Search

New global appeal launched for one of Australia's most wanted men

<p>Police have ramped up their efforts to locate one of Australia's most wanted men, who they believe fled the country over two decades ago. </p> <p>In 1999, James Dalamangas allegedly fled to Greece after his believed involvement in the death of a Sydney father. </p> <p>George Giannopoulos attended a Belmore nightclub in Sydney’s south west on April 25th 1999 when he was stabbed twice and died while trying to intervene in a fight between two patrons.</p> <p>A warrant was issued for Mr Dalamangas' arrest the next day over his alleged involvement in the brutal murder, although he was never found.</p> <p>Dalamangas, who worked as a bouncer, is also wanted for questioning over the 1997 shooting murder of another Kings Cross bouncer Tim Voukelates.</p> <p>He was also involved in a brawl at Star City Casino where his brother Peter was killed in 1998.</p> <p>Police believe he fled the country after Mr Giannopoulos' death, with authorities believing he is still living in Greece. </p> <p>After attempts to extradite Mr Dalamangas from Greece were not successful in 2003, Greek authorities agreed to commence the prosecution of Mr Dalamangas over his alleged role in the murder, but the process was suspended in 2007 when he couldn't be found. </p> <p>As the 25-year-long Greek statute of limitations nears, police are re-appealing for anyone with information to come forward, particularly if they can assist in locating Mr Dalamangas in Greece.</p> <p>“A warrant was issued for Mr Dalamangas’ arrest; however, despite extensive inquiries, he has never been located,” police said in a statement.</p> <p>Detectives have released an age progression photo of Dalamangas, who would now be aged 53.</p> <p>Dalamangas is Mediterranean in appearance, between 180 and 185cm tall with a medium build, dark hair and brown eyes.</p> <p><em>Image credits: AFP</em></p>

Legal

"Do you hear it?": Worldwide hum global mystery baffles scientists

<p>A perplexing phenomenon known as "The Worldwide Hum" has been capturing the attention of scientists and citizens alike, as an unusual low-frequency noise continues to puzzle experts.</p> <p>This mysterious hum, first recorded in 2012, has been reported by thousands of people worldwide, sparking investigations, online discussions and even <a href="https://www.thehum.info/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the creation of an interactive map</a> documenting instances of the enigmatic sound. As researchers strive to unravel the mystery, individuals share their experiences, raising questions about its origin and effects.</p> <p>Described as a low rumbling or droning sound, "the hum" is often likened to the idling of a car or truck engine. What makes this phenomenon particularly intriguing is that it is not universally heard, with reports of the hum being exclusive to certain individuals.</p> <p>Some claim it is more pronounced at night than during the day, and louder indoors than outdoors. One Reddit user even compared it to the low-frequency vibrations felt when a passenger jet flies overhead.</p> <p>Since its first documentation, more than 6,500 instances of the hum have been reported globally, with new cases continually emerging. The interactive user-generated World Hum Map and Database Project <span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">captures the experiences of those who have encountered the sound, providing a comprehensive overview of its widespread occurrence. In some regions, authorities such as the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) have conducted investigations, as was the case in the NSW Waverley Council ten years ago. Despite these efforts, the source of the hum remains elusive.</span></p> <p>Individuals affected by the mysterious noise often find solace in online communities, where they share their experiences and discuss possible explanations. Some describe feeling as though they are "going insane", and say that the psychological impact of the persistent hum is actually very severe.</p> <p>Facebook support groups have become a platform for individuals to connect, share anecdotes and speculate about the origin of the sound. Theories range from the mundane – such as the use of headphones causing collective tinnitus – to more complex environmental factors.</p> <p>While tinnitus, a symptom of auditory system issues, has been proposed as a potential explanation, it does not account for the collective experience of the hum. Various theories, including industrial plants, ocean waves, lightning strikes and the proliferation of mobile phone towers, have been suggested over the years. However, none of these explanations have gained widespread acceptance or provided a conclusive answer.</p> <p>Dr Glen MacPherson, who initiated the World Hum Map and Database Project, experienced the hum firsthand on Canada's Sunshine Coast. Having debunked the idea of "hum hotspots", Dr MacPherson theorises that the hum may be a subjective phenomenon, akin to tinnitus, originating from within the individual rather than an external source. His 11 years of research highlight the complexity of the mystery, challenging initial assumptions and pointing towards the need for further investigation.</p> <p>As "The Worldwide Hum" continues to captivate the curiosity of scientists and citizens worldwide, the quest for understanding remains elusive. While theories abound, the true origin of the hum remains unknown, leaving both experts and individuals alike intrigued by a phenomenon that transcends geographic boundaries and defies conventional explanations.</p> <p><em>Image: Getty</em></p>

Body

Will we still have antibiotics in 50 years? We asked 7 global experts

<p>Almost since antibiotics were <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2937522/#:%7E:text=Since%20the%20introduction%20in%201937,operate%20some%2070%20years%20later.">first discovered</a>, we’ve been aware bacteria can learn how to overcome these medicines, a phenomenon known as antimicrobial resistance.</p> <p>The World Health Organization says we’re currently <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/20-09-2017-the-world-is-running-out-of-antibiotics-who-report-confirms">losing to the bugs</a>, with resistance increasing and too few new antibiotics in the pipeline. </p> <p>We wanted to know whether experts around the world think we will still have effective antibiotics in 50 years. Seven out of seven experts said yes.</p> <p><strong>Lori Burrows - Biochemist, Canada</strong></p> <p>Yes! Antibiotics are a crucial component of modern medicine, and we can't afford to lose them. Despite the rise of resistance in important pathogens (bugs), and the substantial decrease in new drugs in development, we have multiple tools at our disposal to protect antibiotics. Stewardship - the principle of using antibiotics only when absolutely necessary - is key to maintaining the usefulness of current antibiotics and preventing resistance to new drugs from arising. New diagnostics, such as the rapid tests that became widely available during the pandemic, can inform stewardship efforts, reducing inappropriate antibiotic use for viral diseases.</p> <p>Finally, researchers continue to find creative ways, including the use of powerful artificial intelligence approaches, to identify antimicrobial compounds with new targets or new modes of action. Other promising tactics include using viruses that naturally kill bacteria, stimulating the host's immune system to fight the bacteria, or combining existing antibiotics with molecules that can enhance antibiotic activity by, for example, increasing uptake or blocking resistance.</p> <p><strong>André Hudson - Biochemist, United States</strong></p> <p>Yes. The real question is not whether we will have antibiotics 50 years from now, but what form of antibiotics will be used. Most antibiotics we use today are modelled after natural products isolated from organisms such as fungi and plants. The use of <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2020/artificial-intelligence-identifies-new-antibiotic-0220">AI</a>, machine learning, and other <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/25/artificial-intelligence-antibiotic-deadly-superbug-hospital">computational tools</a> to help design novel, unnatural compounds that can circumvent the evolution of antibiotic resistance are only in the very early stages of development.</p> <p>Many of the traditional medicines such as penicillins and other common antibiotics of today which are already waning in efficacy, will probably be of very little use in 50 years. Over time, with the aid of new technology, I predict we will have new medicines to fight bacterial infections.</p> <p><strong>Ray Robins-Browne - Microbiologist, Australia</strong></p> <p>Yes, we will have antibiotics (by which I mean antimicrobial drugs), because people will still get infections despite advances in immunisation and other forms of prevention. Having said this, drugs of the future will be quite different from those we use today, which will have become obsolete well within the next 50 years. The new drugs will have a narrow spectrum, meaning they will be targeted directly at the specific cause of the infection, which we will determine by using rapid, point-of-care diagnostic tests, similar to the RATS we currently use to diagnose COVID.</p> <p>Antimicrobials of the future won’t kill bacteria or limit their growth, because this encourages the development of resistance. Instead, they will limit the ability of the bacteria to cause disease or evade our immune systems.</p> <p><strong>Raúl Rivas González - Microbiologist, Spain</strong></p> <p>Yes, but not without effort. Currently, antimicrobial resistance is a leading cause of death globally, and will continue to rise. But in my opinion, there will still be useful antibiotics to combat bacterial infections within 50 years. To achieve this, innovation and investment is required. Artificial intelligence may even be able to help. An example is the compound "RS102895", which eliminates the multi-resistant superbug Acinetobacter baumannii. This was identified through a machine learning algorithm.</p> <p>The future of antibiotics requires substantial changes in the search for new active molecules and in the design of therapies that can eliminate bacteria without developing resistance. We are on the right path. An example is the discovery of clovibactin, recently isolated from uncultured soil bacteria. Clovibactin effectively kills antibiotic-resistant gram-positive bacteria without generating detectable resistance. Future antimicrobial therapy may consist of new antibiotics, viruses that kill bacteria, specific antibodies, drugs that counter antibiotic resistance, and other new technology.</p> <p><strong>Fidelma Fitzpatrick - Microbiologist, United Kingdom</strong></p> <p>Yes, but not many. Without rapid scale-up of measures to curtail the "<a href="https://www.oecd.org/health/embracing-a-one-health-framework-to-fight-antimicrobial-resistance-ce44c755-en.htm">alarming global health threat</a>" of antimicrobial resistance by 2073, there will be few effective antibiotics left to treat sepsis. The <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/covid19.html">Centre for Disease Control</a> has indicated a reversal of progress following the pandemic, when all focus in healthcare, government and society was on COVID. Without an approach targeting people, animals, agri-food systems and the environment, antimicrobial resistance will continue its upward trajectory. <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/health/publication/drug-resistant-infections-a-threat-to-our-economic-future">Doing nothing</a> is unacceptable – lives will be lost, healthcare expenditure will increase and workforce productivity will suffer.</p> <p>The highest burden of antimicrobial resistance is in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02724-0/fulltext">low-income countries</a>. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543407/">Action plans</a> exist in most OECD, European and G20 countries. In all countries plans need to be funded and implemented across all relevant sectors as above. Better integrated data to track antibiotic use and resistance across human and animal health and the environment, in addition to research and development for new antibiotics, vaccines and diagnostics, will be necessary.</p> <p><strong>Juliana Côrrea - Public health expert, Brazil </strong></p> <p>Yes. However, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0188440905002730?via%3Dihub">available data</a> suggest that without a shift in the political agenda towards the control and prevention of antimicrobial resistance, several antibiotics will have lost their utility. The problem of bacterial resistance is not new and the risk of antibiotics becoming ineffective in the face of the evolutionary capacity of bacteria is one of the main problems facing global health. The creation of policies to promote the appropriate use of this resource has not progressed at the same speed as inappropriate use in human and animal health and in agricultural production.</p> <p>The factors that impact antibiotic use are complex and vary according to local contexts. The response to the problem goes far beyond controlling use at the individual level. We must recognise the social, political, and economic dimensions in proposing more effective governance.</p> <p><strong>Yori Yuliandra - Pharmacist, Indonesia</strong></p> <p>Yes. Despite their <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance">reduced efficacy over time</a>, antibiotics continue to be produced every year. Researchers are tirelessly working to develop new and more effective antibiotics. And researchers are actively exploring combinations of antibiotics to enhance their efficacy. While antimicrobial resistance is rising, researchers have been making remarkable progress in addressing this issue. They have developed innovative antibiotic classes such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.4155/fmc-2016-0041">FtsZ inhibitors</a> which can inhibit cell division, a process necessary for bacteria to multiply. <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240021303">Clinical trials</a> are currently taking place.</p> <p>A deeper understanding of the molecular aspects of bacterial resistance has led to the discovery of new treatment strategies, such as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/D2MD00263A">inhibition of key enzymes</a> that play a pivotal role in bugs becoming resistant. And <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02586-0">advances in computer technology</a> have greatly accelerated drug discovery and development efforts, offering hope for the rapid discovery of new antibiotics and treatment strategies.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-we-still-have-antibiotics-in-50-years-we-asked-7-global-experts-214950" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Body

6 reasons why global temperatures are spiking right now

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrew-king-103126">Andrew King</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a></em></p> <p>The world is very warm right now. We’re not only seeing record temperatures, but the records are being broken by record-wide margins.</p> <p>Take the preliminary September global-average temperature anomaly of 1.7°C above pre-industrial levels, for example. It’s an incredible 0.5°C above the previous record.</p> <p>So why is the world so incredibly hot right now? And what does it mean for keeping our Paris Agreement targets?</p> <p>Here are six contributing factors – with climate change the main reason temperatures are so high.</p> <h2>1. El Niño</h2> <p>One reason for the exceptional heat is we are in a <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/#tabs=Pacific-Ocean">significant El Niño</a> that is still strengthening. During El Niño we see warming of the surface ocean over much of the tropical Pacific. This warming, and the effects of El Niño in other parts of the world, raises global average temperatures by <a href="https://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2023/01/2022-updates-to-the-temperature-records/">about 0.1 to 0.2°C</a>.</p> <p>Taking into account the fact we’ve just come out of a triple La Niña, which cools global average temperatures slightly, and the fact this is the first major El Niño in eight years, it’s not too surprising we’re seeing unusually high temperatures at the moment.</p> <p>Still, El Niño alone isn’t enough to explain the crazily high temperatures the world is experiencing.</p> <h2>2. Falling pollution</h2> <p>Air pollution from human activities cools the planet and has offset some of the warming caused by humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions. There have been efforts to reduce this pollution – since 2020 there has been an <a href="https://sdg.iisd.org/news/imo-advances-measures-to-reduce-emissions-from-international-shipping/">international agreement</a> to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions from the global shipping industry.</p> <p>It has been speculated this cleaner air has contributed to the recent heat, particularly over the record-warm <a href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/record-breaking-north-atlantic-ocean-temperatures-contribute-extreme-marine-heatwaves">north Atlantic</a> and Pacific regions with high shipping traffic.</p> <p>It’s likely this is contributing to the extreme high global temperatures – but only on the order of hundredths of a degree. <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-how-low-sulphur-shipping-rules-are-affecting-global-warming/">Recent analysis</a> suggests the effect of the 2020 shipping agreement is about an extra 0.05°C warming by 2050.</p> <h2>3. Increasing solar activity</h2> <p>While falling pollution levels mean more of the Sun’s energy reaches Earth’s surface, the amount of the energy the Sun emits is itself variable. There are different solar cycles, but an 11-year cycle is the most relevant one to today’s climate.</p> <p>The Sun is becoming <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/14/world/solar-maximum-activity-2024-scn/index.html">more active</a> from a minimum in late 2019. This is also contributing a small amount to the spike in global temperatures. Overall, increasing solar activity is contributing only hundredths of a degree at most to the recent global heat.</p> <h2>4. Water vapour from Hunga Tonga eruption</h2> <p>On January 15 2022 the underwater <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia26006-hunga-tonga-hunga-haapai-eruption">Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano erupted</a> in the South Pacific Ocean, sending large amounts of water vapour high up into the upper atmosphere. Water vapour is a greenhouse gas, so increasing its concentration in the atmosphere in this way does intensify the greenhouse effect.</p> <p>Even though the eruption happened almost two years ago, it’s still having a small warming effect on the planet. However, as with the reduced pollution and increasing solar activity, we’re talking about hundredths of a degree.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6oANPi-SWN0?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>5. Bad luck</h2> <p>We see variability in global temperatures from one year to the next even without factors like El Niño or major changes in pollution. Part of the reason this September was so extreme was likely due to weather systems being in the right place to heat the land surface.</p> <p>When we have persistent high-pressure systems over land regions, as seen recently over places like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/01/autumn-heat-continues-in-europe-after-record-breaking-september">western Europe</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-19/australia-weather-september-heat-records-tumble/102870294">Australia</a>, we see local temperatures rise and the conditions for unseasonable heat.</p> <p>As water requires more energy to warm and the ocean moves around, we don’t see the same quick response in temperatures over the seas when we have high-pressure systems.</p> <p>The positioning of weather systems warming up many land areas coupled with persistent ocean heat is likely a contributor to the global-average heat too.</p> <h2>6. Climate change</h2> <p>By far the biggest contributor to the overall +1.7°C global temperature anomaly is human-caused climate change. Overall, humanity’s effect on the climate has been a global warming of <a href="https://www.globalwarmingindex.org/">about 1.2°C</a>.</p> <p>The record-high rate of greenhouse gas emissions means we should expect global warming to accelerate too.</p> <p>While humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions explain the trend seen in September temperatures over many decades, they don’t really explain the big difference from last September (when the greenhouse effect was almost as strong as it is today) and September 2023.</p> <p>Much of the difference between this year and last comes back to the switch from La Niña to El Niño, and the right weather systems in the right place at the right time.</p> <h2>The upshot: we need to accelerate climate action</h2> <p>September 2023 shows that with a combination of climate change and other factors aligning we can see alarmingly high temperatures.</p> <p>These anomalies may appear to be above the 1.5°C global warming level referred to in the Paris Agreement, but that’s about keeping <a href="https://climateanalytics.org/briefings/understanding-the-paris-agreements-long-term-temperature-goal/">long-term global warming</a> to low levels and not individual months of heat.</p> <p>But we are seeing the effects of climate change unfolding more and more clearly.</p> <p>The most vulnerable are suffering the biggest impacts as wealthier nations continue to emit the largest proportion of greenhouse gases. Humanity must accelerate the path to net zero to prevent more record-shattering global temperatures and damaging extreme events.<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/215140/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrew-king-103126">Andrew King</a>, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/6-reasons-why-global-temperatures-are-spiking-right-now-215140">original article</a>.</em></p>

Travel Trouble

Research reveals who’s been hit hardest by global warming in their lifetime - and the answer may surprise you

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrew-king-103126">Andrew King</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ed-hawkins-104793">Ed Hawkins</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-reading-902">University of Reading</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hunter-douglas-1460792">Hunter Douglas</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/te-herenga-waka-victoria-university-of-wellington-1200">Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/luke-harrington-489028">Luke Harrington</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-waikato-781">University of Waikato</a></p> <p>Earth is warming and the signs of climate change are everywhere. We’ve seen it in the past few weeks as temperatures hit record highs around the world – both in the Northern Hemisphere and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-australia-having-such-a-warm-winter-a-climate-expert-explains-210693">warm Australian winter</a>.</p> <p>Global warming is caused by humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions, which continue at <a href="https://theconversation.com/global-carbon-emissions-at-record-levels-with-no-signs-of-shrinking-new-data-shows-humanity-has-a-monumental-task-ahead-193108">near-record pace</a>. These emissions are predominantly generated by people in the world’s wealthiest regions.</p> <p>Our world-first analysis, <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2752-5295/aceff2">published today</a>, examines the experience of global warming over the lifetimes of people around the world: young and old, rich and poor. We sought to identify who has perceived warmer temperatures most keenly.</p> <p>We found middle-aged people in equatorial regions have lived through the most perceptible warming in their lifetimes. But many young people in lower-income countries could experience unrecognisable changes in their local climate later in life, unless the world rapidly tackles climate change.</p> <h2>Measuring the climate change experience</h2> <p>We examined temperature data and population demographics information from around the world.</p> <p>Key to our analysis was the fact that not all warming is due to human activity. Some of it is caused by natural, year-to-year variations in Earth’s climate.</p> <p>These natural ups and downs are due to a number of factors. They include variations in the energy Earth receives from the sun, the effects of volcanic eruptions, and transfers of heat between the atmosphere and the ocean.</p> <p>This variability is stronger in mid-to-high-latitude parts of the world (those further from the equator) than in low-latitude areas (in equatorial regions). That’s because the weather systems further away from the equator draw in hot or cold air from neighbouring areas, but equatorial areas don’t receive cold air at all.</p> <p>That’s why, for example, the annual average temperature in New York is naturally more variable than in the city of Kinshasa (in the Democratic Republic of Congo).</p> <p>To account for this, we applied what’s known as the “<a href="https://archive.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg1/346.htm#:%7E:text=The%20%EF%BF%BDsignal%20to%20noise,to%20this%20natural%20variability%20noise.">signal-to-noise ratio</a>” at each location we studied. That allowed us to separate the strength of the climate change “signal” from the “noise” of natural variability.</p> <p>Making this distinction is important. The less naturally variable the temperature, the clearer the effects of warming. So warming in Kinshasa over the past 50 years has been much more perceptible than in New York.</p> <p>Our study examined two central questions. First, we wanted to know, for every location in the world, how clearly global warming could be perceived, relative to natural temperature variability.</p> <p>Second, we wanted to know where this perceived change was most clear over human lifetimes.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541474/original/file-20230807-17-ogjdti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541474/original/file-20230807-17-ogjdti.png?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/541474/original/file-20230807-17-ogjdti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541474/original/file-20230807-17-ogjdti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541474/original/file-20230807-17-ogjdti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541474/original/file-20230807-17-ogjdti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541474/original/file-20230807-17-ogjdti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541474/original/file-20230807-17-ogjdti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Annual-average temperatures at four major cities with signal-to-noise ratios shown for 20, 50 and 80 years up to 2021." /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Annual-average temperatures at four major cities with signal-to-noise ratios shown for 20, 50 and 80 years up to 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <h2>Our results</h2> <p>So what did we find? As expected, the most perceptible warming is found in tropical regions – those near the equator. This includes developing parts of the world that constitute the Global South – such as Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia.</p> <p>Household incomes in the Global South are typically lower than in industrialised nations (known as the Global North). We might, then, conclude people in the poorest parts of the world have experienced the most perceptible global warming over their lifetimes. But that’s not always the case.</p> <p>Why? Because most parts of the Global South have younger populations than wealthier regions. And some people under the age of 20, including in northern India and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, haven’t experienced warming over their lifetimes.</p> <p>In these places, the lack of recent warming is likely down to a few factors: natural climate variability, and the local cooling effect of particles released into the atmosphere from <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3b7a">pollution</a> and changes in land use.</p> <p>There’s another complication. Some populated regions of the world also experienced slight cooling in the mid-20th century, primarily driven by human-caused <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10946">aerosol emissions</a>.</p> <p>So, many people born earlier than the 1950s have experienced less perceptible warming in their local area than those born in the 1960s and 1970s. This may seem counter-intuitive. But a cooling trend in the first few decades of one’s life means the warming experienced over an entire lifespan (from birth until today) is smaller and less detectable.</p> <p>So what does all this mean? People in equatorial areas born in the 1960s and 1970s – now aged between about 45 and 65 – have experienced more perceptible warming than anyone else on Earth.</p> <h2>Rich countries must act</h2> <p>Our findings are important, for several reasons.</p> <p>Identifying who has experienced significant global warming in their lives may help explain <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2660">attitudes to tackling climate change</a>.</p> <p>Our findings also raise significant issues of fairness and equity.</p> <p>Humanity will continue to warm the planet until we reach global net-zero emissions. This means many young people in lower-income countries may, later in life, experience a local climate that is unrecognisable to that of their youth.</p> <p>Of course, warming temperatures are not the only way people experience climate change. Others include sea-level rise, more intense drought and rainfall extremes. We know many of these impacts are felt most acutely by <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/5/11/climate-change-is-devastating-the-global-south">the most vulnerable populations</a>.</p> <p>Cumulative greenhouse gas emissions are much higher in the Global North, due to economic development. To address this inequality, rich industrialised nations must take a leading role in reducing emissions to net-zero, and helping vulnerable countries adapt to climate change.<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/211108/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrew-king-103126">Andrew King</a>, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ed-hawkins-104793">Ed Hawkins</a>, Professor of Climate Science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-reading-902">University of Reading</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hunter-douglas-1460792">Hunter Douglas</a>, PhD Candidate, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/te-herenga-waka-victoria-university-of-wellington-1200">Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/luke-harrington-489028">Luke Harrington</a>, Senior Lecturer in Climate Change, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-waikato-781">University of Waikato</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/research-reveals-whos-been-hit-hardest-by-global-warming-in-their-lifetime-and-the-answer-may-surprise-you-211108">original article</a>.</em></p>

Travel Trouble

Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by 2030s, say scientists – this would have global, damaging and dangerous consequences

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jonathan-bamber-102567">Jonathan Bamber</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-bristol-1211">University of Bristol</a></em></p> <p>The Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by the 2030s, even if we do a good job of reducing emissions between now and then. That’s the worrying conclusion of a new study in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38511-8">Nature Communications</a>.</p> <p>Predictions of an ice-free Arctic Ocean have a long and complicated history, and the 2030s is sooner than most scientists had thought possible (though it is later than some had wrongly forecast). What we know for sure is the disappearance of sea ice at the top of the world would not only be an emblematic sign of climate breakdown, but it would have global, damaging and dangerous consequences.</p> <p>The Arctic has been experiencing climate heating <a href="https://theconversation.com/arctic-is-warming-nearly-four-times-faster-than-the-rest-of-the-world-new-research-188474">faster than any other part of the planet</a>. As it is at the frontline of climate change, the eyes of many scientists and local indigenous people have been on the sea ice that covers much of the Arctic Ocean in winter. This thin film of frozen seawater expands and contracts with the seasons, reaching a minimum area in September each year.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530136/original/file-20230605-19-mdh85y.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530136/original/file-20230605-19-mdh85y.gif?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/530136/original/file-20230605-19-mdh85y.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=184&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530136/original/file-20230605-19-mdh85y.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=184&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530136/original/file-20230605-19-mdh85y.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=184&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530136/original/file-20230605-19-mdh85y.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530136/original/file-20230605-19-mdh85y.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530136/original/file-20230605-19-mdh85y.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Animation of Arctic sea ice from space" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Arctic sea ice grows until March and then shrinks until September.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/esnt/2022/nasa-finds-2022-arctic-winter-sea-ice-10th-lowest-on-record">NASA</a></span></figcaption></figure> <p>The ice which remains at the end of summer is called multiyear sea ice and is considerably thicker than its seasonal counterpart. It acts as barrier to the transfer of both moisture and heat between the ocean and atmosphere. Over the past 40 years this multiyear sea ice has shrunk from around <a href="http://polarportal.dk/en/sea-ice-and-icebergs/sea-ice-extent0/">7 million sq km to 4 million</a>. That is a loss equivalent to roughly the size of India or 12 UKs. In other words, it’s a big signal, one of the most stark and dramatic signs of fundamental change to the climate system anywhere in the world.</p> <p>As a consequence, there has been considerable effort invested in determining when the Arctic Ocean might first become ice-free in summer, sometimes called a “blue ocean event” and defined as when the sea ice area drops below 1 million sq kms. This threshold is used mainly because older, thicker ice along parts of Canada and northern Greenland is expected to remain long after the rest of the Arctic Ocean is ice-free. We can’t put an exact date on the last blue ocean event, but one in the near future would likely mean open water at the North Pole for the first time in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10581">thousands of years</a>.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530138/original/file-20230605-29-9uuhxu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530138/original/file-20230605-29-9uuhxu.png?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/530138/original/file-20230605-29-9uuhxu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530138/original/file-20230605-29-9uuhxu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530138/original/file-20230605-29-9uuhxu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530138/original/file-20230605-29-9uuhxu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530138/original/file-20230605-29-9uuhxu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530138/original/file-20230605-29-9uuhxu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Annotated map of Arctic" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">The thickest ice (highlighted in pink) is likely to remain even if the North Pole is ice-free.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2015/05/new-tools-for-sea-ice-thickness/">NERC Center for Polar Observation and Modelling</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure> <p>One problem with predicting when this might occur is that sea ice is notoriously difficult to model because it is influenced by both atmospheric and oceanic circulation as well as the flow of heat between these two parts of the climate system. That means that the climate models – powerful computer programs used to simulate the environment – need to get all of these components right to be able to accurately predict changes in sea ice extent.</p> <h2>Melting faster than models predicted</h2> <p>Back in the 2000s, an assessment of early generations of climate models found they generally <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2007GL029703">underpredicted the loss of sea ice</a> when compared to satellite data showing what actually happened. The models predicted a loss of about 2.5% per decade, while the observations were closer to 8%.</p> <p>The next generation of models did better but were <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2012GL052676">still not matching observations</a> which, at that time were suggesting a blue ocean event would happen by mid-century. Indeed, the latest <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-i/">IPCC climate science report</a>, published in 2021, reaches a similar conclusion about the timing of an ice-free Arctic Ocean.</p> <p>As a consequence of the problems with the climate models, some scientists have attempted to extrapolate the observational record resulting in the controversial and, ultimately, incorrect assertion that this would happen <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/21/arctic-will-be-ice-free-in-summer-next-year">during the mid 2010s</a>. This did not help the credibility of the scientific community and its ability to make reliable projections.</p> <h2>Ice-free by 2030?</h2> <p>The scientists behind the latest study have taken a different approach by, in effect, calibrating the models with the observations and then using this calibrated solution to project sea ice decline. This makes a lot of sense, because it reduces the effect of small biases in the climate models that can in turn bias the sea ice projections. They call these “observationally constrained” projections and find that the Arctic could become ice-free in summer as early as 2030, even if we do a good job of reducing emissions between now and then.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530365/original/file-20230606-21-usmovg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530365/original/file-20230606-21-usmovg.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/530365/original/file-20230606-21-usmovg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530365/original/file-20230606-21-usmovg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530365/original/file-20230606-21-usmovg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530365/original/file-20230606-21-usmovg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530365/original/file-20230606-21-usmovg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530365/original/file-20230606-21-usmovg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Walruses on ice floe" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Walruses depend on sea ice. As it melts, they’re being forced onto land.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">outdoorsman / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>There is still plenty of uncertainty around the exact date – about <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2016GL070067">20 years or so</a> – because of natural chaotic fluctuations in the climate system. But compared to previous research, the new study still brings forward the most likely timing of a blue ocean event by about a decade.</p> <h2>Why this matters</h2> <p>You might be asking the question: so what? Other than some polar bears not being able to hunt in the same way, why does it matter? Perhaps there are even benefits as the previous US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/06/politics/pompeo-sea-ice-arctic-council/index.html">once declared</a> – it means ships from Asia can potentially save around 3,000 miles of journey to European ports in summer at least.</p> <p>But Arctic sea ice is an important component of the climate system. As it dramatically reduces the amount of sunlight absorbed by the ocean, removing this ice is predicted to further accelerate warming, through a process known as a positive feedback. This, in turn, will make the Greenland ice sheet <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2014GL059770">melt faster</a>, which is already a major contributor to <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2021RG000757">sea level rise</a>.</p> <p>The loss of sea ice in summer would also mean changes in <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/chapter/ccp6/">atmospheric circulation and storm tracks</a>, and fundamental shifts in ocean biological activity. These are just some of the <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021RG000757">highly undesirable consequences</a> and it is fair to say that the disadvantages will far outweigh the slender benefits.</p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jonathan-bamber-102567">Jonathan Bamber</a>, Professor of Physical Geography, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-bristol-1211">University of Bristol</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/arctic-ocean-could-be-ice-free-in-summer-by-2030s-say-scientists-this-would-have-global-damaging-and-dangerous-consequences-206974">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Travel Trouble

Three Aussie regions set to be unliveable

<p dir="ltr">Three major economic centres are set to become uninhabitable by the end of the century as global temperatures are on track to warm by 2.7C. </p> <p dir="ltr">It is predicted that Broome, Darwin and Port Hedland in WA are to be pushed outside the “human climate niche”, referring to the temperature and humidity conditions in which humans can survive.</p> <p dir="ltr">The destinations are just three of the many northwestern sections of Australia facing “niche displacement” in the next 70 years.</p> <p dir="ltr">New research by The University of Exeter, published in the science journal Nature Sustainability in May 2023, calculates the human cost of climate inaction based on current insufficient policies and government inaction.</p> <p dir="ltr">According to the report, two million people will be living with unprecedented mean average temperatures (MAT) above 29C. </p> <p dir="ltr">MAT >29C is the point at which wellbeing scientifically declines, labour productivity and cognitive ability shrinks, negative pregnancy outcomes are emancipated and mortality rates soar.</p> <p dir="ltr">The report calculates that twenty per cent of Australia, around 374,977 Aussies, will be negatively impacted by the 2.7C temperature increase. </p> <p dir="ltr">Those Australians would join a third of the world’s population, including Africa, South America, and South-East Asia. </p> <p dir="ltr">A 3C warmer temperature in Darwin would mean that for 265 days of the year, temperatures would reach above 35C.</p> <p dir="ltr">At 40C, humidity soars and temperatures become lethal, the Australian Academy of Science reports.</p> <p dir="ltr">The University of Exeter report also explained the effects of a “wet-bulb temperature” where temperature and humidity are combined. In temperatures above 28C (WBT) body struggles to cool itself by sweating, and fails to do so in temperatures above 35C (WBT), which can be fatal.</p> <p dir="ltr">By limiting global warming to 1.5C, which is the goal of the Paris Agreement, 80 per cent of those at risk of rising temperatures would remain in their climate niche.</p> <p dir="ltr">However, scientists warn that a 1.5C will still cause severe and irreversible effects on people, wildlife and ecosystems.</p> <p dir="ltr">Global warming currently sits at 1.2C, but new research from The World Meteorological Organisation suggests there is a 66 per cent chance at least one year in the next five will breach the 1.5C threshold. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Despite increased pledges and targets to tackle climate change, current policies still leave the world on course for about 2.7C end-of-century global warming,” The University of Exeter report said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“These results highlight the need for more decisive policy action to limit the human costs and inequities of climate change.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The report also found the impacts of rising temperatures will not be felt equally, as estimates of the human cost of climate change “tend to be expressed in monetary terms”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“(Estimates) tends to recognise impacts on the rich more than those on the poor (because the rich have more money to lose) and tend to value those living now over those living in the future (because future damages are subject to economic discounting),” the report said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“From an equity standpoint, this is unethical — when life or health are at stake, all people should be considered equal, whether rich or poor, alive or yet to be born.”</p> <p> </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credit: Shutterstock</em></p>

Domestic Travel

COVID is officially no longer a global health emergency – here’s what that means (and what we’ve learned along the way)

<p>World Health Organisation (WHO) experts <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/health/covid-who-emergency-end.html">have officially declared</a> that COVID <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/05-05-2023-statement-on-the-fifteenth-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-pandemic">no longer constitutes</a> a public health emergency of international concern (Pheic). This coincides with the WHO’s new <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-WHE-SPP-2023.1">strategy</a> to transition from an emergency response to longer-term sustained COVID disease management. </p> <p>This may not change too much practically. COVID will still have pandemic status, and countries will continue to have their own authority as to whether to treat COVID as an emergency within their territories (some countries, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/11/1169191865/biden-ends-covid-national-emergency">including the US</a>, have already declared an end to the national emergency).</p> <p>For the global public health community, however, this is an event of monumental importance, drawing to a close the emergency response period which commenced on <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/covid-19-public-health-emergency-of-international-concern-(pheic)-global-research-and-innovation-forum">January 30 2020</a>. </p> <p>At the same time, for a large portion of the general public, it may well pass by relatively unnoticed. For many people, it’s been a long time since they viewed COVID as an emergency. In the UK for example, COVID no longer features in the regular Office for National Statistics <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/publicopinionsandsocialtrendsgreatbritain/19aprilto1may2023">public opinion survey</a> that asks people what they think the key issues facing the country are. Even a year ago, <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/publicopinionsandsocialtrendsgreatbritain/30marchto24april2022">only two in five Britons</a> were very or somewhat worried about COVID, according to the survey.</p> <p>Along with other behavioural scientists, I have been following <a href="https://www.swansea.ac.uk/research/research-highlights/health-innovation/public-during-pandemic/">public experiences of the pandemic</a> for the past three years. The results have yet to be peer reviewed but by summer 2022, many participants in <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/d6jcv">our research</a> described the pandemic as being like “a distant memory” or like it “never happened”.</p> <p>As we move into this next phase, it’s time to consider what we’ve learned about human behaviour during the pandemic, and what happens next.</p> <h2>Old habits die hard</h2> <p>In the early days of the pandemic, many behavioural scientists, myself included, wondered whether some of our pandemic habits <a href="https://theconversation.com/two-years-into-the-pandemic-which-of-our-newly-formed-habits-are-here-to-stay-178204">were here to stay</a>. Would <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2021-04-02/masks-to-stay-soldiering-on-through-the-common-cold-will-stop-and-the-nature-of-work-has-changed-forever-expert-says">face masks</a> become a regular wardrobe staple? Would people stop “soldiering on” and going into work when unwell?</p> <p>It turned out that for most people, the pandemic hasn’t permanently changed our behaviour and habits or created a “<a href="https://psyarxiv.com/d6jcv">new normal</a>”. Looking again at the UK, face mask use has consistently declined, with <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/datasets/publicopinionsandsocialtrendsgreatbritaincoronaviruscovid19andotherillnesses">figures from last month</a> suggesting that fewer than one in six adults had worn a face mask recently. Regular use is likely much less common. </p> <p>Social distancing has long since disappeared, except for a relatively small proportion of the public, in particular those most vulnerable to COVID.</p> <p>The COVID pandemic has taught us how adaptive behaviour can be, in particular how much people were willing to change their behaviour to keep themselves and others safe. Most people <a href="https://academic.oup.com/abm/article/56/8/781/6618645?login=false">followed the rules</a> during <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258781">the height of the pandemic</a>, no matter how difficult. COVID has reminded us <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/759BE02FFE73E5C05EA429A3E1547D78/S2056467821000050a.pdf/resilience_in_the_age_of_covid19.pdf">how resilient we humans can be</a>.</p> <p>These pandemic adaptions, and the fact that our pre-pandemic behaviour bounced back so quickly, shows how important social cues and social norms are to behaviour. Putting on a mask or keeping our distance from others were habits – <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002210311100254X">actions triggered automatically</a> in response to contextual cues, such as seeing signs with pictures of people socially distancing.</p> <p>Social norms – what we think others are doing – were key to <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0277360">vaccine uptake</a> and to our uptake of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0884-z">preventative measures in general</a>. As these contextual cues disappeared and the social norms started to change, and as vaccine coverage increased and the risk to the majority decreased, our behaviour changed.</p> <p>The pandemic has also demonstrated how important social connections and social, especially physical, contact can be. This is something <a href="https://theconversation.com/handshakes-and-hugs-are-good-for-you-its-vital-they-make-a-comeback-after-the-pandemic-158174">we have already argued</a> COVID couldn’t keep at bay forever. According to social safety theory, which sees stress and wellbeing as a product of biological, psychological and social factors, COVID <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X2200001X">posed a threat</a> to the “social fabric that makes humans resilient and keeps us alive and well”. </p> <p>It’s unsurprising that life satisfaction and happiness were <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/7/e039334">lowest during lockdowns</a>, and <a href="https://www.covidsocialstudy.org/_files/ugd/064c8b_c525505ffa6b432f96dc41d6b6a985ea.pdf">recovered as people started to mix socially again</a>.</p> <h2>The emergency isn’t over for everyone</h2> <p>As we mark the end of the emergency phase it’s important to remember the <a href="https://covid19.who.int/">nearly seven million lives lost</a> due to COVID since 2020.</p> <p>And of course, we must consider that for some, especially those who are clinically vulnerable, the emergency is not yet over, and may never be.</p> <p>Although it’s no longer a Pheic, <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-WHE-SPP-2023.1">as the WHO reminds us</a>, COVID is still responsible for millions of infections and thousands of deaths each week around the world. Also, thanks to long COVID, hundreds of millions of people are in need of longer-term care.</p> <p>In the future, we need to move from relying on the resilience of individuals to building resilience in our institutions. We can all take measures to continue to protect ourselves and those around us from COVID and other respiratory viruses (such as by <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00021-1/fulltext">hand washing</a> and keeping up to date with vaccinations). But responsibility for preventing public health emergencies shouldn’t rest <a href="https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/03/17/uks-coronavirus-policy-places-too-much-responsibility-in-the-hands-of-the-public/">solely in the hands of the public</a></p> <p>Actions that governments, employers and health authorities can take now could <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/11/preventable-by-devi-sridhar-review-a-resolutely-global-view-of-covid">protect against</a> future <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34872923/">public health emergencies</a>. Systematically <a href="https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news/misinformation-covid-19-what-did-we-learn-2023-02-21_en">tackling misinformation</a>, <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240021280">improving ventilation</a> in <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o327">schools</a>, workplaces and other public indoor spaces, and making longer-term improvements to paid sick leave are all good ways to start building more <a href="https://unsdg.un.org/resources/executive-summary-un-common-guidance-helping-build-resilient-societies">resilient societies</a> in preparation for the next pandemic. Hopefully this is something we will never see in our lifetimes.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-is-officially-no-longer-a-global-health-emergency-heres-what-that-means-and-what-weve-learned-along-the-way-205080" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Caring

As the global musical phenomenon turns 50, a hip-hop professor explains what the word ‘dope’ means to him

<p>After I finished my Ph.D. in 2017, several newspaper reporters wrote about the job I’d accepted at the University of Virginia as an assistant professor of hip-hop.</p> <p>“A.D. Carson just scored, arguably, the dopest job ever,” one <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/07/03/virginia-ad-carson-hip-hop-professor/435032001/">journalist wrote</a>.</p> <p>The writer may not have meant it the way I read it, but the terminology was significant to me. Hip-hop’s early luminaries transformed the word’s original meanings, using it as a synonym for cool. In the 50 years since, it endures as an expression of respect and praise – and illegal substances.</p> <p>In that context, dope has everything to do with my work. </p> <p>In the year I graduated from college, one of my best friends was sent to federal prison for possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute. He served nearly a decade and has been back in prison several times since.</p> <p>But before he went to prison, he helped me finish school by paying off my tuition.</p> <p>In a very real way, dope has as much to do with me finishing my studies and becoming a professor as it does with him serving time in a federal prison.</p> <h2>Academic dope</h2> <p>For my Ph.D. dissertation in Rhetorics, Communications, and Information Design, I wrote a <a href="http://phd.aydeethegreat.com/">rap album</a> titled “Owning My Masters: The Rhetorics of Rhymes & Revolutions.” A peer-reviewed, mastered version of the album is due out this summer from University of Michigan Press.</p> <p>Part of my reasoning for writing it that way involved my ideas about dope. I want to question who gets to determine who and what are dope and whether any university can produce expertise on the people who created hip-hop.</p> <p>While I was initially met with <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2016/04/clemson-university-arrests/478455/">considerable resistance</a> for my work at Clemson, the university eventually became supportive and touted “<a href="https://news.clemson.edu/clemson-doctoral-student-produces-rap-album-for-dissertation-it-goes-viral/">a dissertation with a beat</a>.”</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">A Dissertation with a Beat. 🔊🎤 🔊<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Clemson?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Clemson</a> doctoral student produces rap album for dissertation; it goes viral ➡️ <a href="https://t.co/wgiM9LS6k5">https://t.co/wgiM9LS6k5</a> <a href="https://t.co/r1lmBYXV2S">pic.twitter.com/r1lmBYXV2S</a></p> <p>— Clemson University (@ClemsonUniv) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClemsonUniv/status/845990987440652289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2017</a></p></blockquote> <p>Clemson is not the only school to recognize hip-hop as dope. </p> <p>In the 50 years since its start at <a href="https://theconversation.com/hip-hop-holiday-signals-a-turning-point-in-education-for-a-music-form-that-began-at-a-back-to-school-party-in-the-bronx-165525">a back-to-school party</a> in the South Bronx, hip-hop, the culture and its art forms have come a long way to a place of relative prominence in educational institutions. </p> <p>Since 2013, Harvard University has housed the <a href="https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/institutes/hiphop-archive-research-institute">Hiphop Archive & Research Institute</a> and the <a href="https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/faq/nasir-jones-hiphop-fellowship">Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellowship</a> that funds scholars and artists who demonstrate “exceptional scholarship and creativity in the arts in connection with Hiphop.”</p> <p>UCLA announced an <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-03-28/ucla-hip-hop-initiative-chuck-d">ambitious Hip Hop Initiative</a> to kick off the golden anniversary. The initiative includes artist residencies, community engagement programs, a book series and a digital archive project.</p> <p>Perhaps my receiving tenure and promotion at the University of Virginia is part of the school’s attempt to help codify the existence of hip-hop scholarship.</p> <p>When I write about “dope,” I’m thinking of Black people like drugs to which the U.S. is addicted. </p> <p>Dope is a frame to help clarify the attempts, throughout American history, at outlawing and <a href="https://www.ilsos.gov/departments/archives/online_exhibits/100_documents/1853-black-law.html">legalizing</a> the presence of Black people and Black culture. As dope, Black people are America’s constant ailment and cure.</p> <p>To me, dope is an aspiration and a methodology to acknowledge and resist America’s steady surveillance, scrutiny and criminalization of Blackness.</p> <p>By this definition, dope is not only what we are, it’s also who we want to be and how we demonstrate our being. </p> <p>Dope is about what we can make with what we are given. </p> <p>Dope is a product of conditions created by America. It is also a product that helped create America.</p> <p>Whenever Blackness has been seen as lucrative, businesses like record companies and institutions like colleges and universities have sought to capitalize. To remove the negative stigmas associated with dope, these institutions cast themselves in roles similar to a pharmacy. </p> <p>Even though I don’t believe academia has the power or authority to bestow hip-hop credibility, a question remains – does having a Ph.D and producing rap music as <a href="https://theconversation.com/hip-hop-professor-looks-to-open-doors-with-worlds-first-peer-reviewed-rap-album-153761">peer-reviewed publications</a>change my dopeness in some way?</p> <h2>Legalizing dope</h2> <p>Though I earned a Ph.D by rapping, my own relationship to hip-hop in academic institutions remains fraught. </p> <p>Part of the problem was noted in 2014 by Michelle Alexander, a legal scholar and author of “<a href="http://newjimcrow.com/">The New Jim Crow</a>,” when she talked about <a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/new-jim-crow-whats-next-talk-michelle-alexander-and-dpas-asha-bandele">her concerns about</a> the legalization of marijuana in different U.S. states.</p> <p>“In many ways the imagery doesn’t sit right,” she said. “Here are white men poised to run big marijuana businesses … after 40 years of impoverished black kids getting prison time for selling weed, and their families and futures destroyed. Now, white men are planning to get rich doing precisely the same thing?”</p> <p>I feel the same way about dopeness in academia. Since hip-hop has emerged as a global phenomenon largely embraced by many of the “academically trained” music scholars who initially rejected it, how will those scholars and their schools now make way for the people they have historically excluded?</p> <p>This is why that quote about me “scoring, arguably, the dopest job ever” has stuck with me. </p> <p>I wonder if it’s fair to call what I do a form of legalized dope.</p> <h2>America’s dope-dealing history</h2> <p>In the late 1990s, I saw how fast hip-hop had become inescapable across the U.S., even in the small Midwestern town of Decatur, Illinois, where I grew up with my friend who is now serving federal prison time. </p> <p>He and I have remained in contact. Among the things we discuss is how unlikely it is that I would be able to do what I do without his doing what he did.</p> <p>Given the economic realities faced by people after leaving prison, we both know there are limitations to his opportunities if we choose to see our successes as shared accomplishments.</p> <p>Depending on how dope is interpreted, prisons and universities serve as probable destinations for people who make their living with it. It has kept him in prison roughly the same amount of time as it has kept me in graduate school and in my profession. </p> <p>This present reality has historical significance for how I think of dope, and what it means for people to have their existence authorized or legalized, and America’s relationship to Black people. </p> <p>Many of the buildings at Clemson were built in the late 1880s using “<a href="http://glimpse.clemson.edu/convict-labor/">laborers convicted of mostly petty crimes</a>” that the state of South Carolina leased to the university. </p> <p>Similarly, the University of Virginia was built by <a href="https://dei.virginia.edu/resources">renting enslaved laborers</a>. The University also is required by state law to purchase office furniture from a state-owned company that <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/02/14/public-universities-several-states-are-required-buy-prison-industries">depends on imprisoned people for labor</a>. The people who make the furniture are paid very little to do so. </p> <p>The people in the federal prison where my friend who helped me pay for college is now housed work for paltry wages making towels and shirts for the U.S. Army.</p> <p>Even with all of the time and distance between our pasts and present, our paths are still inextricably intertwined – along with all those others on or near the seemingly transient line that divides “legal” and “illegal” dope.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-global-musical-phenomenon-turns-50-a-hip-hop-professor-explains-what-the-word-dope-means-to-him-200872" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Music

Global review shows link between social media use, body image and eating disorders

<p>Body image has remains a <a href="https://www.missionaustralia.com.au/what-we-do/research-impact-policy-advocacy/youth-survey" target="_blank" rel="noopener">top personal concern</a> for young people in Australia, with 76% concerned about the issue. </p> <p>Social media use by teens is rising at the same time – with <a href="https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Social-Media-and-Teens-100.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than 90% on platforms</a> like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, WeChat and TikTok.</p> <p>While there have long been concerns about the association between social media, body image and eating disorders the connection remains relatively unexplored as a public health issue.</p> <p>Now, researchers from University College London in the UK have undertaken a systematic review of 50 scientific studies across 17 countries showing clear links between social media use and body image concerns.</p> <p>The paper, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0001091" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> in PLOS Global Public Health, analyses the relationship between body image or eating disorders in young people and social media use. </p> <p>The researchers identify specific aspects of social media – platforms with an emphasis on photos, and engaging with “fitspiration” and “thinspiration” trends – as the factors most closely linked to body image concerns, disordered eating and poor mental health.</p> <p>Other key risk factors included female gender, high body-mass-index and pre-existing body image concerns. </p> <p>The researchers note further studies are needed into the direction of causality. </p> <p>“For example, do body image dissatisfaction and disordered eating occur because of social media usage, or do these pre-exist, encourage engagement in certain online activities, and result in unfavourable clinically significant outcomes?” they ask.</p> <p>Eating disorders involve disturbed attitudes to body image, pre-occupation with weight and body shape and are associated with significant negative outcomes such as cardiovascular disease, reduced bone density, and psychiatric conditions.</p> <p>In Australia, the <a href="https://butterfly.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Butterfly Foundation</a> reports eating disorders affect around one million people, with the conditions causing more people die each year than the road toll. </p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></p> <p><em>This article was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/social-media-use-body-image/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Petra Stock. </em></p>

Technology

The wellbeing ‘pandemic’ – how the global drive for wellness might be making us sick

<p>Are we in the midst of a wellbeing pandemic? The question may seem curious, even contradictory. But look around, the concept is everywhere and spreading: in the media, in government institutions and transnational organisations, in schools, in workplaces and in the marketplace. </p> <p>To be clear, it’s not just wellbeing’s infectiousness in public discourse that makes it pandemic-like. It’s also the genuine malaise that can be caused by the term’s misuse and exploitation.</p> <p>Do you sense, for example, that your wellbeing is increasingly being scrutinised by peers, managers and insurance companies? Are you noticing an increasing number of advertisements offering products and services that promise enhanced wellbeing through consumption? If so, you’re not alone. </p> <p>But we also need to ask whether this obsession with wellbeing is having the opposite to the desired effect. To understand why, it’s important to look at the origins, politics and complexities of wellbeing, including its strategic deployment in the process of what we call “<a href="https://otagouni-my.sharepoint.com/personal/jacst99p_registry_otago_ac_nz/Documents/Documents/SJ-Wellness/SJ-Conversation-Wellbeing/Jackson-Sam-Dawson-Porter-Frontiers-Sociology-Wellbeing-2022.pdf">wellbeing washing</a>”.</p> <h2>The halo effect</h2> <p>While concerns about wellbeing can be traced to antiquity, the term has emerged as a central feature of contemporary social life. One explanation is that it is often conflated with concepts as diverse as happiness, quality of life, life satisfaction, human flourishing, mindfulness and “wellness”. </p> <p>Wellbeing is flexible, in the sense that it can be easily inserted into a diverse range of contexts. But it’s also surrounded by a kind of halo, automatically bestowed with a positive meaning, similar to concepts such as motherhood, democracy, freedom and liberty. </p> <p>To contest the value and importance of such things is to risk being labelled a troublemaker, a non-believer, unpatriotic or worse.</p> <p>These days, there are two main concepts of wellbeing. The first – subjective wellbeing – emphasises a <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2022.950557/full#B21">holistic measure</a> of an individual’s mental, physical and spiritual health. This perspective is perhaps best reflected in the World Health Organization’s <a href="https://www.corc.uk.net/outcome-experience-measures/the-world-health-organisation-five-well-being-index-who-5/">WHO-5 Index</a>, designed in 1998 to measure people’s subjective wellbeing according to five states: cheerfulness, calmness, vigour, restfulness and fulfilment.</p> <p>Translated into more than 30 languages, the overall influence of the WHO-5 Index should not be underestimated; both governments and corporations have embraced it and implemented policy based on it. </p> <p>But the validity of the index, and others like it, has been questioned. They’re prone to oversimplification and a tendency to marginalise alternative perspectives, including Indigenous approaches to physical and mental health.</p> <h2>Individual responsibility</h2> <p>The second perspective – objective wellbeing – was a response to rising social inequality. It focuses on offering an <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2022.950557/full#B60">alternative to GDP</a> as a measure of overall national prosperity. </p> <p>One example of this is New Zealand’s <a href="https://www.treasury.govt.nz/information-and-services/nz-economy/higher-living-standards/our-living-standards-framework">Living Standards Framework</a>, which is guided by four operating principles: distribution, resilience, productivity and sustainability. These new and purportedly more progressive measures of national economic and social outcomes signal societal change, optimism and hope.</p> <p>The trouble with such initiatives, however, is that they remain rooted within a particular neoliberal paradigm in which individual behaviour is the linchpin for change, rather than the wider political and economic structures around us.</p> <p>Arguably, this translates into more monitoring and “disciplining” of personal actions and activities. Intentionally or not, many organisations interpret and use wellbeing principles and policies to reinforce existing structures and hierarchies. </p> <p>Consider how the wellbeing agenda is playing out in your organisation or workplace, for example. Chances are you have seen the growth of new departments, work units or committees, policies and programs, wellness workshops – all supposedly linked to health and wellbeing. </p> <p>You may even have noticed the creation of new roles: wellbeing coaches, teams or “champions”. If not, then “lurk with intent” and be on the lookout for the emergence of yoga and meditation offerings, nature walks and a range of other “funtivities” to support your wellbeing. </p> <h2>Wellbeing washing</h2> <p>The danger is that such initiatives now constitute another semi-obligatory work task, to the extent that non-participation could lead to stigmatisation. This only adds to stress and, indeed, unwellness. </p> <p>Deployed poorly or cynically, such schemes represent aspects of “wellbeing washing”. It’s a strategic attempt to use language, imagery, policies and practices as part of an organisation’s “culture” to connote something positive and virtuous. </p> <p>In reality, it could also be designed to enhance productivity and reduce costs, minimise and manage reputational risk, and promote <a href="https://otagouni-my.sharepoint.com/personal/jacst99p_registry_otago_ac_nz/Documents/Documents/SJ-Wellness/SJ-Conversation-Wellbeing/Jackson-Sam-Dawson-Porter-Frontiers-Sociology-Wellbeing-2022.pdf">conformity, control and surveillance</a>. </p> <p>Ultimately, we argue that wellbeing now constitutes a “field of power”; not a neutral territory, but a place where parties advance their own interests, often at the expense of others. As such, it’s essential that scholars, policymakers and citizens explore, as one author <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Measuring_Wellbeing/lWBXjk1nocIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%E2%80%9Cwhat+and+whose+values+are+represented,+which+accounts+dominate,+what+is+their+impact+and+on+whom%E2%80%9D&pg=PA4&printsec=frontcover">put it</a>, “what and whose values are represented, which accounts dominate, what is their impact and on whom”. </p> <p>Because if wellbeing is becoming a pandemic, we may well need the “vaccine” of critical reflection.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wellbeing-pandemic-how-the-global-drive-for-wellness-might-be-making-us-sick-198662" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Caring

Air travel spreads infections globally, but health advice from inflight magazines can limit that

<p>“Travel safe, travel far, travel wide, and travel often,” <a href="https://thoughtcatalog.com/matthew-kepnes/2014/01/53-travel-quotes-to-inspire-you-to-see-the-world/">says</a> <a href="https://www.nomadicmatt.com/">Nomadic Matt</a>, the American who quit his job to travel the world, write about it and coach others to do the same.</p> <p>But there’s a downside to all this travel, with its unprecedented volume of passengers moving from one side of the world to the other, largely by plane.</p> <p>There’s the risk of those passengers spreading infectious diseases and microorganisms resistant to multiple drugs (superbugs) around the world.</p> <p>Yet, our recently published <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477893919301218">research</a> into health advice provided by inflight magazines shows plane passengers are given practically no advice on how to limit the spread of infectious diseases.</p> <p>Should we be worried about the part air travel plays in spreading infectious diseases? And what can we do about it?</p> <p><strong>How big is the risk?</strong></p> <p>Low airfares and a series of social and economic factors have made global air travel more common than ever. According to the Australian government department of infrastructure, transport, cities and regional development the <a href="https://www.bitre.gov.au/publications/ongoing/files/International_airline_activity_CY2018.pdf">number of passengers taking international scheduled flights in 2018 was 41.575 million</a>. But the International Air Transport Association projects passenger demand will <a href="https://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2019-02-27-02.aspx">reach 8.2 billion by 2037</a>.</p> <p>There are many examples of infectious diseases spread via international flying. The World Health Organization documented <a href="https://www.who.int/ith/mode_of_travel/tcd_aircraft/en/">transmission of tuberculosis</a> (TB) on board commercial aircraft during long-haul flights during the 1980s.</p> <p>Research published in 2011 documents the <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/17/7/10-1135_article">transmission of influenza</a> on two transcontinental international flights in May 2009.</p> <p>More recently, the current <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-people-born-between-1966-and-1994-are-at-greater-risk-of-measles-and-what-to-do-about-it-110167">global outbreak of measles</a> in many countries, including the Philippines and the United States, gave rise to the risk of transmission during international travel. In a recent case a <a href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/alerts/Pages/measles-alert-january.aspx">baby</a> too young to be vaccinated who had <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/measles-alert-after-infectious-baby-flew-from-manila-went-to-central-coast-20190603-p51tzs.html">measles</a> returned from Manilla in the Philippines to Sydney, exposing travellers on that flight to infection.</p> <p>Then there is the risk of transmitting antimicrobial-resistant organisms that cause disease, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-tb-and-am-i-at-risk-of-getting-it-in-australia-75290">multi-drug resistant TB</a>.</p> <p>Recently, patients in Victoria and New South Wales were identified as carrying the drug-resistant fungus <a href="https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/about/news-and-events/healthalerts/candida-auris-case-detected-in-victoria"><em>Candida auris</em></a>, which they acquired overseas.</p> <p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27890665">One study</a> estimates that over 300 million travellers visit high-risk areas, such as the western Pacific, Southeast Asia and Eastern Mediterranean, each year worldwide, and more than 20% return as new carriers of resistant organisms.</p> <p>These popular destinations, as well as the Middle East, have high rates of drug resistant organisms.</p> <p><strong>How is this happening?</strong></p> <p>Aircraft move large volumes of people around the world swiftly. But what sets them apart from buses and trains is that passengers are close together, in confined spaces, for a long time. This increases the risk of transmitting infections.</p> <p>Passengers interact with high-touch surfaces, such as tray tables, headsets, seats and handles. We cough, sneeze and touch multiple surfaces multiple times during a flight, with limited opportunities to clean our hands with soap and water.</p> <p>Many infections, such as gastroenteritis and diarrhoea, are spread and contracted by touch and contact.</p> <p><strong>What can we do about it?</strong></p> <p>Providing plane travellers with relevant health advice is one way to limit the spread of infectious diseases via air travel.</p> <p>This would include information and advice on routine hand washing with soap and water, or using alcohol-based hand rubs, and other basic measures including cough etiquette, such as coughing into your elbow and covering your nose and face.</p> <p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article/4/2/102/1847252">Researchers</a> have looked at the role commercial websites and travel agencies might play in providing that advice. And since the 1990s, airline magazines have been <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article/4/2/102/1847252">highlighted</a> as an underused source of traveller health advice. More than 20 years on, we discovered little has changed.</p> <p>In our recent study, published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477893919301218">Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease</a>, we looked at the content of inflight magazines from 103 airlines issued during January 2019.</p> <p>Of the 47 available online, only a quarter (11) included an official section on passengers’ general health and well-being, of which only two contained information related to infection control and the preventing infectious diseases.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284424/original/file-20190717-173366-w48bmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284424/original/file-20190717-173366-w48bmn.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/284424/original/file-20190717-173366-w48bmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284424/original/file-20190717-173366-w48bmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284424/original/file-20190717-173366-w48bmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284424/original/file-20190717-173366-w48bmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284424/original/file-20190717-173366-w48bmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284424/original/file-20190717-173366-w48bmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Inflight magazines have a potential audience of billions. So why not include advice on hand hygiene and coughing etiquette?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/1424594042?src=vUDfEziJwFDV7GZr5OYMRA-1-2&studio=1&size=medium_jpg">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure> <p>The first magazine, from a UAE-based airline, had an official section on passenger health and well-being that included very limited relevant content. It advised passengers “with blood diseases or ear, nose and sinus infections should seek medical advice before flying”.</p> <p>There was no further explanation or information, nor were there any strategies to prevent these or other infections.</p> <p>The second magazine, from a USA-based airline, contained general travel health advice, but none specifically about infectious diseases.</p> <p>However there was a full-page, colour advertisement next to the health section. This contained images of many disease causing microorganisms on passengers’ tray tables and advocated the use of a disinfectant wipe for hands and other inflight surfaces.</p> <p>The slogan “because germs are frequent fliers” was displayed across the tray table. This was accompanied by information about the use and effectiveness of disinfectant wipes for hand hygiene and disinfecting surfaces during air travel, public transport use, and in hotels and restaurants.</p> <p>Inflight magazines are valuable assets for airlines and are the source of considerable advertising revenue. They are read by potentially billions of passengers every year. The results of this study show that they are a greatly underused source of information about infection control and measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.</p> <p>Airlines should also provide health advice to passengers in other media, in particular video screens, about infection prevention and basic control measures such as hand hygiene, cough etiquette and personal hygiene.</p> <p>Such advice should be provided before, during and after the flight. It could also include destination-related advice for particularly risky travel routes and destinations.</p> <p><strong>More information for passengers</strong></p> <p>Airlines providing health advice to passengers is just one way to limit the spread of infectious diseases and antimicrobial-resistant organisms around the world via air travel.</p> <p>This would need to sit alongside other measures, such as <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/travel-industry-information-center">information and guidelines</a> provided to those who travel via the sea.</p> <p>The simple, low-cost measures highlighted in our research could go a long way to help passengers stay healthy and avoid illness from infectious diseases. At the same time, these measures could reduce the impact of outbreaks of infectious diseases for airlines and society as a whole.<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/120283/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em>Writen by Ramon Zenel Shaban and </em><em>Cristina Sotomayor-Castillo</em><em>. Republished with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/air-travel-spreads-infections-globally-but-health-advice-from-inflight-magazines-can-limit-that-120283" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

International Travel

World’s sixth largest cruise ship will never sail

<p dir="ltr">A cruise ship designed to hold more than 9,000 passengers - making it one of the largest in the world - will never set sail, instead travelling straight to a scrapyard.</p> <p dir="ltr">In a shipyard on Germany’s Baltic coast, the Global Dream II was almost complete when MV Werften, the shipbuilder, filed for bankruptcy in January 2022, per <em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/20/global-dream-ii-unfinished-9000-passenger-cruise-ship-to-be-scrapped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Guardian</a></em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">Lacking the funds to complete the vessel themselves, the company sought a buyer for it.</p> <p dir="ltr">Though the facilities were successfully sold to a German naval unit, the Global Dream II will be scrapped as it isn’t outfitted for military purposes.</p> <p dir="ltr">Christoph Morgen, the administrator for the bankrupt company, reportedly told a press conference that the Global Dream II would need to be moved out of the shipyard by the end of the year.</p> <p dir="ltr">German cruise industry magazine <em><a href="https://anbord.de/global-dream-ii-wird-verschrottet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">An Bord</a></em> reported that its lower hull would be disposed of for scrap price.</p> <p dir="ltr">The looming ship, along with its sister ship, Global Dream, would have held the record for largest cruise ships by passenger capacity. </p> <p dir="ltr">With a combined weight of 208,000 tons, the ships would have also been the sixth largest cruise ships by size, trailing behind the Royal Caribbean’s Oasis-class ships.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-0fd68e81-7fff-d347-ae8a-b9fa02390ee6"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

Cruising

Bluey was edited for American viewers – but global audiences deserve to see all of us

<p>Beloved children’s program Bluey has received some backlash.</p> <p>Not due to the program, but to Disney’s decision to make edits to various episodes for the US market.</p> <p>Dubbed “<a href="https://mouthsofmums.com.au/7-things-disney-apparently-censored-in-bluey-season-3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">censorship</a>” by some publications, the changes to the third season, released in America on Disney+ this month, include Bandit not being hit in a sensitive area, a conversation about getting a vasectomy replaced with “getting dog teeth removed”, the horse Buttermilk no longer stands next to poo on screen and Aunt Trix is no longer seen on the toilet during a video call.</p> <p>One episode, Family Meeting, where Bluey accuses dad Bandit of farting in her face, was removed entirely – although due to the backlash it appears this decision has been <a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/streaming/bluey-episode-banned-on-disney-in-the-us-for-bizarre-reason/news-story/b5877d7134a6b217234398eb7892d4da" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rescinded</a>.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Parents who watch Bluey on Disney… there’s an extra episode via CBBC which Disney doesn’t allow to be on their platforms! It’s called Dad Baby!!! <a href="https://t.co/JMeCMYvtz4">pic.twitter.com/JMeCMYvtz4</a></p> <p>— Kirstie 🤍 (@kirstieandco) <a href="https://twitter.com/kirstieandco/status/1560526183741243392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p>Episodes in previous seasons have also been <a href="https://twitter.com/blueymoments/status/1261872704237551618" target="_blank" rel="noopener">edited</a> or <a href="https://blueypedia.fandom.com/wiki/Dad_Baby" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unavailable</a> to stream on Disney+.</p> <p>This decision by Disney comes at a time when there has been a fundamental shift, both in the way audiences consume content and how content is distributed. Through global streaming services, content previously produced for a local market now has a greater opportunity to reach a global audience.</p> <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/arts/television/bluey-cartoon-dog-australia.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a> has said Bluey “could rival The Wiggles as Australia’s most popular children’s cultural export”.</p> <p>But can screen content truly be considered a cultural export if it is re-edited to reflect cultural aspects of the market it is being distributed in?</p> <h2>Content for global audience</h2> <p>Australian media content being changed for the US market is not a new phenomena.</p> <p>More than 40 years ago, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079501/alternateversions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mad Max</a> was dubbed with American accents for the US market.</p> <p>More recently, Australian television shows like <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2011/06/watch_the_original_australian.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wilfred</a> (2011), <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-30/american-version-kath-and-kim-tv-remakes/100689218" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kath & Kim</a> (2009) and <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/the-slap/the-slap-australia-explained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Slap</a> (2015) have been reproduced for a US market.</p> <p>Since these Americanised series premiered, there has been a shift in the commissioning of media. Content distributors no longer solely rely on local broadcasters: they now are able to go direct to a global audience through streaming services.</p> <p>Since the start of 2022, Netflix has commissioned content <a href="https://www.ampereanalysis.com/press/release/dl/netflix-looks-to-international-commissions-for-growth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">from 44 territories</a>, Warner Bros commissioned work across 27 territories for HBO Max and Discovery+, Disney 23 and Amazon 21.</p> <p>These streaming platforms aren’t looking for local hits: they’re looking for global hits, from anywhere. It’s not just about making the next Stranger Things, it’s <a href="https://www.screendaily.com/news/netflix-commissions-originals-from-a-record-28-international-markets/5173422.article" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about making</a> the next Money Heist – the Netflix hit from Spain – or the next South Korean juggernaut Squid Game.</p> <h2>A question of quotas</h2> <p>In 2021, the federal government removed the quota requiring local children’s programming on Australian commercial television. This has resulted in a significant <a href="https://tvtonight.com.au/2022/08/2021-content-quotas-soaps-deliver-but-kids-tv-in-freefall.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decline</a> in the broadcast of children’s content.</p> <p>We have seen <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/spending-subscription-video-demand-providers-2020-21" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased investment</a> of Australian content by streaming services. Together, Amazon Prime, Disney, Netflix and Stan spent A$178.9 million in the 2020–21 financial year, including children’s television. This is up more than $25 million in the <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/spending-subscription-video-demand-providers-2019-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previous year</a>.</p> <p>Earlier this year, <a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-has-a-new-development-funding-initiative-with-the-australian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Netflix launched</a> a partnership with the Australian Children’s Television Foundation to fund the development of original Australian children’s series. Disney has <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/disney-releases-first-wave-of-local-content-commissions-with-9-australian-originals-737567" target="_blank" rel="noopener">also announced</a> its planned investment in local Australian children’s content.</p> <p>This increase by streaming service is yet to fill the shortfall by commercial television.</p> <h2>But is it Australian?</h2> <p>In June, the <a href="https://makeitaustralian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Make It Australian</a> campaign was launched at the Sydney Film Festival. The campaign calls for Australian stories to be “told on Australian screens by us, to us, about us”.</p> <p>At the campaign launch, arts minister Tony Burke said international and commercial success for Australian films is “wonderful, but that is a bonus.”</p> <p>The “first objective” for Australian films, he said:</p> <blockquote> <p>is to make sure our stories are told so that we know better ourselves; we know better each other and the world has a better way of knowing us.</p> </blockquote> <p>It is the last point that Tony Burke makes, about the world “knowing us”, that is less considered in the ongoing local screen content debate. Indeed, Australian content is being <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/spending-subscription-video-demand-providers-2020-21" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shown to a global audience</a>.</p> <p>But what happens when Australian content is edited with these international audiences in mind? Edits like those Disney made to Bluey not only impact the humour and the narrative, but also impact the cultural representation within the program.</p> <p>Increased investment by streaming services will provide opportunities for Australian local content to be successful locally and globally. But for Australian television and films to be true cultural exports, the world should be seeing the version of ourselves we are seeing, too.</p> <p>The success of this relies on not only focusing on content production and local distribution, but including strategies that allow Australian content to remain free from localised edits, so it can truly reflect an Australian cultural export.</p> <p><strong>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/bluey-was-edited-for-american-viewers-but-global-audiences-deserve-to-see-all-of-us-188982" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</strong></p> <p><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p>

Crown Princess Mary stuns at fashion event

<p dir="ltr">Crown Princess Mary stunned crowds as she gave the opening speech at the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 50-year-old attended the event on June 7 which is the leading international forum for sustainability in fashion. </p> <p dir="ltr">Photos of the event were shared by the Danish Royal Family on their Instagram as they shared the Princess’s experience at the popular event. </p> <p dir="ltr">“These days, more than 1000 representatives of the fashion industry are gathered in Copenhagen for the Global Fashion Summit, which is a leading international summit focusing on sustainability in the fashion and textile industry,” the caption read. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess today gave the opening speech at the Opera in her capacity as patron of the Global Fashion Summit and Global Fashion Agenda. </p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ceg3E0tA0Ov/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ceg3E0tA0Ov/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by DET DANSKE KONGEHUS 🇩🇰 (@detdanskekongehus)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“The Crown Princess first participated in the Global Fashion Summit in 2009, and since then, the green transition in the fashion industry has come at the top of the summit's agenda.</p> <p dir="ltr">“According to a recent UN report, the fashion and textile industry accounts for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Global Fashion Agenda, which is the organization behind the Global Fashion Summit, works, among other things, for the industry to be climate neutral in 2050.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Following the Crown Princess’s speech, she attended a number of panels with several decision makers in the fashion industry. </p> <p dir="ltr">Princess Mary was then able to experience first-hand how fashion designers ethically and environmentally create their clothes. </p> <p dir="ltr">“The Crown Princess could experience the restoration of recycled clothing, digitization of the textile industry's value chain, environmentally friendly dyeing of clothing and many other innovative solutions to the green transformation in the fashion industry.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

Beauty & Style

The two words Andrew O’Keefe repeats to himself every morning

<p dir="ltr">Andrew O’Keefe is settling into a very different lifestyle after being granted bail in May following allegations he assaulted a sex worker. </p> <p dir="ltr">The former <em>The Chase Australia</em> host will complete his court ordered rehab at the Connect Global centre at Swan Bay on the NSW mid-north coast.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 50-year-old begins his day at 5.30am and tells himself that he is a “good man” before making his bed and goes for either a 3.5km run, a gym workout or a boxing session and settling for breakfast.</p> <p dir="ltr">The rehab facility will be O’Keefe’s new home for the next six to 12 months where he will complete a number of chores, attend counselling sessions and Alcoholic or Narcotics anonymous meetings. </p> <p dir="ltr">O’Keefe had been ordered to attend rehab nine times before, but this time he says will be different. </p> <p dir="ltr">“This is a very different place. It’s very much a holistic view of one’s place in the world,” he told <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/andrew-okeefe-reveals-life-inside-rehab-declares-this-time-will-be-different/news-story/f2640aa7ecaea8a190a57e247c789186" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Telegraph</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“That is to say that you do address issues of addiction and patterns of behaviour but you do it in a way that is very much focused on being a useful member of family and community.</p> <p dir="ltr">“A big part of that is being free of drugs and it’s about questioning how you associate with your family and loved ones and creating a very positive vision for yourself of your place in society, which is not only what the blokes here lack but what other blokes in general lack as well.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The centre’s creator Pastor Ross Pene said O’Keefe is doing “great” and said the former White Ribbon Australia chairman is taking on responsibilities. </p> <p dir="ltr">O’Keefe has been accused of grabbing a sex worker by the throat before punching her and pushing her to the ground.</p> <p dir="ltr">He has pleaded not guilty to all six, which included three counts of common assault, intentionally choking a person without consent, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.</p> <p dir="ltr">The court heard that Mr O’Keefe claimed he was acting in self-defence after being attacked, though the complainant hasn’t been charged with any offences.</p> <p dir="ltr">O’Keefe will be reappearing in court in June to challenge a charge of breaching an apprehended violence order (AVO) against another complainant, and again in July to examine the evidence relating to the allegations of assault and choking.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Getty</em></p>

Caring

Losing sleep over climate change: warmer nights are already disrupting our sleep cycles

<p>While we’re familiar with the environmental and economic impacts of climate change, there are some unexpected indirect effects that could dramatically influence our fundamental daily human activities – including sleep. Yes, precious sleep.</p> <p>Sleep is vital in maintaining our mental and physical health. Each night when we lay our heads the pillow, our cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) enters the brain and clears out metabolic waste. Now, in a study published in One Earth, the investigators have found that increasing ambient temperatures brought on my global warming are negatively impacting human sleep worldwide.</p> <p>The team analysed seven million nightly sleeps of more than 47,000 adults across 68 countries. This anonymised global sleep data had been collected from accelerometer-based sleep-tracking wristbands, which tracked quality and quantity of sleep.</p> <p>On very warm nights (greater than 30°C/86°F), sleep declined on average by almost 15 minutes. Sleepers also struggled to get seven hours or more of sleep on these warmer nights. At this rate, by year 2099, we might lose 50-58 hours of sleep per year, equivalent to almost two weeks, with older adults and females being impacted the most.</p> <p>“Our bodies are highly adapted to maintain a stable core body temperature, something that our lives depend on,” says lead author Kelton Minor (@keltonminor) of the University of Copenhagen. “Yet every night they do something remarkable without most of us consciously knowing – they shed heat from our core into the surrounding environment by dilating our blood vessels and increasing blood flow to our hands and feet.”</p> <p>This drop in core body temperature that slows our metabolism in order to go to sleep is triggered by the hormone melatonin. For our bodies to shed heat, the surrounding environment also needs to be cooler than we are. This research also found that people appeared to be better at adapting to colder temperatures outside than hotter.</p> <p>“Across seasons, demographics, and different climate contexts, warmer outside temperatures consistently erode sleep, with the amount of sleep loss progressively increasing as temperatures become hotter,” says Minor.</p> <p>Socioeconomic status also seems to matter, with those in developing countries more strongly affected by temperature change, possibly due to lack of access to insulation and air conditioning. This highlights that the most vulnerable populations live in some of the world’s hottest regions, are they’re also historically some of the poorest.</p> <p>To help save our sleep (along with our planet), the team hope to collaborate with global climate scientists, sleep researchers and tech companies to extend their scope of global sleep and behaviour research to more people and contexts.</p> <p>“In order to make informed climate policy decisions moving forward, we need to better account for the full spectrum of plausible future climate impacts extending from today’s societal greenhouse gas emissions choices,” says Minor.</p> <p><em><strong><span id="docs-internal-guid-88b02ff5-7fff-a88e-62a7-355106a6437c">This article originally appeared on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/climate/climate-change-bad-sleep/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by </span></strong></em><a class="fn" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: halyard-text, sans-serif; color: #000000; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/qamariya-nasrullah" rel="author"><em><strong>Qamariya Nasrullah.</strong></em></a></p> <p><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p>

Body

14 enchanting places that look straight out of a fairy tale

<p>Step right into your favourite storybook with these stunning and completely real places throughout the world.</p> <p><strong>Colmar, France</strong></p> <p>It’s easy to see why this small town in the Alsace region of France is known as “Little Venice.”</p> <p>Lining its canal – which is just begging for a lazy boat ride – are colourful buildings and cobblestone streets.</p> <p>Break out into “Little town, it’s a quiet village,” as you stroll.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CaLTF9WO28T/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CaLTF9WO28T/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Colmar - France (@colmar_tourisme)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Bibury, England</strong></p> <p>Artist William Morris deemed Bibury “the most beautiful village in England” when he visited in the 1800s, and nothing much has changed.</p> <p>The enchanting town still has the quaint homes and rustic charm that any fairy tale should start in.</p> <p>When you live in a town like this, it’s hard to be unhappy.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CclXFe_DgAz/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CclXFe_DgAz/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by English countrysides (@englishcountrysides)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Hohenschwangau Castle, Germany</strong></p> <p>This gorgeous German castle is basically the real-life version of a storybook palace.</p> <p>Crown Prince Maximilian – who would later become King Max II – built it to replace its decaying 12th-century predecessor.</p> <p>King Ludwig II grew up spending time in this beautiful castle, but still wanted to outdo it when he got older.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CJTSYI8s98t/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CJTSYI8s98t/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Castle Travellers (@castle.travellers)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany</strong></p> <div> <p>That vanity project King Ludwig II used to outshine his childhood home? This is it.</p> <p>The results were so good, in fact, that Neuschwanstein Castle was actually the inspiration for Disney’s Cinderella Castle.</p> <p>On the top of snow-covered mountains in the winter, we can imagine it as the perfect home for <em>Frozen</em>’s Queen Elsa.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CJlphhkj79M/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CJlphhkj79M/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by VOYAGED by 9GAG (@voyaged)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Manarola, Italy</strong></p> <p>taly’s Cinque Terre is made up of five picturesque villages, but Manarola is among the most dramatic.</p> <p>The brightly hued homes seem to be hanging precariously onto the cliffs, but they’ve managed to keep from crashing into the sea for almost 700 years. Could it be magic?</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc6VmELvywz/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc6VmELvywz/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Carmen Sol (@carmensol_palmbeach)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Rakotz Bridge, Germany</strong></p> <p>Passing under Rakotz Bridge in Kromlau, Germany, you just might feel like you’re on your way to sell your soul.</p> <p>So it’s fitting that it – along with other ancient bridges – are known as “devil’s bridges.”</p> <p>When reflected in the water, the structure makes a perfect circle.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CTKDcs6MjdU/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CTKDcs6MjdU/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Micha (@hobbyfotografie_micha_)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Tbilisi, Georgia</strong></p> <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;"> <p>In the middle of this old town sits a surprisingly new clock tower.</p> <p>Puppeteer Rezo Gabriadze gathered pieces from abandoned and ruined buildings from Tbilisi, Georgia, to build the higgledy-piggledy landmark.</p> <p>Quirky as it is, it still tells time.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ccj9nGitSjP/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ccj9nGitSjP/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Грузия - Georgia - Туры (@georgiaforyou)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Bojnice Castle, Slovakia</strong></p> <div> <p>If we had to pick a castle for our princess dreams, this would be it.</p> <p>The medieval castle has everything we’ve always wanted, from tall spires to a moat.</p> <p>We’ll stay here for our happily ever after, please.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CY5wpbVrP6C/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CY5wpbVrP6C/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by SNM - Múzeum Bojnice (@bojnicecastle)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Multnomah Falls, United States</strong></p> <div> <p>Can’t you just picture a theatrical fairy tale fight between knights on this bridge stretching dramatically over this waterfall?</p> <p>Take a road trip to the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon for your own fairy tale moment.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9uUQGYBWK8/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9uUQGYBWK8/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Multnomah Falls (@multnomahfalls)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Český Krumlov, Czech Republic</strong></p> <div> <p>Sprinkled with charming red brick roofs, this medieval city would make the perfect backdrop for a fairy tale.</p> <p>But the biggest draw is the castle perched on a rock by the river.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/xcCAzfE22j/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/xcCAzfE22j/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic (@cesky_krumlov)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Château de Chenonceau, France</strong></p> <div> <p>If you think Versailles is the extent of France’s palaces, you were totally off.</p> <p>This gorgeous manor stretches over the River Cher and has stunning gardens open to the public.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/COpQlQIHN8l/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/COpQlQIHN8l/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Chateau de Chenonceau Officiel (@chateau_chenonceau)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Chefchaouen, Morocco</strong></p> <p>You might assume these bright colours are just a tiny snapshot of this town, but you’ll find the same magical views throughout the twists and turns of the “blue city.”</p> <p>Beyond its walls you’ll find en epic mountains towering overhead and below, with goats grazing on its green pastures.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBF0vStnm33/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBF0vStnm33/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by 🌍Morocco Chefchaouen (@chefchaouen_city)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Pelourinho, Brazil</strong></p> <div> <p>This historic neighborhood in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, doesn’t just have stunning architecture – the bright colours of the buildings accent its beautiful stucco work.</p> <p>It was the country’s capital between 1549 and 1763, when native cultures blended with European and African ones.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CcVmGWnuGGs/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CcVmGWnuGGs/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Dove Viaggi (@doveviaggi)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><strong>Ghent, Belgium</strong></p> <div> <p>In this port city, houses are nestled right next to the canal.</p> <p>It sits pretty much smack dab between Brussels and Bruges, but this slice of medieval times doesn’t come with the same droves of tourists.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CcruoFVtpFl/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CcruoFVtpFl/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Lucian (@lucian_ciursa_)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article first appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/travel/destinations/14-enchanting-places-look-straight-out-fairy-tale?pages=2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>.</em></p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

International Travel

Aussie artists launch global movement to help Ukraine

<p dir="ltr">A group of Australian artists have banded together to help Ukrainian refugees through a global art auction. </p> <p dir="ltr">For one artist, the cause hits close to home. </p> <p dir="ltr">Olena Vigovska, who immigrated to Australia 26 years ago, has witnessed the devastation facing her home country from afar as the war has unfolded. </p> <p dir="ltr">Her brother, reserve officer Andrei Vigovsky, has been fighting for his country in the city of Kharkiv since the war began, spending each night taking shelter in a subway station underground.</p> <p dir="ltr">For Olena, she wanted to find a way to help those facing brutality at the hands of the Russian invasion. </p> <p dir="ltr">"It's a feeling like, 'What are you going to do?'" she told <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-20/sydney-based-ukrainian-australian-artists-auction-for-refugees/101001584">ABC’s 7.30</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It's unbelievable. I'm still pinching myself every morning."</p> <p dir="ltr">In the second week of the war, Olena and three other Ukrainian Australian artists began putting together an auction to raise money for refugees in their home country. </p> <p dir="ltr">"We jumped on that project with pleasure," she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I feel much better now. I can use my skills to raise money and show the world how art can be so important and helpful in wartime."</p> <p dir="ltr">The proceeds from the auction will go to <a href="https://habitat.org.au/">Habitat for Humanity</a>, who help house refugees and give them a second chance at life without the threat of danger. </p> <p dir="ltr">"It will be a lot of work to rebuild Ukraine," she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It's just awful to see. I hope we will be able to make a difference."</p> <p dir="ltr">The project's organiser, Tetiana Koldunenko, told the current affairs program that the stress of the war had taken a huge toll on her and her family: many of whom live in Ukraine.</p> <p dir="ltr">She said focusing her energy on creating art for the auction revived her and gave her some hope for the future.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I'm absolutely sure that Ukraine will be beautiful. It will have a beautiful future."</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: ABC News - 7.30 footage</em></p>

Art

Readers respond: If you could travel anywhere for free, where would it be and why?

<p>We asked our readers where they would jet off to if money wasn't an obstacle, and our well-travelled readers suggested some of the most beautiful spots in the world. </p> <p>From each corner of the globe, to at home in Australia, here is where our readers would travel to if it was free. </p> <p><strong>Valerie Boorer</strong> - The Antarctic because I’ve never been and I’d love to go.</p> <p><strong>Violet Surley</strong> - The Philippines absolutely loved it when we went there in 2016. Maybe one day will go again. Lovely people. </p> <p><strong>Heidi Gomez</strong> - Tasmania. I’ve always wanted to visit.</p> <p><strong>Lynn Newton</strong> - The pyramids in Egypt.</p> <p><strong>Rhonda Jones</strong> - India, the country has a Magic all of its own, just love the country.</p> <p><strong>Debby Gers </strong>- Australia... to see my children and grand children who I haven't seen in almost 3 years.</p> <p><strong>Anita Thornton</strong> - London, such an amazing city, full of interesting things!</p> <p><strong>Lorraine Castner</strong> - I’ve always said I would love to go back to Norway.</p> <p><strong>Pam Callander</strong> - Back to England and Paris. Didn’t finish our holiday as I broke my ankle 3 weeks into a 6 week holiday.</p> <p><strong>Khadeja Zakar</strong> - Ireland. Love to see where my forefathers lived.</p> <p><strong>Adrienne Chau</strong> - Back to the Greek Islands. Had our first cruise there and we loved it.</p> <p><strong>Margaret Ferguson</strong> - Scotland because my family is there.</p> <p><strong>Sandra Whistance</strong> - I would go to England to see my late husband's family.</p> <p><strong>Paula E Kilby</strong> - Malolo island in Fiji. It’s small, quiet and very beautiful…. Been once and loved it!</p> <p><strong>Linda Smith</strong> - Italy. I've been there three times and love the people, the scenery, the food, and the history.</p> <p><strong>Julie Margaret White</strong> - Japan during cherry blossom season. </p> <p><strong>Pat Finnerty</strong> - Turkey. Want to do a hot air balloon ride over Capidocia.</p> <p><strong>Sofia Willsie</strong> - Petra. Would love to see the history alive. </p> <p><strong>Christyna Dobbins</strong> - Austria - I was born there, and I'd love to see it with adult eyes instead of remembering snippets through a child's eyes.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

International Travel

Our Partners

Over 60

News

Shop

Catalogues

Newspaper

Contests

Entertainment

Travel

Health

Lifestyle

Finance

Property

Compare

Games

Information

Keep up to date

Search

New global appeal launched for one of Australia's most wanted men

"Do you hear it?": Worldwide hum global mystery baffles scientists

Will we still have antibiotics in 50 years? We asked 7 global experts

6 reasons why global temperatures are spiking right now

Research reveals who’s been hit hardest by global warming in their lifetime - and the answer may surprise you

Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by 2030s, say scientists – this would have global, damaging and dangerous consequences

Three Aussie regions set to be unliveable

COVID is officially no longer a global health emergency – here’s what that means (and what we’ve learned along the way)

As the global musical phenomenon turns 50, a hip-hop professor explains what the word ‘dope’ means to him

Global review shows link between social media use, body image and eating disorders

The wellbeing ‘pandemic’ – how the global drive for wellness might be making us sick

Air travel spreads infections globally, but health advice from inflight magazines can limit that

World’s sixth largest cruise ship will never sail

Bluey was edited for American viewers – but global audiences deserve to see all of us

Crown Princess Mary stuns at fashion event

The two words Andrew O’Keefe repeats to himself every morning

Losing sleep over climate change: warmer nights are already disrupting our sleep cycles

14 enchanting places that look straight out of a fairy tale

Aussie artists launch global movement to help Ukraine

Readers respond: If you could travel anywhere for free, where would it be and why?

Our Partners

News

Shop

Catalogues

Newspaper

Contests

Entertainment

Travel

Health

Lifestyle

Finance

Property

Compare

Games

Information

Keep up to date

Search

New global appeal launched for one of Australia's most wanted men

"Do you hear it?": Worldwide hum global mystery baffles scientists

Will we still have antibiotics in 50 years? We asked 7 global experts

6 reasons why global temperatures are spiking right now

Research reveals who’s been hit hardest by global warming in their lifetime - and the answer may surprise you

Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by 2030s, say scientists – this would have global, damaging and dangerous consequences

Three Aussie regions set to be unliveable

COVID is officially no longer a global health emergency – here’s what that means (and what we’ve learned along the way)

As the global musical phenomenon turns 50, a hip-hop professor explains what the word ‘dope’ means to him

Global review shows link between social media use, body image and eating disorders

The wellbeing ‘pandemic’ – how the global drive for wellness might be making us sick

Air travel spreads infections globally, but health advice from inflight magazines can limit that

World’s sixth largest cruise ship will never sail

Bluey was edited for American viewers – but global audiences deserve to see all of us

Crown Princess Mary stuns at fashion event

The two words Andrew O’Keefe repeats to himself every morning

Losing sleep over climate change: warmer nights are already disrupting our sleep cycles

14 enchanting places that look straight out of a fairy tale

Aussie artists launch global movement to help Ukraine

Readers respond: If you could travel anywhere for free, where would it be and why?

Our Partners

Join Over60