “quiet protest” was to the wider movement. They <a href="https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1JkmeexY">continually appealed to supporters</a> for help selling buttons, putting up posters, selling raffle tickets, filling envelopes, leafleting and other clerical work. These were all carried out by people who were opposed to the war, and are all considered acts of protest. Social movement theorists agree that time and availability are crucial in drawing people to protest. As far back as 1974, the sociologist <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002188637401000206">Anthony Orum</a> wrote: "Without people who have time on their hands, great revolutions would probably never get off the ground." <h2>Time and capacity</h2> But what of those who did not have the time or capacity to march on streets, but who still saw themselves as part of the anti-Vietnam War movement? The <a href="https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1l4dPbX1">administrative records</a> of protest organisations held in the <a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/">State Library of New South Wales</a> let us into the lives of such people. These include Ian Robertson, a full-time Macquarie University student, whose parents had banned political activity because they feared it would disrupt his studies. Another silent protester was a Mrs Thomson, who was too busy organising her daughter Sue’s wedding to participate in anti-Vietnam protest activities. Public servants were also not permitted to publicly support the movement. Most such records come from elderly members of the movement. In November 1969, Mabel Wilson, who in her words was “six years an octogenarian,” sent $5 to the <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C96428">Committee in Defiance of the National Service Act</a>, writing: "I admire your courage and am completely in sympathy with your ideals. Alas! I am very old […] As you can see I can be of practically no use to you – or anyone […] My heart is with you all the way." Similarly, on March 21 1970, Doris J Wilson of Asquith sent a donation to the Northern Districts Vietnam Moratorium Group with a letter saying: "I am past the age where I can do very much more than be just a voice." On September 14 1970, L.T. Withers sent the same group a letter saying: "Congratulations for what you have accomplished. I feel rather guilty at being so useless […] myself and my wife are not as energetic as we used to be as the years are catching up on us a bit. I have enclosed a small donation to your local funds […] I would also be grateful if you could keep me informed of your activities." Ruth Fryer of Hornsby sent a letter on February 9 1971 with a $3 donation: "Sometimes you wish you were young & strong again! But the hard work seems to be left to the young ones." These Australians, among many others, were interested in the anti-Vietnam campaign and wanted to be involved as much as they could, given their limitations. <h2>The infrastructure of historical protest</h2> Studying the infrastructure of historical protest organisations shows us that we need to expand our idea of what a protest movement is and who it includes if we want to achieve the present-day goals of activist campaigning. These findings are exciting because they capture a larger group of Australians in the protest tradition, and move past a limited, and often ableist and ageist, vision of protest to incorporate many others who feel just as strongly about the issues governing their lives.<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/208472/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/effie-karageorgos-453765">Effie Karageorgos</a>, Lecturer, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-newcastle-1060">University of Newcastle</a> Image credits: Getty Images 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/not-just-a-youth-movement-history-too-often-forgets-older-protesters-208472">original article</a>.

Legal

Wimbledon’s history-making rule change comes into effect

While Wimbledon is widely anticipated for its star-studded tennis line-up and fierce competition, the 2023 tournament is bringing something new to the table - or rather, to the dressing room. Since the tournament’s inception, the rules have required all players to wear white - including but not limited to the likes of bras and underwear - while competing in the prestigious event. However, in the wake of heavy criticism and petition from Wimbledon’s menstruating competitors, <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/beauty-style/wimbledon-to-make-key-change-to-all-white-dress-code">the All England Club finally relaxed the strict dress code</a>, allowing for players the opportunity to wear coloured undershorts rather than just white. And while the move was announced in 2022, the 2023 contest will be the first time players - and viewers - experience the update. Most were thrilled with the outcome, and were looking forward to reaping the benefits of the long-awaited update, but some players had their hesitations and weren’t sure if they’d be hopping onboard with the others. As 2022 Wimbledon finalist and Tunisian tennis star Ons Jabeur told The Mirror, there were “two things” holding her back. “One thing, it’s better definitely not to be paranoid,” she allowed, before noting that “the other thing, everybody will know that you have your period. So I’m not sure which part of it is good. “I don’t think I’m going to wear anything,” she revealed. “If all the girls will wear it, I think it will make it better. But I think it’s a great thing that Wimbledon is trying to help women feel more comfortable on the court.” The campaign behind that ‘help’ skyrocketed in 2022 when Judy Murray - tennis coach and mother to Andy and Jamie Murray - declared her support for the cause. She later voiced her support for the update while speaking to CLAY, telling the publication that “it was many years ago that perhaps Wimbledon didn't understand the trauma of women players playing during the period, fearing what might happen if you wear white. “Thank goodness that's changed." And the people in charge had positive words to share on the matter too, with All England Club CEO Sally Bolton releasing a statement that read, "we are committed to supporting the players and listening to their feedback as to how they can perform at their best … "It is our hope that this rule adjustment will help players focus purely on their performance by relieving a potential source of anxiety." Images: Getty

Legal

Gorgeous iconic department stores throughout history 

Do you remember shops with names like Farmer’s, Boan’s, John Martin’s, Buckley & Nunn, or McWhirter’s? Or maybe you're more familiar with David Jones and Myer? If any of these names ring a bell, a team of historians wants to speak to you. Professor Robert Crawford leads a team of historians at RMIT University and Macquarie University that are researching the history of department stores in Australia since the Second World War. “Department stores have played such an important role in the lives of countless Australia, but their history has hardly been documented,” explains Professor Crawford. Supported by the Australian Research Council, the project aims to collect Australian stories and experiences of their department store. While the project is keen to collect stories from those who worked in these stores, it is equally interested in hearing from shoppers. “Shoppers are an essential part of this story – their custom makes or breaks any retail outlet and department stores are no different,” notes Professor Crawford. “By collecting the stories of shoppers and staff, this project offers a unique perspective of the department store,” he adds. The research team has already interviewed a range of people across the country. “This week I spoke to a lady about shopping with her mother at Grace Brothers in Sydney in 1947 and the next day I spoke to a man about taking his daughter to David Jones in suburban Brisbane in 1995,” recounts Crawford. Participants of the project have recalled a range of familiar and forgotten experiences. “Many have recounted their family’s unique rituals of going into to town and having lunch at the cafeteria, while others remember specific bits like the lift operators or the pneumatic tubes to transfer cash from the tills.” While the project has undertaken many interviews, the research team is eager to speak to more people about their unique memories and experiences, so that they can get a fuller picture of the past. If you’re interested in participating in the project or learning more about it, further details can be found at <a href="https://www.departmentstorehistory.org.au/">https://www.departmentstorehistory.org.au/</a> Image credit: WikiMedia

International Travel

"Most dangerous spy in US history" dies in jail

The USA’s most notorious FBI agent has been found dead in his top security prison cell at the age of 79. Prison officials confirmed the news of Robert Hanssen’s passing, more than 20 years after he received a life sentence for selling classified US material throughout the 1980s and 1990s. While no cause of death has been revealed, a statement from the Bureau of Prisons revealed that staff at the facility took life-saving measures after Hanssen was found unresponsive in his cell, to no avail. Hanssen - who is now regarded as one of the most dangerous spies in US history - sold thousands of documents in exchange for the diamonds and cash over the course of his deception. According to the FBI, by the time of his arrest, Hanssen had received the value of more than $1.4 million. He first launched his career with the FBI in 1976, and it was only a few years before he began spying for the Soviet Union, sending classified information - on everything from human resources to counterintelligence - to the Soviet Union and Russia under the alias ‘Ramon Garcia’. It is believed that he was able to cover for himself through his role in the FBI’s New York counterintelligence department, where he was tasked with tracking down his own kind - spies. “As a result of his assignments, Hanssen had direct and legitimate access to voluminous information about sensitive programs and operations,” the FBI explained at the time. “As the complaint alleges, Hanssen effectively used his training, expertise and experience as a counterintelligence Agent to avoid detection, to include keeping his identity and place of employment from his Russian handlers and avoiding all the customary ‘tradecraft’ and travel usually associated with espionage.” Neither the FBI or CIA caught on to the fact there was a mole working within the system for years, but did eventually secure “original Russian documentation of an American spy”, according to the FBI and Forbes. According to reports, not even Hanssen’s Russian handlers knew his true identity, and he was not at the top of any suspect list. By all appearances, he lived a frugal life among Washington’s conservative Catholics, with a wife and six children. But Hanssen was caught in suburban Virginia at a ‘dead drop’, and his arrest came in 2001. He pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage, and was consequently sentenced to life behind bars without parole for “espionage, conspiracy to commit espionage, and attempted espionage”. “I apologise for my behaviour,” Hanssen said during his sentencing. “I am shamed by it. “I have opened the door for calumny against my totally innocent wife and children. I’ve hurt so many deeply.” Images: FBI

Legal

‘Good soup is one of the prime ingredients of good living’: a (condensed) history of soup, from cave to can

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/garritt-c-van-dyk-1014186">Garritt C Van Dyk</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-newcastle-1060">University of Newcastle</a> Hot soup on a cold day brings warmth and comfort so simple that we don’t think too much about its origins. But its long history runs from the Stone Age and antiquity through to modernity, encompassing the birth of the restaurant, advances in chemistry, and a famous pop art icon. The basic nature of soup has a fundamental appeal that feels primordial – because it is. <a href="https://www.academia.edu/12384834/2015_Speth_When_Did_Humans_Learn_to_Boil_">Archaeologists</a> speculate the first soup might have been made by Neanderthals, boiling animal bones to extract fat essential for their diet and drinking the broth. Without the fats, their high intake of lean animal meats could have led to protein poisoning, so stone age soup was an important complement to primeval nutrition. The fundamental benefit of these bone broths is confirmed by archaeological discoveries around the world, ranging from a gelatin broth in <a href="https://www.archaeology.org/issues/317-1811/trenches/7056-trenches-egypt-giza-livestock-bones">Egypt’s Giza plateau</a>, to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11981666">Shaanxi Province</a> in China. The widespread distribution of archaeological finds is a reminder soup not only has a long history, but is also a global food. Today, our idea of soup is more refined, but the classic combination of stock and bread is embedded in the Latin root of the verb suppāre, meaning “to soak”. As a noun, suppa became soupe in Old French, meaning bread soaked in broth, and <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED41830/track?counter=1&search_id=24326280">sowpes</a> in Middle English. This pairing was also an economical way of reclaiming stale bread and thickening a thin broth. Wealthier households might have toasted fresh bread for the dish, but less prosperous diners used up stale bread that was too hard to chew unless softened in the hot liquid. <h2>From rustic to creamy</h2> New ideas about science and digestion in 17th century France promoted <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340977432_The_Transformative_Influence_of_La_Varenne's_Le_Cuisinier_Francois_1651_on_French_Culinary_Practice">natural flavours</a> and thick, rustic preparations gave way to the creamy and velvety smooth soups we know today. <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="People line up for soup" /></a><figcaption>The Soup Kitchen, Antonio de Puga, ca. 1630. Museo de Arte de Ponce</figcaption></figure> New versions of the liquid food were developed by early modern European chefs, such as the <a href="https://archive.org/details/lenouveaucuisini01mass/page/138/mode/2up">seafood bisque</a>, extracting flavour from the shells of crustaceans. The first restaurant as we understand them today opened in Paris in 1765, and was immortalised for a <a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9785063s/f167.item.r=sante">simple broth</a>, a clear soup made from bone broth and fresh herbs. <a href="https://www.rebeccalspang.org/invention-of-the-restaurant">Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau</a>, the original French restaurateur, created a new type of public space where weary diners could regain their lost appetites and soothe their delicate nerves at all hours. It may appear to be a contradiction that the first restaurant specifically catered to clients who had lost their appetites, yet it seems perfectly natural soup was the cure. <h2>Easy and affordable</h2> Soup was not destined to be limited to fancy restaurants or the long simmering stock pots of peasants. Modern science made it convenient and less expensive for home cooks. In 1897, a chemist at the Campbell soup company, John Dorrance, developed a <a href="https://www.campbellsoupcompany.com/about-us/our-story/campbell-history/">condensed canned soup</a> that dramatically reduced the water content. The new method halved the cost of shipping and made canned soup an affordable meal anyone could prepare. <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Painting of men at a table" /></a><figcaption>Lunch (The Soup, Version II), Albin Egger-Lienz, 1910. Leopold Museum, Vienna</figcaption></figure> This revolutionary achievement was recognised at the 1900 Paris Exposition, winning an award for product excellence. Winning the prize was an achievement considering the competition at the world fair. The other technological advances exhibited at the turn of the century included the diesel engine, “talking” films, dry cell batteries and the Paris Metro. The bronze medallion from 1900 still appears on the iconic red and white label, made famous by pop artist Andy Warhol’s <a href="https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andy-warhol-campbells-soup-cans-1962/">32 Campbell Soup Cans</a> (1962). In his work, Warhol appropriated images from consumer culture and the media ordinary people would instantly recognise, from Coca-Cola bottles to Marilyn Monroe. In his famous soup painting, 32 canvases – one for each flavour of soup – are lined up like cans on a supermarket shelf. Some <a href="https://warhol.netx.net/portals/warhol-exhibitions/#asset/108496">interpretations</a> consider this a commentary on the link between art and consumerism, emphasising the ordinary quality of the everyday object. The artist may also have been influenced by his personal eating habits – he claimed he had <a href="https://whitney.org/collection/works/5632">soup for lunch</a> every day for 20 years. <h2>‘One of the prime ingredients of good living’</h2> A steady diet of soup is not guaranteed to inspire famous art, but its appeal is universal. Soup can be humble or fancy, cutting across cultures and classes. Deceptively simple, the warmth and comfort of soup provide a temporary refuge from the winter chill, comforting the diner from the inside. The French chef Auguste Escoffier, famous for enshrining the five basic “<a href="https://www.escoffieronline.com/our-guide-to-escoffiers-5-mother-sauces/">mother sauces</a>” in French cuisine, raised soups to perfection in the early 20th century, developing refined preparations that remain classics today. Escoffier, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Escoffier.html?id=JFIDd639wlQC&redir_esc=y">known as</a> “the king of chefs and the chef of kings”, had very <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/A_Guide_to_Modern_Cookery/KCbkcXHj7qoC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=escoffier+guide+culinaire&printsec=frontcover">high standards</a> for soup, claiming “of all the items on the menu, soup is that which exacts the most delicate perfection”. An Austrian apprentice of Escoffier, Louis P. De Gouy, was chef at the Waldorf Astoria for 30 years and wrote 13 cookbooks. He summed up the appeal of soup in a <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Soup_Book/1tNmDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">volume</a> dedicated to the dish with over 700 recipes: <blockquote> Good soup is one of the prime ingredients of good living. For soup can do more to lift the spirits and stimulate the appetite than any other one dish. </blockquote> From Neanderthal broth to pop art icon, this humble pantry staple has a rich and vibrant history, giving us both nourishment and food for thought.<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/205656/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/garritt-c-van-dyk-1014186">Garritt C Van Dyk</a>, Lecturer, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-newcastle-1060">University of Newcastle</a> 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/good-soup-is-one-of-the-prime-ingredients-of-good-living-a-condensed-history-of-soup-from-cave-to-can-205656">original article</a>. Images: Getty

Food & Wine

Alluring, classic, glamorous: the history of the martini cocktail

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ursula-kennedy-560331">Ursula Kennedy</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a> The martini cocktail has existed in a range of guises throughout its ice-cold, crisp life. Several stories exist as to its origins. The “classic” martini is made with gin and vermouth (a fortified wine infused with spices) and garnished with an olive or a twist of lemon. It is quintessentially American. <h2>The contested origins of the martini</h2> <a href="https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/143103">Many believe</a> the martini was invented in the 1860s at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco by bartender Jerry Thomas. Thomas evolved a one part sloe gin, two parts sweet vermouth, maraschino and a dash of bitters with a lemon concoction into a drink he called the Martinez, which he made for passengers departing on the ferry to the town of the same name. It was said to also be prepared for miners celebrating striking gold. Others believe it was invented in 1911 at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York by bartender Martini di Taggia, served to billionaire John D. Rockerfeller with equal parts London dry gin and dry vermouth. However, recipes for the drink were published as early as 1862, in Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders’ Guide. Stronger versions of the martini include two parts gin, and even up to five parts gin, to one part vermouth, garnished with olive or lemon. A “dry” martini has little to no vermouth at all – the focus being gin. Author T.S. Eliot once said: <blockquote> There is nothing quite so stimulating as a strong dry martini cocktail. </blockquote> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption>A classic martini with olives as the garnish. Shutterstock</figcaption></figure> <h2>The martini’s rise, fall and rise again</h2> During the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/gilded-age">Gilded Age</a> (1880-1900), the martini rose in popularity and remained so through to the mid-20th century. Prohibition in America during 1920 to 1933 did little to harm the martini’s popularity, as backyard gin production was reasonably easy. In the 1960s the drink’s popularity started to wane due to the burgeoning quality and availability of other beverages such as wines and beers. There were also concerns about alcohol consumption and health. With the increasing popularity of “retro” style and culture in recent years the martini has made a comeback, with <a href="https://vinepair.com/articles/martini-hype-train/">reports of increased demand</a> for the drink among young people. <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption>Customers at a Philadelphia bar after Prohibition’s end, Dec. 1933. Shutterstock</figcaption></figure> <h2>Martini and its variations</h2> Today, the martini (or a common variation of it) is best known for its identity in popular culture, most famously as the drink of fictional British Secret Service agent, James Bond. The famous phrase “shaken, not stirred” was first uttered on screen by actor Sean Connery playing Bond in the 1964 movie Goldfinger. Bond’s tipple of choice is prepared with vodka rather than gin. While most purists believe the gin martini is the classic form of the drink, there are myriad variations that use the martini name or are closely related to the original drink, such as <a href="https://www.liquor.com/recipes/gibson/">the Gibson</a>, a classic martini garnished with cocktail onions instead of olives. <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption>Sean Connory as James Bond, making his signature vodka martini. Wikimedia</figcaption></figure> <a href="https://www.spiritshunters.com/cocktail/the-history-of-the-dirty-martini/">The “dirty” martini </a> is currently popular, which is gin soiled with a generous dash of brine from the olive jar. According to the Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, the practice of adding brine to a martini has been around since at least 1901. The term “dirty martini” seemingly wasn’t coined until the 1980s, however. US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt may have been an early proponent of using olive brine in cocktails. Allegedly, the president “would shake up a drink at the drop of a hat … and was reported to have splashed a bite of brine in his drinks at the White House,” writes Robert Simonson in The Martini Cocktail: A Meditation on the World’s Greatest Drink, with Recipes. <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/espresso-martini-vodka-cocktail">The story goes</a> that London bartender Dick Bradsell first made the espresso martini, a fusion of espresso, sweet coffee liqueur and vodka, in the late 1980s when supermodel Kate Moss (or sometimes Naomi Campbell) asked for a drink that would “wake me up and fuck me up”. <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption>The espresso martini. Shutterstock</figcaption></figure> There are many modern drinks that use the iconic martini glass to justify using martini in their name – however, they bear little resemblance to the original cocktail. An appletini is vodka blended with apple juice, apple cider or apple brandy, while the “French martini” consists of vodka, pineapple juice and raspberry liqueur. The TV show Sex and the City popularised the “flirtini”, containing vodka, champagne and pineapple juice. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8STeT9WrYtU?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>Keeping cool</h2> A martini glass – a classic conical bowl on a long straight stem – is one aspect of the drink that does not change. The glass was <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/design-moment-martini-glass-1925-1.4094434">formally unveiled at the 1925 Paris Exhibition</a> as an alternative to the classic champagne glass. The long stem allows the glass to be held while the drink remains cool, not warmed by the drinker’s hands. The wide rim allows the drinker’s nose to be close to the liquid when sipping, so the aromatics can be easily appreciated. <h2>Never out of style</h2> While Bond embodied the glamorous side of the martini, studies of writer Ian Fleming’s famous spy indicate that Bond had a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-names-bond-james-bond-and-im-an-alcoholic-21440">severe problem with alcohol</a> consumption. On occasion he may have had a blood alcohol concentration of .36% – almost fatal. The martini should be consumed with deference … and in moderation.<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/195913/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ursula-kennedy-560331">Ursula Kennedy</a>, Lecturer of Wine Science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a> 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/alluring-classic-glamorous-the-history-of-the-martini-cocktail-195913">original article</a>. Images: Getty

Food & Wine

Stan Grant’s new book asks: how do we live with the weight of our history?

<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> This month, journalist and public intellectual Stan Grant published his fifth book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460764022/the-queen-is-dead/">The Queen is Dead</a>. And last week, he abruptly stepped away from his career in the public realm, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">citing</a> toxic racism enabled by social media, and betrayal on the part of his employer, the ABC. “I was invited to contribute to the ABC’s coverage as part of a discussion about the legacy of the monarchy. I pointed out that the crown represents the invasion and theft of our land,” <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">he wrote</a> last Friday. “I repeatedly said that these truths are spoken with love for the Australia we have never been.” And yet, “I have seen people in the media lie and distort my words. They have tried to depict me as hate filled”. Grant has worked as a journalist in Australia for more than three decades: first on commercial current affairs – and until this week, as a main anchor at the ABC, where he was an international affairs analyst and the host of the panel discussion show Q+A. The former role reflects his global work, reporting from conflict zones with esteemed international broadcasters such as CNN. His second book, <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460751985/talking-to-my-country/">Talking to my Country</a>, won the Walkley Book Award in 2016. <hr /> Review: The Queen is Dead – Stan Grant (HarperCollins) <hr /> In this new book, Grant yearns for a way to comprehend the forces, ideas and history that led to this cultural moment we inhabit. The book, which opens with him grappling with the monarchy and its legacy, is revealing in terms of his decision to step back from public life. Released to coincide with <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronation-arrests-how-the-new-public-order-law-disrupted-protesters-once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity-205328">the coronation</a> of the new English monarch, Charles III, The Queen is Dead seethes with rage and loathing – hatred even – at the ideas that have informed the logic and structure of modernity. Grant’s work examines the ideas that explain the West and modernity – and his own place as an Indigenous person of this land, from Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi and Dharawal country. That is: his work explores both who he is in the world and the ideas that tell the story of the modern world. He finds the latter unable to account for him. “This week, I have been reminded what it is to come from the other side of history,” he writes in the book’s opening pages. “History itself that is written as a hymn to whiteness […] written by the victors and often written in blood.” He asks “how do we live with the weight of this history?” And he explains the questions that have dominated his thinking: what is <a href="https://theconversation.com/whiteness-is-an-invented-concept-that-has-been-used-as-a-tool-of-oppression-183387">whiteness</a>, and what is it to live with catastrophe? <h2>The death of the white queen</h2> In his account, his rage is informed by the observation that the weight of this history was largely unexplored on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s death last September. The death of the white queen is the touchpoint always returned to in this work – and the release of the book coincides with the apparently seamless transition to her heir, now King Charles III. <figure class="align-right zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527406/original/file-20230522-29-dcc0ot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption></figcaption></figure> In the lead-up to the coronation, “long live the king” echoed across the United Kingdom. Its long tentacles reached across the globe where this old empire once ruled, robbing and ruining much that it encountered. The death of the queen and the succession of her heir occurred with ritual and ceremony. Small tweaks acknowledged the changing world – but for the most part, this coronation occurred without revolution or bloodshed, without condemnation – and without contest of the British monarchs’ role in history and the world they continue to dominate, in one way or another. Grant argues the end of the 70-year rule of Queen Elizabeth II should mark a turning point: a global reckoning with the race-based order that undergirds empire and colonialism. Whereas the earlier century confidently pronounced the project of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-yindyamarra-how-we-can-bring-respect-to-australian-democracy-192164">democracy</a> and liberalism complete, it seems time has marched on. History has not “ended”, as Francis Fukuyama <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-history-francis-fukuyamas-controversial-idea-explained-193225">declared</a> in 1989 (claiming liberal democracies had been proved the unsurpassable ideal). Instead, history has entered a ferocious era of uncertainty and volatility. Grant reminds us that people of colour now dominate the globe. Race, <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-is-real-race-is-not-a-philosophers-perspective-82504">as we now know</a>, is a flexible and slippery made-up idea, changing opportunistically to include and exclude groups, to dominate and possess. Grant examines this with great impact as he considers the lived experience of his white grandmother, who was shunned when living with a black man, shared his conditions of poverty with pluck and defiance, then resumed a place in white society without him. And writing of his mother, the other Elizabeth, Grant elaborates the complexity of identity not confined to the colour of skin, but forged from belonging to people and kinship networks, and to place – which condemns the pseudoscience of <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/power-identity-naming-oneself-reclaiming-community-2011">blood quantum</a> that informed the state’s control of Aboriginal lives. This suspect race science has proved enduring. Grant’s account of the death of the monarch is a genuine engagement with the history of ideas to contemplate the reality of our 21st-century present. <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527467/original/file-20230522-27-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption>Grant argues the end of the queen’s 70-year rule should mark ‘a global reckoning with the race-based order that undergirds empire and colonialism’. Yui Mok/AP</figcaption></figure> <h2>Liberalism and democracy = tyranny and terror</h2> In several essays now, Grant has engaged with the ideas of mostly Western philosophers and several conservative thinkers to explain the crisis of liberalism and democracy. Grant argues that, like other -isms, liberalism and democracy have descended into tyranny and terror. The new world order, dominated by <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-stan-grant-on-how-tyrants-use-the-language-of-germ-warfare-and-covid-has-enabled-them-204183">China</a> and people of colour, is in dramatic contrast to the continued rule of the white queen and her descendants. In this, perhaps more than his other books and essays, Grant moves between big ideas in history – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/criticism-of-western-civilisation-isnt-new-it-was-part-of-the-enlightenment-104567">Enlightenment</a>, modernity and democracy – to consider himself, his identity, and his own lived experience of injustice, where race is an undeniable organising feature. In this story he explains himself, as an Indigenous person, “an outsider, in the middle”; “an exile, living in exile, struggling with belonging”; living with the “very real threat of erasure”. <h2>Love, friendships, family, Country</h2> In the final section of the book, Grant’s focus switches to the theme of “love”, and to friendships, family and Country. He speculates that his focus on these things is perhaps a mark of age. Now, he accounts for the things in life that are truly valuable – and this includes deep affection for the joy that emanates from Aboriginal families. Being home on his Country, paddling the river, he finds quiet and peace. The death of the monarch of the British Empire, who ruled for 70 years, should speak to the history of empire and colonial legacy and all its curses – especially in settler colonial Australia. Yet her passing – which coincides with seismic change in the global economic order with China’s ascendance and the decline of the United States and the UK, the global cultural order and the racial order – has been largely unexamined in public discourse in Australia. The history of colonisation and of ideas that have debated ways to comprehend the past have been a feature of Grant’s intellectual exploration, including on the death of the queen. As he details in his new book, the reaction from some quarters to this conversation has exposed him to unrelenting and racist attack. In this work and in others, exploration of the world of ideas to understand the past and future sits alongside accounts of the everyday; of the always place-based realities of Aboriginal accounts of self. The material deprivations and indignities, the closely held humility that comes with poverty and powerlessness - shared socks, a house carelessly demolished, burials tragically abandoned – are countered by another reality: the intimacy of most Aboriginal lives, characterised by deep love, affection, laughter and belonging. These place-based, “small” stories Grant shares sit alongside the bigger themes of modern history, such as democracy and freedom. In this latest work, Grant details his sense of “betrayal” at the discussion he sought about the monarch’s passing and the discussion that was actually had, the history of ideas and his own place in this. And now, of course, he has announced his intention to exit the public stage. Racism, we are reminded, is an enduring feature of the modern world – a world yet to allow space for an unbowing, Wiradjuri-Kamilaroi-Dharawal public intellectual.<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/204756/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <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> 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/stan-grants-new-book-asks-how-do-we-live-with-the-weight-of-our-history-204756">original article</a>. Images: Q+A / ABC

Books

When your house has a (disturbing) history, what should buyers be told about its ‘past’?

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/eileen-webb-95332">Eileen Webb</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-south-australia-1180">University of South Australia</a> Imagine you have just bought a home. You have moved in and, during a friendly chat with the neighbours, you find out the property had been the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-07/what-is-stigmatised-property-and-what-are-your-rights/9911608">scene of a serious crime</a> or <a href="https://www.aicnsw.com.au/our-dream-house-was-a-meth-lab/">used to manufacture</a> methamphetamine. How would you react? Is this something you would want to have known prior to the sale? If you had known, would this have affected you decision to buy the property? And was the real estate agent or vendor <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/news/what-do-agents-have-to-reveal-about-a-home8217s-history-20170810-gxcm5k/">under any obligation</a> to let you know? In most cases, the answer is (somewhat surprisingly to buyers) “no”. However, amendments to Victoria’s Sale of Land Act 1962 <a href="https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/latest-news/sale-of-land-changes-in-effect-legislation-update">have now broadened the matters</a> that must be disclosed to buyers prior to a sale, including where a serious crime has occurred. Renters who find they have entered into a stigmatised property must resort to the consumer protection laws discussed below. <h2>Why were the laws required?</h2> The ancient doctrine of caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) still impacts on real estate transactions. It means the buyer bears the responsibility of making their own enquiries about the property. Property inspections are usually confined to the physical condition of the property. While it would be possible, at least theoretically, to arrange for a person to investigate its “background”, this can be a difficult process, especially if such information is concealed or hard to come by. As a result, each state and territory has introduced laws that provide for some level of disclosure to the buyer during the conveyancing process. The extent of disclosure required and the nature of matters that must be disclosed varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Furthermore, section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/caca2010265/sch2.html#_Toc32223214">considers conduct</a> as misleading or deceptive where a matter is not disclosed but, in the circumstances, there is a reasonable expectation it would be. The problem is that while disclosure may be required in matters involving, for example, a structural fault or a road-widening proposal, such information is confined to physical issues affecting the property. However, what happens when the matter involves not a physical defect but a psychological or stigmatising one, such as a murder, for example? Such information may be of considerable importance to potential buyers who, for personal or religious reasons, would find living in a property where such an event occurred intolerable. On a more mercenary note, the impact on resale value of the property <a href="http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7237/1/115-293-1-PB.pdf">could be significant</a>. <h2>The nature of ‘stigmatised’ property</h2> Concern about the effect of stigma on property is not a recent phenomenon. Courts in several jurisdictions, including Australia, <a href="https://api.research-repository.uwa.edu.au/portalfiles/portal/1218611/3632_3632.pdf">have had to grapple</a> with buyers who had discovered, after purchase, that the property had been the scene of a serious crime or criminal activity, a suicide had occurred, persons had been suffering from certain illnesses, or a sex offender lived nearby. In one case a young man had murdered his parents and sister in their Sydney home. The property was later sold to a young couple. After discovering the tragic events that had occurred in the home, they sought to withdraw from the sale on religious grounds. There was a <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/estate-agents-fined-over-triple-murder-house-20041220-gdz86g.html">significant amount of criticism</a> of the real estate agent for not informing the buyers about what had occurred there. After considerable public pressure and an investigation by the NSW Office of Fair Trading, the contract was set aside. On a more ethereal note, there have been a series of cases in the United States where buyers have sought, in some cases successfully, to have a sale rescinded <a href="http://zillow.mediaroom.com/2019-10-29-Selling-a-Haunted-House-Heres-What-You-Need-to-Know">because the house</a> was (allegedly) haunted or the subject of <a href="https://casetext.com/case/stambovsky-v-ackley">paranormal activity</a>. <h2>Disclosure laws regarding stigma</h2> The Victorian legislation clarifies obligations for estate agents and vendors regarding <a href="https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/latest-news/sale-of-land-changes-in-effect-legislation-update">the disclosure of “material facts”</a>. In summary, an estate agent or vendor cannot knowingly conceal any material facts about a property when selling land. The legislation is supported by guidelines that clarify the nature of a material fact. This includes circumstances where, during the current or previous occupation, the property was the scene of a serious crime or an event that may create long-term potential risks to the health and safety of occupiers of the land. Specific examples include extreme violence such as a homicide, the use of the property for the manufacture of substances such as methylamphetamine, or a defence or fire brigade training site involving the use of hazardous materials. Relevant factors can include the reaction of other potential buyers to the fact, including their willingness to buy in light of the revelation. Significant penalties and even imprisonment await vendors and real estate agents who do not comply. <h2>Will the laws work?</h2> As with any new legislation, we will have to wait and see how this plays out. However, some preliminary comments can be made. First, it will be interesting to see how the term “knowingly” is interpreted. Could an agent or vendor avoid the provisions if they merely suspect an issue but do not look further into it? The term “wilful blindness” comes to mind. Second, a fact can be material in either a general or a specific sense. The general sense seems straightforward, as it refers to information most people would consider when deciding whether to buy a property. However, how serious must a crime be to be material? What if the situation involves cultivation of marijuana rather than a more egregious substance? More complex is where a material fact may be of importance to a specific buyer but not buyers generally. For example, in the case discussed above, the buyers’ religion made it impossible for them to live in a home where a violent murder had occurred. In this case, the onus seems to be on the prospective buyer to ask questions about matters of concern to them. <h2>What now?</h2> Although one suspects that buyers of an allegedly haunted house might not succeed under this legislation, the laws address a significant gap regarding disclosure of psychological considerations in the purchase of a property rather than the traditional physical ones.<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/132766/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/eileen-webb-95332">Eileen Webb</a>, Professor of Law and Ageing, School of Law, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-south-australia-1180">University of South Australia</a> Image credits: Getty Images 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/when-your-house-has-a-disturbing-history-what-should-buyers-be-told-about-its-past-132766">original article</a>.

Real Estate

Seinfeld: how a sitcom ‘about nothing’ changed television for good

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/nathan-abrams-122305">Nathan Abrams</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/bangor-university-1221">Bangor University</a> A quarter of a century ago, on 14 May 1998, the final episode of Seinfeld was broadcast, ending one of the most significant sitcoms of all time after nine seasons and 180 episodes. In fact the self-styled “show about nothing” was so important we can talk about the pre-Seinfeld and post-Seinfeld eras. Set in Manhattan, Seinfeld focused on the minutiae of daily life for four friends: Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), his best friend, George Costanza (Jason Alexander), his ex-girlfriend Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and his neighbour Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards). Such a setup might sound familiar to fans of 90s American comedy shows. But Seinfeld abandoned the traditional sitcom structure of an A story and a B story and instead gave each character their own storyline, full of self-aware and metatextual jokes. While co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld wanted a single-camera, filmlike aesthetic, the network, NBC, forced them to adopt a multi-camera setup taped in front of a live studio audience to supply the laughter track. Eventually, David and Seinfeld subverted that by shooting more scenes using single cameras and externally so that they could not be taped in front of a studio audience. They also employed a rapid-paced, quick-cutting, music-led style that was then unusual for sitcoms. This created the opportunities for expanding the narrative and cinematographic possibilities we’ve seen since. Seinfeld was a forerunner of the cinematic television we watch today. Consider the elaborate single-camera set pieces of the comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime, or the epic, cinematic look of Netflix’s Better Call Saul. Seinfeld tackled a host of then-taboo topics, which were part of everyday life, including antisemitism, same-gender relationships and masturbation. But because censorship and social mores at that time would not allow the characters to say the word “masturbation”, instead they referred to who can be the “master of their domain”. Such topics are commonplace these days. All four characters are antiheroes. None of them is particularly likeable nor were they intended to be. They are morally ambiguous, malicious, selfish, self-involved and extremely petty. They refuse to improve themselves, evolve or even manifest the slightest desire for change. They learn no lessons and the arc of the entire series revisits those they have wronged. Similar characters can be found in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367279/">Arrested Development</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472954/">It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia</a>. Also, consider Walter White from <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/70143836">Breaking Bad</a> and <a href="https://www.hbo.com/the-sopranos">Tony Soprano</a>. If all four leads in Seinfeld are bad, then George is the worst. Modelled on co-creator, Larry David, he is the epitome of male privilege. Such characters populate the televisual landscape today, not least in David’s later show, <a href="https://www.hbo.com/curb-your-enthusiasm">Curb Your Enthusiasm</a>, in which he stars as a version of himself. Elaine Benes stands out as a strong female character for the time. In one episode, in the face of a shortage of contraception, she judges whether her sexual partners are “sponge-worthy” or not. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays her with a tremendous physical comedy, as well as comic timing. She was unapologetic, and her sexuality and work life are foregrounded. Clearly, this set the template for her later series, <a href="https://www.hbo.com/veep">Veep</a>. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1njzgXSzA-A?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><figcaption>Festivus is celebrated on December 23 each year, thanks to Seinfeld.</figcaption></figure> The show generated billions of dollars in revenue, making NBC US$150 million (about £93 million) a year at its peak. By the ninth and final season, Jerry Seinfeld was earning US$1 million an episode. NBC executives tried to get him to return for a tenth season by offering him US$5 million an episode, but Seinfeld turned it down. Among the show’s fans was the legendary director Stanley Kubrick. “He was crazy about The Simpsons and Seinfeld,” his friend <a href="https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/movies/kubrick-by-michael-herr/">Michael Herr recounted</a>. As a Kubrick expert, I even suspect that the set design influenced his final film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120663/">Eyes Wide Shut</a> (1999). Watching Seinfeld again now – and I have re-watched every episode – some of it lands terribly today. Take the episodes with Babu Bhatt, a Pakistani immigrant who runs a restaurant across the street from Jerry’s apartment. He appears in three episodes of the show and is known for his catchphrase, “Very bad man!” which he uses to insult Jerry. The problem is that Babu is played by actor Brian George, who was born in Jerusalem to Iraqi Jewish parents, and is clearly wearing makeup and affecting a south Asian accent. At the same time, the lack of diversity in Seinfeld is striking. New York is represented by Manhattan alone, rather than any of the other four boroughs that make up the metropolis. Its image of the Big Apple is white and middle class. As journalist and screenwriter Lindy West has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/09/politically-correct-jerry-seinfeld-comedy-marginalised-voices">observed</a>, the series featured only 19 black people, 18 of whom were one-off characters such as “the waiter” and “the guy who parks cars”. There was only one recurring black character – Kramer’s lawyer, Jackie Chiles – whose mimicry of OJ Simpson’s lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, makes him look like a real shyster. So, while Seinfeld may feel like a dated product of the late 1990s, it was ahead of the curve aesthetically, structurally and in terms of narrative and characterisation. Today’s television would be unthinkable without it.<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/201497/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> Image credit: Getty <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/nathan-abrams-122305">Nathan Abrams</a>, Professor of Film Studies, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/bangor-university-1221">Bangor University</a> 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/seinfeld-how-a-sitcom-about-nothing-changed-television-for-good-201497">original article</a>.

“Most reviewed bucket in bucket history”: Bizarre Bunnings buy achieves legendary status

Everyone knows that a good review can make or break a product, but for Bunnings, some particularly enthusiastic reviewers have done more than just get their bucket’s name out there - they’ve established a new legend. The<a href="https://www.bunnings.com.au/bunnings-20l-pail-bucket_p0138319"> Bunnings-branded 20L Pail Bucket</a>, which sells for $8, is now even considered to be the “most reviewed bucket in bucket history”. And if the feedback from its top fans is anything to go by, it’s all for good reason. “Wow. The legends are true,” one declared. “This bucket does far more than just bucket. Paired together with a set of drumsticks, these make fantastic drums … Do yourself a favour and buy a whole set so you can have drumming parties with a group of friends out the back with a few beers and some snags on the barbie.” And as another wrote, “attention, fellow bucket enthusiasts! Feast your eyes upon the legendary Bunnings 20L Bucket, a miraculous marvel that puts all other buckets to shame … Prepare for bucket greatness, my friends. The Bunnings 20L Bucket is here to show you what a real bucket is capable of. Bow down to the bucket supremacy and embrace the bucket revolution! Your world will never be the same again. Bucket on, my comrades!” One wrote up their success using the bucket in a practical manner, titling their take as “the bucket to end all buckets”. One proud bucket owner took a slightly different approach, sharing the tale of their noble pail when they wrote that “once upon a time, there was a humble bucket named Bertie. Bertie the Bunnings Bucket, lived in a small shed in the backyard of a cosy cottage. Every day, Bertie eagerly awaited his owner, a retired landscaper named Gus, to fill him with water. Bertie took pride in nourishing the vibrant flowers and lush plants in the garden. “Over time, Bertie became more than just a vessel; he became a symbol of growth and the beauty that can bloom with a little care.” Another wrote a poem that went a little something like “oh Bunnings buckets, sturdy and strong. So useful for tasks all day long. For gardening, cleaning, and DIY too. There's nothing these buckets can't do … Oh Bunnings buckets, you're the best. Easy to use and always impressed. With you by my side, I can't go wrong. My go-to tool, all day long!” “I purchased this because it was on my bucket list,” shared one fan of puns and buckets alike. “I was so excited I couldn’t keep a lid on it.” And even for those who couldn’t yet fork out the $8 to take the life-changing item home, respect was in the air, with one writing that they would keep saving because “this is THE Bunnings bucket. The bucket. All my mates have one, even my flash neighbours have one. It's a statement bucket.” A labrador, who goes by Tim Tam, even had their humans leave a positive message on their behalf, declaring that “my hoo mans took me to Bunnings and brought me 2 of these buckets, they are my favourite … every day I am excited to see the bucket!” And as one shopper put it quite simply, “it’s a bucket that buckets”. Images: Bunnings

Home & Garden

Woman finds piece of art history on sale for $8

It’s every thrifter’s dream to find something in an op shop that is being sold for far less than it’s worth. Many frequent their local thrift shops to find hidden treasures from designer brands with a much more reasonable price tag, finally giving them the chance to own a piece of luxury. One experienced thrift shopper has taken this dream to the next level, after she found a series of ceramic dishes in her local Salvation Army store that are a piece of art history. Nancy Cavaliere, a native New Yorker, has shared the story of her ultimate thrifting experience, which began on her way home from work in the summer of 2017. Nancy recalled stopping by the store and browsing for a while before resigning herself to defeat after not snagging a bargain. “I see nothing. I almost leave,” she said in her now-viral TikTok. <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/CqTY-WXJ4DM/?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/CqTY-WXJ4DM/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Nancy Cavaliere (@casacavaliere)</a> </div> </blockquote> However, one more peruse past the china aisle was all Nancy needed for something to catch her eye, as she spied four unusual black plates with geometric faces hand-painted on them, with each plate marked with a $1.99 sticker. “I was going to buy them to make a tablescape,” Cavaliere said in the video. She bought the plates and left the store happy, and began to research her purchase once she got home. The plates, it turned out, belonged to Picasso’s “Visage Noir” series of hand-painted ceramics, produced in a pottery studio in the southern French town of Madoura in the 1940s. “When I tell you I googled this set… and saw how much they were worth and almost cried, passed out—I’m not lying,” Cavaliere said. Nancy then contacted several auction houses in New York, such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s, to have the plates appraised and authenticated. She was told they were each worth $3,000 to $5,000, and the following year, she sold three of her four plates at Sotheby’s for roughly $12,000, $13,000, and $16,000, respectively. “I was in my office at my lunch break watching this live auction go down, crying my eyes out,” she said. The fourth piece, which bears Picasso’s signature, Nancy decided to keep and store in a safe deposit box. Cavaliere plans to sell it in 20 years and give the money to her daughter, perhaps for a trip around Europe. “It’s crazy,” she said, “that I actually own something that Picasso signed for himself.” Image credits: Instagram

Art

Calling drag queens ‘groomers’ and ‘pedophiles’ is the latest in a long history of weaponising those terms against the LGBTIQA community

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/timothy-w-jones-11557">Timothy W. Jones</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a> Drag queens around the world are currently being accused of “grooming children” through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_Queen_Story_Hour">drag storytime events</a>. These accusations curiously associate public book reading with child sex offending. We know from <a href="https://publishing.monash.edu/product/the-sexual-abuse-of-children/">decades of research and inquiries</a> the places that young people are most at risk of sexual victimisation are their home or an institution of care (such as a school, orphanage or church). The people that most often offend against children are family members and care providers. However, this recent panic about drag queens reading in public libraries is actually typical in the history of child sexual abuse. This history has involved repeated moral panics that distract from the alarming data regarding child sexual abuse in the home. Instead, these narratives locate the threat to children outside of the home - to gay men, “stranger danger” and even satanic ritual abuse - rather than confronting the situations and protecting children where they are most at risk. <h2>Moral panic</h2> In the 1970s, feminist attention to domestic violence, sexual assault and the patriarchy created the conditions that enabled the sexual assault of children in the home to be put in the spotlight. It wasn’t long, however, before attention was shifted elsewhere. In the 1980s, fears about a new form of abuse spread. <a href="https://theconversation.com/satanic-worship-sodomy-and-even-murder-how-stranger-things-revived-the-american-satanic-panic-of-the-80s-186292">Satanic ritual abuse</a> was thought to involve large numbers of victims and perpetrators, but was <a href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/pdf/10.1521/jscp.1997.16.2.112">“so cloaked in secrecy and involve such precise concealment of evidence that almost no one knew about it”</a>. Satanic ritual abuse captured headlines and people’s imaginations with tales of particularly painful, depraved and degrading practices. Research has shown that reports of abuse initially came from adults who “regained memories” of experiences of satanic abuse in their childhoods. Additional reports clustered in the periods after media attention on initial cases. The consensus in medical literature that emerged in the 1990s was there was a tendency of some individuals, especially clients of particular psychotherapists, to manufacture memories of abuse which never occurred. Corroborating evidence of abuse was not found, leading sceptics to account for these <a href="https://journals-sagepub-com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/doi/epdf/10.2466/pms.1994.78.3c.1376">“pseudomemories” through “misdiagnosis, and the misapplication of hypnosis, dreamwork, or regressive therapies”</a>. Subsequently, the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Organised-Sexual-Abuse/Salter/p/book/9781138789159?gclid=CjwKCAjwjYKjBhB5EiwAiFdSflzGRpk-QL7yO8HrAOZbbtD-okQbGIOYC47WI3m-obre71DXVhs7_hoCfwcQAvD_BwE">satanic ritual abuse controversy</a> and “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924933816020824">false memory syndrome</a>” have been used to discredit hard-fought feminist recognition of the gravity of child sex offending <h2>A deviant lifestyle</h2> There is also a long history of using paedophilia and ideas about child grooming in homophobic and transphobic ways to oppose the recognition of the civil rights of LGBTIQA people. Campaigns to decriminalise homosexuality often struggled against attempts to impose unequal ages of consent in reform legislation. In 1967, for example, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Offences_Act_1967">homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales</a>, but men had to wait until they were 21 to legally consummate their love, five years longer than straight lovers. In Tasmania, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Pink_Triangle.html?id=Wp6cPAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">the last Australian state to decriminalise sex between men</a> (in 1997), a heated public debate frequently raised issues of child protection. Letters to newspapers claimed that decriminalisation “would only open the floodgates and allow the very young to become prey to those who have chosen to lead this deviant lifestyle”. The idea was that young people are vulnerable to becoming homosexual and shouldn’t be allowed to consent to sexual activity until they were much older than their heterosexual peers. Sitting behind this notion of the vulnerability of young queer people is the <a href="https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbtq/orientation">false idea</a> that LGBTIQA status is a sign of moral failing, illness or perversion. Further, it perpetuates the myth that queerness or transness is somehow transmissible. This is the somewhat fantastical idea that everybody has the latent potential to become queer or trans, and all that is needed to convert is exposure to a queer or trans person. These fears have fuelled repressive legislation, such as the notorious <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/27/section-28-protesters-30-years-on-we-were-arrested-and-put-in-a-cell-up-by-big-ben">Section 28</a> in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/graphics/UGANDA-LGBT/movakykrjva/">Ugandan</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_gay_propaganda_law">Russian</a> laws banning the promotion of homosexuality, and the “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/02/17/florida-advances-dont-say-gay-bill?gclid=Cj0KCQjwsIejBhDOARIsANYqkD1-IyOtYIl1WefomHHCyNZ0t88GRQTVciS7iJFoUslPSu4In5ayS3IaAqadEALw_wcB">don’t say gay</a>” laws in the United States. Ironically, these strange and harmful ideas are also behind the ineffective, discredited and dangerous attempts to change or suppress LGBTIQA people’s sexuality or gender identity. In these instances of so-called “conversion therapy”, it is <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/SexualOrientation/IESOGI/Academics/Equality_Australia_LGBTconversiontherapyinAustraliav2.pdf">often religious conservatives</a> who <a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1201588/Healing-spiritual-harms-Supporting-recovery-from-LGBTQA-change-and-suppression-practices.pdf">“groom” young LGBTIQA people</a> in attempts to make them straight and cisgendered. Such change and suppression practices are now thankfully <a href="https://www.humanrights.vic.gov.au/change-or-suppression-practices/about-the-csp-act/#:%7E:text=Practices%20that%20seek%20to%20change,preventing%20and%20responding%20to%20them.">against the law</a> in many jurisdictions around the world. <h2>A kinder and gentler future</h2> Despite periodic moral panics, the history of gender and sexuality since 1970 tends towards a kinder, gentler future. People have generally become more accepting of LGBTIQA people’s human rights, and are more welcoming and celebrating of sexual and gender diversity. The pace of change has been fast, however, and some groups of people haven’t gotten used to contemporary community standards of acceptance, such as the move towards marriage equality around the world. Because of this history of growing acceptance, young people are feeling more comfortable and safer to explore their identities at younger ages. They are thus more visible than they used to be in the past. However, they’re also more vulnerable as they explore sensitive aspects of their inner selves at younger and potentially less resilient ages. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-021-00615-5">Research shows</a> the impacts that homophobic and transphobic messaging can have on young people, proving they need to be protected from this harmful rhetoric – not from drag queens. Drag storytime events are an age-appropriate way to celebrate diversity. They benefit all children – gay, straight, transgender and cisgender – with education about consent, human dignity, self determination and human rights. This <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14681811.2021.1978964">knowledge is one of the best protective factors</a> against child victimisation.<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/205648/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/timothy-w-jones-11557">Timothy W. Jones</a>, Associate Professor in History, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University</a> Image credits: Shutterstock 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/calling-drag-queens-groomers-and-pedophiles-is-the-latest-in-a-long-history-of-weaponising-those-terms-against-the-lgbtiqa-community-205648">original article</a>.

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Calling drag queens ‘groomers’ and ‘pedophiles’ is the latest in a long history of weaponising those terms against the LGBTIQA community

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Calling drag queens ‘groomers’ and ‘pedophiles’ is the latest in a long history of weaponising those terms against the LGBTIQA community

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