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Breaking the silence on prostate cancer: man’s family legacy highlights importance of early detection

<p>James Murray, 55, an architect from Melbourne, always knew he was living with a genetic "time bomb." A fifth-generation prostate cancer sufferer, his family’s battle with the disease spans over 170 years. From his great-great-grandfather, who chronicled his symptoms in 1847, to his uncles and father who also faced the disease, prostate cancer has been a grim constant in his family.</p> <p>“My family has what's been called a ‘spectacular history’ with prostate cancer,” James reflects. “But that’s not the kind of thing you want to hear. My great-great-grandfather had it, though they couldn’t test for it back then. My grandfather died from it, my father got it, and both of his brothers had it as well. It’s been a constant in our family for generations.”</p> <p>James' great-great-grandfather, Robert William Felton Lathrop Murray, a soldier and the founder of the <em>Hobart Town Gazette</em>, documented his battle with the disease long before modern medicine could provide a diagnosis. Since then, generation after generation of Murrays has grappled with the same fate. </p> <p>For James, however, early detection was key. Diagnosed in February 2022, he underwent surgery just a few months later in May, removing what doctors described as an aggressive form of the disease. But his story, unlike his ancestors, had a different ending.</p> <p>“In a way, we’ve been cursed by prostate cancer," explains James. "But it’s also been a blessing because it made us all hyper-aware of the importance of early detection. My dad was incredibly diligent, and that saved his life. He made sure I was on top of my PSA testing from my mid-40s, and that’s how we caught it early for me.” </p> <p>Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) testing and early detection are now recognised as crucial, particularly for men with a family history of prostate cancer. Yet, dangerous myths surrounding prostate cancer testing continue to cost lives, warns Associate Professor Weranja Ranasinghe, Deputy Leader of the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand’s (USANZ) GU-Oncology Special Advisory Group.</p> <p>“Many men believe that they need to have urinary symptoms to be concerned about prostate cancer,” explains Ranasinghe. “The reality is that most prostate cancers develop without any symptoms at all. Urinary symptoms are not reliable – most of these symptoms are caused by non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate but advanced cancer can also give you urinary symptoms. So it is important to get checked.”</p> <p>An even greater barrier, however, is the outdated belief that prostate cancer screening requires an invasive rectal exam. Ranasinghe stresses that this is no longer the case: “A simple PSA blood test, combined with advanced imaging like MRI, is now the standard approach. Many men are avoiding tests due to this outdated fear, but in the GP setting, a rectal exam is currently not required for detecting prostate cancer."</p> <p>With over 26,000 Australian men expected to be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand (USANZ) is raising awareness during Prostate Cancer Awareness Month about the importance of early testing and debunking these misconceptions.</p> <p>Ranasinghe also points out that men with a strong family history should be particularly vigilant. “Men with female relatives who have had breast or ovarian cancer are also at an increased risk of prostate cancer due to the same genetic mutations. So we recommend that men with a strong family history get a PSA test at the age of 40, which is earlier than the recommended age.”</p> <p>For James Murray, the decision to undergo surgery quickly after his diagnosis proved life-saving. “When my PSA levels started rising in February 2022, I wasn’t shocked," he recalls. "I had always known this day would come. It wasn’t something I feared, but more something I was prepared for. I told myself, ‘Okay, it’s here, let’s deal with it,’ and I just focused on getting through the surgery as quickly as possible.”</p> <p>James feels fortunate compared to his uncles, whose diagnoses came much later in life, leading to more severe outcomes. His surgery went well, and he's had a quick recovery, returning to work and feeling grateful that they caught it early. That's why James is advocating for early PSA testing, particularly for men with a family history of prostate cancer. He plans to ensure his 19-year-old son is aware of the need for testing in the future.</p> <p>"We often see men wait until a friend or relative is diagnosed before thinking about getting a prostate cancer PSA test done," says Ranasinghe. "This reactive approach is dangerous. Men need to be proactive and take ownership of their prostate health and talk to their GPs about this, just like they would with cholesterol or other routine health checks."</p> <p>As prostate cancer awareness grows, James hopes his story will encourage others to get tested. It’s something no one wants to face, but the sooner you catch it, the better chance you have.</p> <p>For more information on prostate cancer screening and to find a urologist, visit the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand (USANZ) at <a href="https://www.usanz.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.usanz.org.au</a>.</p> <p><em>Images: Supplied</em></p>

Caring

Olivia Newton-John's daughter reveals special plans to honour mother's legacy

<p>Olivia Newton-John's daughter Chloe Lattanzi has revealed that she will be returning Down Under later this year to honour her mother's legacy. </p> <p>Chloe took to Instagram on Thursday to announce that she will be taking part in Olivia's Walk for Wellness in Melbourne on October 6.</p> <p>"Hi everyone! I am so excited to be coming to Melbourne once again to keep my momma’s legacy alive," she wrote in the caption, before inviting her followers to join her on October 6 in Melbourne's scenic Alexandra Gardens.</p> <p>She added that it "will be an amazing day of raising funds to support people on their cancer journey. Funds raised will help provide free wellness programs at the ONJ Cancer Centre."</p> <p>She invited her followers to join her for the cause, which aims to raise funds for cancer research. </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/reel/C-87Phuy1N7/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-87Phuy1N7/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Chloe Lattanzi (@chloelattanziofficial)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Chloe also said that the theme for the 2024 walk was "Let's Get Physical" with participants encouraged to dress in "80s retro outfits," which appears to be a tribute to Olivia's 1981 smash hit song<em> Physical</em>.</p> <p>"And please bring your puppies," she said in the video. </p> <p>She then signed off her message with: "Hope to see you all there! With love, light and gratitude, Chloe!" </p> <p>The Olivia Newton-John Wellness and Research Centre opened in 2012 and its services have helped thousands.</p> <p>The performer also travelled to Australia last year to take part in the popular event. </p> <p><em>Image: Instagram</em></p>

Caring

The gift of a lifetime: How one busy mum found peace of mind and left a lasting legacy

<p>Anita lives in Sydney with her husband and three sons. She recently chose to include a gift to Lifeline Australia when writing her Will with an online Will-writing service called <a href="https://www.gatheredhere.com.au/c/lifeline-au?gh_cuid=Oxs_YC7byb&gh_cch=%40campaign%2Fchannel%2Fnews" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Gathered Here</span></a>.</p> <p>“My Will has been in the making for the last five years and it has always been pushed down on the prioritisation list due to the high cost of seeing a solicitor and us being a very busy family with young kids,” says Anita.</p> <p>“When I found out about Gathered Here, I thought I may as well check it out, and after 10 minutes I had a Will! The process was simple and straightforward without any complicated legal jargon to cut through.</p> <p>“Within the Will-writing process, summarising my wishes was an important and practical step for me. I want to ease the situation for my loved ones I leave behind by providing emotional and financial certainty in a time of confusion and grief.</p> <p>“There is also an opportunity to nominate and leave gifts to my favourite charities. I have three young boys and having some insight into the mental health challenges in Australia made my decision of allocating a portion of my estate to Lifeline Australia very easy.</p> <p>“Seeing an organisation like Lifeline continuously dedicate their effort, time and professionalism at the highest level to ensure that no one is ever alone in crisis provides me with hope of a better world for my children.”</p> <p>Lifeline is a national charity providing people in Australia experiencing emotional distress with access to 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention services.</p> <p>Tragically, over 3,000 people in Australia lose their lives to suicide every year. This year, Lifeline will receive well over 1 million contacts from people in crisis. Every 30 seconds, someone in Australia reaches out to Lifeline.</p> <p>Lifeline exists to ensure that no person in Australia has to face their toughest moments alone, and believes that through connection, hope can be found.</p> <p>Lifeline Australia has partnered with Gathered Here to offer you the opportunity to <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.gatheredhere.com.au/c/lifeline-au?gh_cuid=Oxs_YC7byb&gh_cch=%40campaign%2Fchannel%2Fnews" target="_blank" rel="noopener">write your Will online for free</a></span> this Include a Charity Week, which runs from the 2nd – 8th September and is dedicated to raising awareness of how anyone can make a lasting impact to causes that they care about with a gift in their Will. You’ll also be able to make free and unlimited changes to your Will for life.</p> <p>Gathered Here provides end-of-life services through probate, funerals and online Wills. They are supported by an in-house legal team of highly experienced Wills and estate lawyers who have reviewed and vetted the Will writing process.</p> <p>Gathered Here's online Will-writing service allows you to appoint guardians for your children and pets, set out how you want to divide your estate and leave gifts to charities that mean the most to you - like Lifeline.</p> <p>After you've provided for those closest to you, <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.gatheredhere.com.au/c/lifeline-au?gh_cuid=Oxs_YC7byb&gh_cch=%40campaign%2Fchannel%2Fnews" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leaving a gift to Lifeline Australia is a lasting and meaningful way that you can have an impact for years to come</a></span>. You will be helping to prevent suicide and save lives in future generations.</p> <p>Gifts in Wills make a phenomenal difference to charities, including Lifeline. This is why a growing number of people understand that once they have provided for their loved ones, leaving a gift in their Will is one of the most powerful ways they can support Lifeline, without incurring any financial costs during their lifetime.</p> <p>If you would like to learn more, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Lifeline Australia’s Gifts in Wills Specialist Abi Steiner via email at <a href="mailto:giftsinwills@lifeline.org.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener">giftsinwills@lifeline.org.<span style="text-decoration: underline;">au</span></a> or phone on 02 8099 1974.</p> <p>If you, or someone you know, are feeling distressed or overwhelmed, we encourage you to connect with Lifeline in the way you feel most comfortable. For 24/7 crisis support, you can phone Lifeline to speak to a Crisis Supporter on 13 11 14, text 0477 131 114, chat to Lifeline online or access the Support Toolkit to self-manage what you’re going through at <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.lifeline.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.lifeline.org.au</a></span>.</p> <p><em>This is a sponsored article produced in partnership with Lifeline Australia.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Lifeline Australia</em></p>

Money & Banking

Your legacy. Their future. Will you be the difference in an uncertain world?

<p>Connection. Safety. Friendship. Family. When you <a href="https://www.redcross.org.au/donate-funds/bequest/pass-it-on/will-planning-checklist-social/?utm_medium=digital&utm_source=edm&utm_campaign=bequests&utm_content=over60s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leave a gift in your Will for Australian Red Cross</a>, there’s no end to the difference you can make.</p> <p>Just ask Elsie. At 95 years old, Elsie has been transformed by weekly visits from Fiona, her Red Cross volunteer. For Fiona, her visits to see 95-year-old nursing home resident Elsie quickly turned into a family affair. </p> <p>"My children, Tom and Meg, have become very attached to her and vice versa. They're like, 'Are you going to see Elsie, can we come too?' They see how lovely it is to be kind to someone like Elsie," says Fiona. "Elsie tells me, 'You're my special family.'"</p> <p>Fiona's dog, Mia, is even a regular visitor at the Tasmanian nursing home. "Mia's like a celebrity. All the residents love her."</p> <p>The family marks all the big milestones with Elsie, like Christmas Day when they brought her home for a special morning tea. "When she turned 95 in December, we took her to a café. She said that was the best birthday she'd had for a long time."</p> <p><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2024/08/RedCross_01.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p><em>Elsie celebrating her birthday with Fiona's children, Tom and Meg. </em></p> <p>It is very much a two-way friendship, says Fiona. "I wasn't expecting it to be like that. I thought it was going to be more me doing lots of things for Elsie. But she gives back a lot."</p> <p>Like when Fiona's daughter, Meg, didn't pass her driver's license test. "Meg was quite upset. Elsie goes to her, 'That's why they invented pencils with rubbers at the end. They are there for you to rub out your mistakes, and then you can have another go.' </p> <p>"She's wise. She gives them little bits of advice and words of wisdom, and they listen to what she says … I can't believe she's 95 years old. Her mind is so unbelievably sharp."</p> <p>Fiona says that, lately, Elsie has not been as mobile as she was, and so they often spend their time together at the nursing home. "We find a nice spot and have a cuppa … She likes telling stories about her life. She talks a lot about her husband, her upbringing, people she's met.</p> <p>"Often, I'll bring her some magazines, or she will have asked me to get some stamps. And my kids have been great with her with technology, how to do this and how to do that. </p> <p>"We chat with other residents as well. Even though Elsie's our person, there are other people we've got to know. She introduces us as 'This is my family.'" </p> <p>Fiona says the first time they met, she and Elsie discovered they had much in common. They both grew up in the same country town and had travelled around Australia managing hotels.</p> <p>They care a lot about each other, she says. "I think it's given her more of a will to live. That sounds pretty deep, but I know how much she looks forward to seeing us; it's giving her more purpose in life.</p> <p>"Elsie always says, 'You make me feel so happy. I love seeing you, it's such a highlight.' I say it back to her because it's the same for me, 'I get so much joy out of seeing you.'"</p> <p>Fiona says she hopes her story inspires other people to volunteer, too.</p> <p>Your generosity, captured in your Will, can help fund programs like our Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme and foster social connections like Elsie and Fiona’s. The program supports more than 1000 participants across the country with the majority between the ages of 78 and 89.</p> <p>Everybody deserves the warmth of kindness and friendship, and your Will can help Australian Red Cross share that with people for generations to come.</p> <p><a href="https://www.redcross.org.au/donate-funds/bequest/pass-it-on/will-planning-checklist-social/?utm_medium=digital&utm_source=edm&utm_campaign=bequests&utm_content=over60s" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2024/08/RedCross_02_wQRCode.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="638" /></a></p> <p>If you would like a free <a href="https://www.redcross.org.au/donate-funds/bequest/pass-it-on/will-planning-checklist-social/?utm_medium=digital&utm_source=edm&utm_campaign=bequests&utm_content=over60s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Will Planning Checklist</a>, or more information, our <a href="mailto:litran@redcross.org.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gifts in Wills Specialist</a> would love to help.</p> <p>You <a style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;" href="mailto:litran@redcross.org.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener">get in touch here</a><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"> or call 1800 733 276.</span></p> <p><em>All images: Supplied.</em></p> <p><em>This is a sponsored article produced in partnership with Australian Red Cross.</em></p>

Caring

Michael Mosley used science communication to advance health and wellbeing. We can learn a lot from his approach

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lauren-ball-14718">Lauren Ball</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kirsten-adlard-684475">Kirsten Adlard</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a></em></p> <p>Overnight, we learned of the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-09/michael-mosley-body-found-greek-island-clare-bailey-mosley/103957382">tragic passing</a> of Michael Mosley, who went missing last week while on holiday on the Greek island of Symi.</p> <p>The British celebrity doctor was a household name in many countries, including Australia. Mosley was well known for his television shows, documentaries, books and columns on healthy eating, weight management, physical activity and sleep.</p> <p>During the days he was missing and once his death was confirmed, media outlets have acknowledged Mosley’s <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/michael-mosley-tv-doctor-death-b2558717.html">career achievements</a>. He is being celebrated for his connection to diverse public audiences and his unrelenting focus on science as the best guide to our daily habits.</p> <h2>From medicine to the media</h2> <p>Mosley was born in India <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8770jyz6vvo">in 1957</a> and was sent to England at age seven to attend boarding school. He later studied philosophy, politics and economics at the <a href="https://michaelmosley.co.uk/biog/">University of Oxford</a>. After a short stint in investment banking, Mosley opted to train in medicine at the Royal Free Hospital in London.</p> <p>Rather than forging a career in clinical practice, <a href="https://michaelmosley.co.uk/biog/">Mosley</a> started working at the BBC in 1985 as a trainee assistant producer. In the decades that followed, Mosley continued to work with the BBC as a producer and presenter.</p> <p>Mosley became a popular public figure by applying his medical training to journalism to examine a breadth of health and wellbeing topics. In 1995, following his documentary on <em><a href="https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/baf970949e3a46a992ae52420395a7c2">Helicobacter pylori</a></em>, a bacterium that causes ulcers in the stomach, the British Medical Association named him <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/2kczjZKp8sGSDxSxKYzxsyr/michael-mosley">medical journalist of the year</a>.</p> <p>His other television work on diet, weight management, exercise and sleep earned him <a href="https://www.emmys.com/bios/michael-mosley">Emmy</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0608839/awards/">BAFTA</a> (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts), and <a href="https://rts.org.uk/tags/michael-mosley">Royal Television Society</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/2kczjZKp8sGSDxSxKYzxsyr/michael-mosley">award nominations</a>.</p> <p>Over the past decade, Mosley published <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Fast-Diet-Original-Revised-Research/dp/1780722370/ref=sr_1_6?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.75_akcxo8tanyLrD4CVMwd1lCTliHyckSLPU2W7K4HmdPqRlVqvMbKWKkJ6CPCsrFsAw4Vfw5SWOYkl_Y8ah4yNCSjQksdT3ByCSHhiycNB9AB5h6vVUqB99okxDDWPaXUCwD-CZMzHZDvAjuAotTN">several books</a> on <a href="https://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Fastexercise-Michael-Mosley-Peta-Bee-With/9781476759982?utm_source=googleps&utm_medium=ps&utm_campaign=AU&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw34qzBhBmEiwAOUQcF3wd7d1bj8KMFeEtKS6ZU7py5rRzjiycZhcsMbSEQ9lXhjEBcY4GRxoCwgIQAvD_BwE">exercise</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/8-Week-Blood-Sugar-Diet-Recipe/dp/1925456595/ref=sr_1_7?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.75_akcxo8tanyLrD4CVMwd1lCTliHyckSLPU2W7K4HmdPqRlVqvMbKWKkJ6CPCsrFsAw4Vfw5SWOYkl_Y8ah4yNCSjQksdT3ByCSHhiycNB9AB5h6vVUqB99okxDDWPaXUCwD-CZMzHZDvAjuAotTNxxkW3">healthy eating</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Fast-800-Australian-New-Zealand/dp/B07MPRQWJP/ref=sr_1_8?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.75_akcxo8tanyLrD4CVMwd1lCTliHyckSLPU2W7K4HmdPqRlVqvMbKWKkJ6CPCsrFsAw4Vfw5SWOYkl_Y8ah4yNCSjQksdT3ByCSHhiycNB9AB5h6vVUqB99okxDDWPaXUCwD-CZMzHZDvAjuAotTNxxkW">intermittent fasting</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Weeks-Better-Sleep-life-changing-improved/dp/1761425927/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.75_akcxo8tanyLrD4CVMwd1lCTliHyckSLPU2W7K4HmdPqRlVqvMbKWKkJ6CPCsrFsAw4Vfw5SWOYkl_Y8ah4yNCSjQksdT3ByCSHhiycNB9AB5h6vVUqB99okxDDWPaXUCwD-CZMzHZDvAj">sleep</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Just-One-Thing-Changes-Transform/dp/B0BJVRP94X/ref=sr_1_9?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.75_akcxo8tanyLrD4CVMwd1lCTliHyckSLPU2W7K4HmdPqRlVqvMbKWKkJ6CPCsrFsAw4Vfw5SWOYkl_Y8ah4yNCSjQksdT3ByCSHhiycNB9AB5h6vVUqB99okxDDWPaXUCwD-CZMzHZDvAjuAotTNxxk">behaviour change</a>. He sold millions of copies of his books around the world, including at least <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/p/mosley-1mil-sales">one million</a> in Australia and New Zealand.</p> <p>Alongside his wife, Dr Clare Bailey Mosley, he recently embarked on a <a href="https://michaelmosley.co.uk/live/">live theatre show tour</a>, yet another vehicle to bring his key messages to audiences.</p> <h2>A trusted voice</h2> <p>Mosley became a trusted voice for health and wellbeing throughout his journalistic career. His television program <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04j9gny">Trust Me, I’m a Doctor</a> drew on his medical qualifications to discuss health and wellbeing credibly on a public platform. His medical training also inferred credibility in examining the scientific literature that underpins the topics he was communicating.</p> <p>At the same time, Mosley used simple terminology that captured the attention of diverse audiences.</p> <p>For many of Mosley’s outputs, he used himself as an example. For instance, in his <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09by3yy/episodes/downloads">podcast series</a> Just One Thing and <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Just-One-Thing-Changes-Transform/dp/B0BJVRP94X/ref=sr_1_9?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.75_akcxo8tanyLrD4CVMwd1lCTliHyckSLPU2W7K4HmdPqRlVqvMbKWKkJ6CPCsrFsAw4Vfw5SWOYkl_Y8ah4yNCSjQksdT3ByCSHhiycNB9AB5h6vVUqB99okxDDWPaXUCwD-CZMzHZDvAjuAotTNxxk">companion book</a>, Mosley self-tested a range of evidence-based behavioural habits (while also interviewing subject-matter experts), covering topics such as eating slowly, yoga, listening to music, cooking, gardening and drinking green tea.</p> <p>His focus on intermittent fasting and high-intensity training was fuelled by his <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-08/how-dr-michael-mosley-popularised-intermittent-fasting/103952408">diagnosis of type 2 diabetes</a>, and his work on sleep health was based on his experience <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/sleep-revolution-michael-mosley/okmv5o7qe">with chronic insomnia</a>.</p> <p>At the most extreme end of the spectrum, Mosley <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25968755">infested himself with tapeworms</a> in the pursuit of exploring their effects on the human body.</p> <p>By using himself as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/09/michael-mosley-favourite-health-tip-slow-deep-breathing">human guinea pig</a>, he fostered a connection with his audience, showing the <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-personal-touch-using-anecdotes-to-hook-a-reader">power</a> of personal anecdotes.</p> <h2>Some controversies along the way</h2> <p>Despite his notable career achievements, Mosley received ongoing criticisms about his work due to differing opinions within the medical and scientific communities.</p> <p>One key concern was around his promotion of potentially risky diets such as intermittent fasting and other restrictive diets, including the 5:2 diet and low-carb diets. While <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9946909/">some evidence</a> supports intermittent fasting as a way to improve metabolic health and enable weight management, Mosley was criticised for not fully acknowledging the potential risks of these diets, such as a potential to lead to <a href="https://clindiabetesendo.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40842-023-00152-7">disordered eating</a> habits.</p> <p>His promotion of low-carb diets also raised concerns that his work added to a diet-focused <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/lose-a-stone-in-21-days-channel-4-criticism-eating-disorder-food-relationship-beat-a9656531.html">culture war</a>, ultimately to the detriment of many people’s relationship with food and their bodies.</p> <p>More broadly, in his efforts to make scientific concepts simple and accessible to the general public, Mosley was sometimes criticised for overgeneralising science. The concern was that he didn’t properly discuss the nuance and tension inherent in scientific evidence, thereby providing an incomplete synthesis of the evidence.</p> <p>For example, Mosley conceptualised the <a href="https://thebloodsugardiet.com">blood sugar diet</a> (a low-carbohydrate Mediterranean-style diet), which was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/health-68452019">criticised</a> for lacking a strong grounding in scientific evidence. Similarly, <a href="https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/article/smoke-and-mirrors-the-truth-about-vaping-nmpf3przr">associating his name with e-cigarettes</a> may have drawn unhelpful attention to the topic, irrespective of the underlying details.</p> <h2>What can we learn from Mosley?</h2> <p>Overall, Mosley has been objectively successful in communicating scientific concepts to large, engaged audiences. Mosley showed us that people want to consume scientific information, whether through the news media, social media, podcasts or books.</p> <p>His passion and persistence in using science to promote health and wellbeing have likely supported public health efforts across the globe.<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/231934/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lauren-ball-14718"><em>Lauren Ball</em></a><em>, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kirsten-adlard-684475">Kirsten Adlard</a>, Supervisor of Engagement, Communication, and Outreach, Centre for Community Health and Wellbeing, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock Editorial </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/michael-mosley-used-science-communication-to-advance-health-and-wellbeing-we-can-learn-a-lot-from-his-approach-231934">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Caring

‘Screaming, chanting, struggling teenagers’: the enduring legacy of the Beatles tour of Australia, 60 years on

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michelle-arrow-45">Michelle Arrow</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/macquarie-university-1174">Macquarie University</a></em></p> <p>The Beatles began their first and only tour of Australia 60 years ago this week. It remains a landmark event in our social and cultural history.</p> <p>The Beatles spent almost three weeks in Australia and New Zealand. Touching down in a wet and cold Sydney on Thursday June 11 1964, they played 32 concerts in eight cities: first Adelaide (where drummer Ringo Starr, suffering from tonsillitis and pharyngitis, was replaced by Jimmie Nicol), then Melbourne (with Starr again), Sydney, Wellington, Auckland, Dunedin, Christchurch and two final shows in Brisbane on June 29 and 30.</p> <p>Charming and irreverent as they were, The Beatles themselves were only part of the reason the tour was so memorable.</p> <p>It was the hordes of screaming fans who followed their every move that astonished onlookers.</p> <h2>The rise of Beatlemania</h2> <p>By 1964, Australian teenagers had access to a global youth culture. As the feminist author Anne Summers, then an Adelaide teenager, recalled in her memoir Ducks on the Pond: "It was rare for world-famous pop stars to come to Adelaide and unheard of for a group at the height of their celebrity."</p> <p>That Australian teenagers had the opportunity to see The Beatles in person in 1964 was due to a stroke of luck for tour promoter <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/brodziak-kenneth-leo-kenn-32165">Kenn Brodziak</a>. In late 1963, Brodziak secured the then up-and-coming Beatles for a three-week tour of Australia at a bargain rate.</p> <p>By the time the tour took place, the Beatles were the biggest band in the world.</p> <p>Their popularity had skyrocketed throughout 1964. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jenWdylTtzs">I Want To Hold Your Hand</a> went to number one on the Australian charts in mid-January and the top six singles that year were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_top_25_singles_for_1964_in_Australia">all by The Beatles</a>.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iUCl9FWLzgM?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>So when the band arrived here, Beatlemania was the predictable result: crowds of surging, screaming young people, who turned out in massive numbers wherever the Beatles appeared.</p> <p>While the earliest rock ‘n’ roll fans (and even performers) in the late 1950s were often labelled <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/633/1/moore_keith.pdf">juvenile delinquents</a>, there were too many teenagers swept up in Beatlemania for them to be dismissed in the same way. The crowds became a spectacle in themselves.</p> <h2>‘A chanting mass of humanity’</h2> <p>Beatlemaniacs were loud and unruly. The Daily Telegraph reported: "50,000 screaming, chanting, struggling teenagers crowded outside Melbourne’s Southern Cross Hotel this afternoon to give the Beatles the wildest reception of their careers."</p> <p>It was a similar story in Adelaide. The Advertiser described: "police, their arms locked together and forming a tight circle around the car carrying the Beatles, had to force a path through the surging, screaming crowd […] Police said they had never seen anything like it."</p> <p>The crowds overwhelmed observers with their sheer size – a “solid, swaying, chanting mass of humanity”, according to The Age – and noise. The Daily Telegraph consulted an acoustics expert to conclude “Beatles fans scream like [a] jet in flight”.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2MOFBmxPUCs?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Beatlemania was visible (and noisy) evidence of a growing teenage consumer market and the assimilation of rock music, dancing and youth culture into the leisure practices of middle-class youth. It was proof (if anyone still needed it) the youth market was highly developed and extremely lucrative.</p> <p>The speed with which companies found a ready audience for Beatles merchandise (wigs, souvenirs, magazines) demonstrated the relative affluence of the youthful consumer in mid-1960s Australia. This market would continue to grow throughout the decade.</p> <h2>A new idea of youth</h2> <p>Perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of Beatlemania was its femaleness. While not all Beatles fans were girls, it was the crying, screaming girls who attracted the most media comment.</p> <p>The Daily Telegraph described them this way: "It was the girls, the nymphets of 1964 in their uniform of black slacks and duffle coats and purple sweaters – who showed the orgiastic devotion due to the young men from the damp and foggy dead end of England […] the girls wept, screamed, grimaced, fainted, fell over, threw things, stamped, jumped and shouted […] [The Beatles] were the high priests of pop culture, taking due homage from a captive, hypnotised hysterical congregation."</p> <p>The references to “nymphets” with their “orgiastic devotion” tells us many Australians thought these young women were transgressing the norms expected for their era. Young women in the early 1960s were still expected to be demure and responsible. Beatles fans were breaking these rules, and helping to rewrite the meanings of youth and gender in 1960s Australia.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wyrs5uR-nwc?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Beatlemania was an expression of female desire. The Beatles were powerful objects of fantasy for many fans in a world where sexual mores were slowly changing but where women were still expected to police male desire, stopping young men from “going too far”. A fantasy relationship with a Beatle became a way for young women to dream about their ideal relationship.</p> <p>Screaming, chasing a Beatle down the street: these were acts of rebellion and joy that prefigured the rise of women’s liberation, with its embrace of rebellious femininity.</p> <p>Beatlemania reminds us that, even if women were not always behind the microphone or playing the guitar, they have been important to the history of rock ‘n’ roll music as fans and audience members.</p> <p>Beatlemania marked the ascendancy of a new idea of youth: these young people weren’t mere replicas of their parents, but they were not juvenile delinquents, either. The Beatles tour drew young Australians more closely into a transnational youth culture, fostering the development of a distinctively Australian variant here.</p> <p>Beatlemania also demonstrated the massed power of youth. By the end of the 1960s, many Australian teenagers were gathering on the streets to protest, rather than celebrate, and to make political demands, rather than to scream.<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/227680/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michelle-arrow-45"><em>Michelle Arrow</em></a><em>, Professor of History, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/macquarie-university-1174">Macquarie University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Granger/Shutterstock Editorial</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/screaming-chanting-struggling-teenagers-the-enduring-legacy-of-the-beatles-tour-of-australia-60-years-on-227680">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Music

How Bindi Irwin is passing down Steve's legacy to her daughter

<p>Bindi Irwin has found a unique and heartwarming way to introduce her late dad Steve to her own daughter.</p> <p>Grace, who is now three years old, never got to meet her grandfather Steve Irwin, who tragically passed away in 2006.</p> <p>In order to pass down his legacy and introduce Steve to her own daughter, Bindi has been showing Grace her dad's old documentaries.</p> <p>In an interview with <a title="US Weekly" href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-moms/news/bindi-irwin-shares-the-one-thing-she-wants-to-tell-dad-steve-irwin/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><em>US Weekly</em>,</a> 25-year-old Bindi said her daughter has already picked up Steve's iconic catchphrase. </p> <p>"He was the same person in real life as he was on screen, so I feel like Grace is able to grow up knowing him," Bindi said. </p> <p>"As soon as we turn Dad on, she starts doing her imitation, yelling 'Crikey!' through the living room." </p> <p>Bindi, who continues to run Australia Zoo alongside her mum Terri, brother Robert, and her husband Chandler Powell, said the place is still filled with the essence of Steve with photos of him all through the park. </p> <p>It's bittersweet for Bindi, who's seeing her daughter grow up with a version of Steve who's only on the screen and the memory of him in Australia Zoo, but she's hoping that he's proud of them. </p> <p>"If I had the chance, the one thing I'd say to my dad is, 'I love you, and I miss you. Every day that you aren't here is hard. But we hope to be making you proud,'" she said.</p> <p>"I think when there's love that is that great, it never truly goes away. He's always with us."</p> <p><em>Image credits: Instagram </em></p>

Family & Pets

Between nostalgia and amnesia: the legacy of Julia Gillard as PM, 10 years after her ousting

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/joshua-black-729708">Joshua Black</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-national-university-877">Australian National University</a></em></p> <p>On June 26 2013, as she fronted the press gallery in Canberra after her removal as leader of the Labor Party, Julia Gillard was determined not to cry. In her prime ministerial <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0uhHuEw8LY">resignation speech</a>, she asked not for pity, but rather for a meaningful national conversation about gender and politics, specifically the politics of her demise.</p> <p>"It doesn’t explain everything; it doesn’t explain nothing. It explains some things. And it is for the nation to think in a sophisticated way about those shades of grey."</p> <p>Ten years after the fact, that conversation is ongoing. At times, it has been a progressive and sophisticated one. The events of recent weeks, including the puerile debate about Katy Gallagher’s <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/gallagher-faces-censure-motion-20230622-p5dirm.html">prior knowledge</a> of Brittany Higgins’ sexual assault allegations, and the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-15/peter-dutton-dumps-senator-david-van-from-liberal-party-room/102481814">allegations</a> against Senator David Van, remind us there is still a long way to go.</p> <p>However, it is worth pausing to reflect on what has happened to Gillard’s reputation over the decade. Why has it thrived? Is it all about gender? And if we have forgotten key aspects of the Gillard years, what does that partial amnesia say about us?</p> <h2>From ‘Juliar’ to feminist icon</h2> <p>For much of her premiership, Gillard was singularly unpopular among Australian voters. Her efforts to put a price on carbon (damned by critics as a broken promise not to introduce a carbon tax) proved electorally damaging, as did her failure to end the deadlock over asylum-seeker policy. <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/a-line-has-been-crossed-gillard-acts-on-thomson-and-slipper-20120429-1xsiz.html">Controversies</a> surrounding Labor MP Craig Thompson and Speaker Peter Slipper (selected for the role by Gillard) further undermined her standing.</p> <p>There was much sexism at play. Her critics incessantly argued this was a woman not to be trusted. Critics of carbon pricing infamously dubbed her “Juliar” on their angry placards. Her body was objectified in the public domain, and the shock jocks of commercial radio questioned the sexuality of her then partner.</p> <p>One commentator, the irascible Alan Jones, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsaVpepMyA8">even suggested</a> the prime minister ought to be “put in a chaff bag” and drowned at sea. The shocking thing is not that these things were said, but rather that they were accepted as legitimate contributions to public debate by the community at large.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533611/original/file-20230623-24-4cz05p.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/533611/original/file-20230623-24-4cz05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533611/original/file-20230623-24-4cz05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533611/original/file-20230623-24-4cz05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533611/original/file-20230623-24-4cz05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533611/original/file-20230623-24-4cz05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533611/original/file-20230623-24-4cz05p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The language used to criticised Gillard was often deeply sexist, and opposition politicians often did little to discourage it.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alan Porritt/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>Stories about Gillard’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/31/julia-gillard-did-not-commit-any-inquirys-counsel-assisting-says">alleged corruption</a> as a lawyer in Perth in the early 1990s also proved a distraction from the government’s agenda. Not until 2014 – in the witness box of a royal commission, no less – was Gillard finally able to clear her name.</p> <h2>The misogyny speech</h2> <p>The passage of time can make things seem as if they always were as they are now. But Gillard’s renowned <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihd7ofrwQX0">misogyny speech</a> was not an instant sensation in Australia. The context – a censure motion on the disgraced speaker Peter Slipper – was unpropitious, and when Gillard made her speech, the conservative press called her a hypocrite who now played the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/gillard-reveals-true-nature-in-playing-gender-card-20121010-27cnq.html">“gender card”</a> for political expediency.</p> <p>The speech’s global impact was immediate, but only after Gillard’s removal from power did it capture the hearts and minds of some Australians. New developments – the sexist attacks on US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, the #MeToo movement beginning in 2017, and latterly the backlash against gendered discrimination and abuse in parliament house – gave it further acuity in the following years.</p> <p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ihd7ofrwQX0" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>A decade after its muted reception in Canberra, the speech is circulated on TikTok, featured in stage productions, and in 2020 it was even voted Australia’s most <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/feb/07/julia-gillard-misogyny-speech-voted-most-unforgettable-moment-in-australian-tv-history">“unforgettable” television moment</a>.</p> <p>Though not always enamoured with the way it dominated her political legacy, Gillard ultimately leaned in to it, as the saying goes. She started a podcast called A Podcast of One’s Own (a clear nod to Virginia Woolf), published two books about women and leadership, and established the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London, and latterly the Australian National University.</p> <h2>Star status</h2> <p>As prime minister, Gillard was regularly criticised for her “wooden” media appearances and her cautious approach to public engagement. It is ironic, then, that her transformation from untrustworthy politician to venerable feminist advocate depended on the media and celebrity industries.</p> <p>It began with a series of ticketed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoCpHkPr8lE">public talks</a> in venues such as the Sydney Opera House with longstanding feminist advocate, author and historian Anne Summers. Gillard’s memoir, <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/my-story-9781760893330">My Story</a>, and a high-profile book tour followed in 2014.</p> <p>In her advocacy work as chair of the Global Partnership for Education she also rubbed shoulders with celebrities such as <a href="https://www.vogue.com.au/celebrity/interviews/rihanna-and-julia-gillard-the-unlikely-friendship-between-a-global-superstar-and-our-former-prime-minister/news-story/3263d3e95e6d9780c0535b8cfea8840d">Rihanna</a>.</p> <h2>The policy legacy</h2> <p>Several of the Rudd-Gillard government’s policy initiatives were unravelled by their successors. The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-10/gillard-reveals-carbon-price-scheme/2788842">$23-per-tonne carbon price</a> was repealed by Tony Abbott’s government, as was the (clearly deficient) <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-03/FOI_2247.pdf">Minerals Resource Rent Tax</a>. The National Broadband Network, the rollout of which began under Gillard, was dramatically reimagined by Malcolm Turnbull as communications minister and then as prime minister.</p> <p>Some of the less-savoury aspects of Gillard policy legacy have been forgotten for more convenient reasons. Gillard herself has not often discussed her government’s revival of mandatory offshore processing for asylum seekers in Australia. The cutting of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-julia-gillard-forever-changed-australian-politics-especially-for-women-138528">single parents’ benefit</a>, on the very same day as Gillard’s misogyny speech, has earned perhaps not enough discussion. It is her <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-16/julia-gillard-same-sex-marriage-feminism-debate/102290962">failure to support</a> same-sex marriage as prime minister that now draws the most condemnation from pundits.</p> <p>But policy legacies have also played a huge part in the revival of Gillard’s public standing. The Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings was a hugely important initiative. It earned Gillard significant credit across the political spectrum when its findings proved so damning.</p> <p>The NDIS, largely overlooked in media coverage in favour of “carbon tax” and “deficit”, has become a sacred element in Australian social and welfare policy. The subsequent policy debate has not hinged on the design of the scheme, but rather how best to fund it.</p> <h2>Between nostalgia and amnesia</h2> <p>There is a dissonance in the way Australians talk about Gillard today. Her magnanimity is respected, her embrace of a life after politics admired. Above all else, Gillard’s status as Australia’s first woman prime minister and now a global women’s ambassador prevails. As a rule, she does not parade her views on contemporary politics before the public, except at a conceptual level. (Her memoir was perhaps the exception.)</p> <p>But when commentators refer to the decade of egos, ambitions and failed leaders, they are increasingly likely to elide her name entirely. It is a disservice to the historical record, and to Gillard herself. She was a fierce combatant in parliament, and endured a period of intense conflict within the Labor Party. Her victory over Kevin Rudd in February 2012 – one of their many spills and shadow contests – was larger than any ballot that Rudd, Abbott or Turnbull ever contested.</p> <p>People have been quick to wipe their hands clean of yesterday’s sexism in order to make Gillard yesterday’s heroine. But they ought to be careful that, in the process, they do not erase her from other political histories.</p> <p>To segregate her story as one of women’s leadership while neglecting it in wider histories of Australian politics and policy would, in its own way, be an act of sexism.<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/208283/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/joshua-black-729708">Joshua Black</a>, PhD Candidate, School of History, National Centre of Biography, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-national-university-877">Australian National University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/between-nostalgia-and-amnesia-the-legacy-of-julia-gillard-as-pm-10-years-after-her-ousting-208283">original article</a>.</em></p>

Legal

7 things you should pass on to your grandkids

<p>No one wants to think about what will happen when they’re no longer around, but thoughtfully choosing what to leave to your family will ensure your memory endures long after you’re gone. Here are the 10 things you should pass on to your grandchildren to help them remember you as you always were.</p> <ol> <li><strong>Your passport(s)</strong> – What better token of your life is there than a chronicle of all the incredible places you’ve visited? Your passports will inspire those you love to pack up their bags and follow in your footsteps.</li> <li><strong>Your wedding album</strong> – By passing on your beloved wedding photos, long after you and your partner are gone, your love story will continue to inspire generations after you – and maybe offer some style ideas to vintage-loving brides-to-be in your family!</li> <li><strong>Something belonging to your parents</strong> – If you have an old possession that used to belong to a parent, grandparent or even great-grandparent, giving it to your grandchildren will ensure their ancestors will live on through future generations.</li> <li><strong>Something sentimental</strong> – Photo albums are all well and good, but passing on something you love, which is truly special to you, will always remind your grandchildren of you. Just imagine their smiles as they look down on a watch or ring gifted to them by their beloved nan or pop.</li> <li><strong>A photo of the first time you met them</strong> – Who could forget the first time they meet their newborn grandchild? Share this moment with them and write on the back of the photo just how you felt when you held them for the first time.</li> <li><strong>Your favourite music, books, and movies</strong> – There’s nothing like music to bring back memories of people and places. Fill a bag (or load a USB) with your all-time favourite songs, books and movies so your family will always have something to lift their spirits when they’re feeling down.</li> <li><strong>Stories</strong> – while possessions are great, stories and memories are what will endure for decades after you’ve gone. Any chance you get, share a memory or a story with your loved ones, whether it’s about your life or theirs, and get a conversation going.</li> </ol> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Retirement Life

Empowerment, individual strength and the many facets of love: why I fell for Tina Turner

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/leigh-carriage-456522">Leigh Carriage</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/southern-cross-university-1160">Southern Cross University</a></em></p> <p>For singers – amateur and professional alike – the name Tina Turner evokes instant reverence: Turner is a singer’s singer and perhaps the performer’s performer.</p> <p>A highly successful songwriter, the consummate dancer and fittingly ranked as one of the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-artists-147446/">100 Greatest Artists of All Time</a> by Rolling Stone magazine, Turner was the ultimate entertainer.</p> <p>Upon hearing of her death, I was deeply saddened. I immediately recalled the intoxicating power and timbre of her voice, her mesmerising energy and her commanding performances.</p> <p>I started singing sections of songs such as <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2T5_seDNZE">Proud Mary</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Lehkou2Do">River Deep Mountain High</a></em> and of course iconic original songs, such as <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I07249JX8w4">Nutbush City Limits</a></em>. This was an intimate, sentimental, nostalgic and danceable song celebrating Turner’s roots growing up in the small town of Nutbush, Tennessee.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Tina Turner was raw. She was powerful. She was unstoppable. And she was unapologetically herself—speaking and singing her truth through joy and pain; triumph and tragedy. Today we join fans around the world in honoring the Queen of Rock and Roll, and a star whose light will never… <a href="https://t.co/qXl2quZz1c">pic.twitter.com/qXl2quZz1c</a></p> <p>— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1661514993383120896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 24, 2023</a></p></blockquote> <h2>Fierce hard work</h2> <p>My first encounter with Turner’s brilliance and might was hearing her hits of the mid-1980s, with songs like Graham Lyle’s <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGpFcHTxjZs">What’s Love Got To Do With It</a></em>, Al Green’s <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rFB4nj_GRc">Let’s Stay Together</a></em> and – love it or hate it – the powerful rock ballad <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gcm-tOGiva0">We Don’t Need Another Hero</a></em>, the theme song to <em>Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.</em></p> <p>Once introduced, I immersed myself in her extensive back catalogue, soaking in her early 1960s soul, funk and emerging rock tracks.</p> <p>Today, I flashed back to memories of the physical energy and technical focus and practice it took just attempting to sing any Turner songs in my 20s.</p> <p>The degree of difficulty required to perform as Turner did cannot be understated.</p> <p>To sing with such consistency in such high registers, belting out song after song live with impeccable pitch, breath control, fitness, articulation and rhythmic precision is one thing. To do all of this while dancing with intense pace to highly choreographed routines throughout each show is on a whole other level.</p> <p>Her performance practice exemplified fierce hard work – with an immense energy and vitality in live performance.</p> <p>Try singing any of her songs at a Karaoke bar. Very quickly you gain some insight into the technical demands her songs require.</p> <h2>Making songs her own</h2> <p>For every singer, selecting a repertoire to cover is an ongoing quest.</p> <p>In a sea of the world’s great songs, Turner selected songs she could make her own. She remodelled every song she sang - realigning them so much that we now think of them as hers first.</p> <p>There are so many examples. My favourites are Turner’s formidable versions of <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIPoC6JlP38">I Can’t Stand the Rain</a> </em>(originally by Ann Peebles), <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC5E8ie2pdM">The Best</a></em> (Bonnie Tyler) and <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4QnalIHlVc">Private Dancer</a></em> (Mark Knopfler).</p> <p>A great deal of the songs Turner was known for through the 1960s were covers. Turner’s forceful and expressive vocal delivery gave new life to these songs, realigning them with her uniquely identifiable sound and choice of vocal register, her phrasing choices and her punctuated rhythmic delivery.</p> <p>Turner is perhaps less known as a songwriter, but her diverse songwriting demonstrated her skill and thoughtful, well-crafted lyrics. On her 1972 album Feel Good, nine of the ten songs were written by Turner. From 1973 to 1977, Turner composed all the songs on each album.</p> <p>One of my favourites of her original songs is the power ballad <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l__zi3OtrQ0">Be Tender With Me Baby</a></em>. It speaks of a request for understanding, of her loneliness and vulnerability, sung with Turner’s intensity.</p> <p>Across her original songs and covers, Turner’s repertoire spoke of empowerment, individual strength and the many facets of love. Beyond performing, Turner represented inner strength, spiritual depth and resilience against adversity.</p> <p>In 1996, when Turner was 57, she recorded her ninth studio album, <em>Wildest Dreams</em>.</p> <p>One track, <em>Something Beautiful Remains</em>, may not be as familiar as many of her other hits, but it is the song I have kept returning to today. In the chorus, Turner’s lyrics are sadly perfectly fitting:</p> <blockquote> <p>For every life that fades<br />Something beautiful remains.<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/206395/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> </blockquote> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1uXLFtXpeFU?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/leigh-carriage-456522">Leigh Carriage</a>, Senior Lecturer in Music, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/southern-cross-university-1160">Southern Cross University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/empowerment-individual-strength-and-the-many-facets-of-love-why-i-fell-for-tina-turner-206395">original article</a>.</em></p>

Music

How to leave a legacy to look after those you love

<p dir="ltr"><em>It can be difficult getting on top of your own finances, and knowing how to prepare for the transition to the next generation, but with these tips from financial expert Jacqui Clarke, it has never been easier to manage your money, “so it doesn’t manage you”. </em></p> <p dir="ltr">Leaving a legacy involves more than just material wealth. It encompasses the values, memories, and support you provide to your loved ones even after you're gone. A legacy is the enduring impact and influence you leave behind, shaping the lives of others and the world around them. To be honest, in the context of family and looking after those that you love, it’s something that’s being created from the moment your children or grandchildren, nieces or nephews are born. Legacy can simply be the way you do things and ensuring your descendants know this. For others it might be a lifelong passion project that you want to continue supporting after your lifetime.</p> <p dir="ltr">To ensure your way, your wishes and your wealth are successfully transitioned to the next generation and create an enduring legacy there are 3 crucial steps to consider. Let’s delve into the significance of these elements and explore practical steps you can take to leave a lasting legacy that will benefit those you care about the most.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>1. Understanding Estate Planning </strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Estate planning is the process of organising and distributing your assets after you pass away. It allows you to have control over who receives your property and ensures your wishes are carried out effectively. By engaging in estate planning, you not only protect your loved ones from potential legal disputes and unnecessary financial burdens but also provide them with a clear roadmap for the future.</p> <p dir="ltr">Start by taking inventory of your assets, including your savings, investments, real estate, and personal belongings. Next, consult with a qualified estate planning lawyer who can guide you through the creation of essential documents such as wills, power of attorney and possibly testamentary trusts. These legal instruments will help safeguard your assets, minimise tax liabilities, and ensure that your loved ones are taken care of according to your wishes, forming a solid foundation for your lasting legacy.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>2. Communicating Your Intentions </strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Effective communication is essential when it comes to leaving a legacy. Clearly expressing your intentions and discussing your estate plan with your loved ones can prevent misunderstandings and conflicts down the line. Initiate an open and honest conversation about your plans, and explain the reasons behind your decisions. This will help your family understand your intentions and provide them with peace of mind during a potentially challenging time.</p> <p dir="ltr">While discussing your estate plan, it's vital to listen to your loved ones' concerns and consider their perspectives. Encourage dialogue and address any questions or uncertainties they may have. Engaging in these conversations demonstrates respect for their opinions and fosters a collaborative approach to legacy planning.</p> <p dir="ltr">By effectively communicating your intentions, you lay the groundwork for a legacy that encompasses not only financial assets but also the values, memories, and guidance you wish to pass on to future generations.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>3. Incorporating Non-Financial Aspects </strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Leaving a legacy isn't limited to financial matters and serious hiccups can occur if you miss this one. Consider the non-financial aspects that make up your legacy, such as your values, traditions, and life lessons. Take the time to document your family history, personal anecdotes, and insights that can guide future generations. This could be in the form of a written memoir, video recordings, or audio messages. As an example, my parents loved touring Australia, so I asked them to provide me with all their road trip planning documents, another example are collating the recipes from my grandmother and wanting to ensure these weren’t lost. </p> <p dir="ltr">Family gatherings are a brilliant opportunity to promote a sense of openness about your planning. It’s a good time to chat about family heirlooms and meaningful possessions with your family members, not just your sentimental items but asking them if you hold something that carries sentimental value to them. You might be surprised by the reaction you get. Seemingly everyday “things” may serve as a special reminder of your love and the unique bonds you share.</p> <p dir="ltr">Your legacy encompasses not only the tangible assets you leave behind but also the intangible gifts of wisdom, love, and values that shape the lives of your loved ones. By incorporating these non-financial aspects into your estate plan and actively transmitting them, you ensure that your legacy extends beyond material possessions and leaves a profound impact on those you cherish.</p> <p dir="ltr">Leaving a legacy is about more than just divvying up your net worth. Through estate planning, effective communication, and the incorporation of non-financial aspects, you can shape the future and ensure that your loved ones are well taken care of. </p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>Jacqui Clarke FCA, FTI, GAICD, JP, author of <em>Stop Worrying About Money </em>(Wiley, $29.95), is a trusted advisor, board member, executor and veteran business executive. </strong></p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>As a personal wealth and money management expert and over three decades of experience, 25 years at Deloitte and PWC helping high-net-worth families, individuals and business owners to build, manage and preserve their wealth. Her message is simple: with careful planning and effort, you can manage your money, so it doesn’t manage you.<a href="https://www.jacquiclarke.me/"> https://www.jacquiclarke.me/</a></strong></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Retirement Life

Even after his death, Rolf Harris’ artwork will stand as reminders of his criminal acts

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gregory-dale-1441894">Gregory Dale</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a></em></p> <p>Australian entertainer and artist Rolf Harris has died at the age of 93.</p> <p>After a prominent career as an artist, particularly in the UK, in 2014 <a href="https://theconversation.com/rolf-harris-guilty-but-what-has-operation-yewtree-really-taught-us-about-sexual-abuse-28282">Harris was convicted</a> of 12 counts of indecent assault.</p> <p>For his victims, his death might help to close a painful chapter of their lives.</p> <p>However, what will become of the prodigious output of the disgraced artist?</p> <h2>Jack of all trades, master of none</h2> <p>Harris developed an interest in art from a young age. At the age of 15, one of his portraits was <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/1946/">selected for showing</a> in the 1946 Archibald Prize. Three years later, he won the Claude Hotchin prize.</p> <p>These would be among the few accolades he would collect in the art world. In truth, he was never really recognised by his peers.</p> <p>The Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth, from where he hailed, never added any of his artworks to its collection.</p> <p>Harris rose to prominence primarily as a children’s entertainer and then later as an all-round television presenter. There is a generation of Australians and Britons who grew up transfixed to their TV sets as Harris transformed blank canvases into paintings and cartoons in the space of just 30 minutes.</p> <p>His creativity also extended to music. He played the didgeridoo and his own musical creation, “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wobble_board">the wobble board</a>”. He topped the British charts in 1969 with the single Two Little Boys. However, he is probably more famous for the song Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport.</p> <p>Perhaps the ultimate recognition came in 2005, when he was invited to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Majesty_Queen_Elizabeth_II_%E2%80%93_An_80th_Birthday_Portrait">paint Queen Elizabeth II</a>. His audience with the queen was filmed for a BBC documentary starring Harris. His portrait of her majesty briefly adorned the walls of Buckingham Palace, before being displayed in prominent British and Australian galleries.</p> <h2>Criminal conviction and the quick retreat from his art</h2> <p>In 2014, Harris was found guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault against three complainants, aged 15, 16 and 19 years at the times of the crimes. These incidents occurred between 1978 and 1986.</p> <p>Before sentencing Harris to five years and nine months imprisonment, the sentencing judge <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/the-full-statement-from-the-judge-who-sentenced-rolf-harris-to-jail-20140704-3bee0.html">commented</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>You took advantage of the trust placed in you, because of your celebrity status, to commit the offences […] Your reputation now lies in ruins.</p> </blockquote> <p>What followed was a public retreat from his artwork.</p> <p>It is worth asking why this was the public response, when the subject matter of his artwork was innocuous and unremarkable. Among his visual artworks were portraits and landscapes. None of them depicted anything particularly offensive or controversial.</p> <p>Nevertheless, many of those who owned his works felt the need to dissociate themselves with Harris. His portrait of the queen <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-28105318">seemed to vanish</a> into thin air. In the wake of his convictions, no one claimed to know of its whereabouts.</p> <p>Harris had also painted a number of permanent murals in Australia. Many these were <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/rolf-harris-mural-in-caulfield-to-be-painted-over-20140706-zsy3n.html">removed</a> or <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-06/rolf-harris-mural-on-theatre-survives-vote-for-destruction/9518358">permanently obscured</a>.</p> <h2>The roles of guilt and disgust</h2> <p>Guilt seems to play a <a href="https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:d3f7264">prominent role</a> in explaining why owners remove such artworks from display.</p> <p>Art is inherently subjective and so it necessarily forces the beholder to inquire into the artist’s meanings. When an artist is subsequently convicted of a crime, it is perhaps natural to wonder whether their art bore signs that there was something untoward about them.</p> <p>Some artists even promote this way of thinking. In fact, Harris authored a book entitled <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2883465-looking-at-pictures-with-rolf-harris">Looking at Pictures with Rolf Harris: A Children’s Introduction to Famous Paintings</a>.</p> <p>In it, he wrote:</p> <blockquote> <p>You can find out a lot about the way an artist sees things when you look at his paintings. In fact, he is telling us a lot about himself, whether he wants to or not.</p> </blockquote> <p>When facing the artwork of a convicted criminal, our subjective feelings of guilt persist because we have, in some tiny way, shared a role in their rise and stay as an artist. This makes it difficult to overcome the feeling that the artwork contains clues to the artist’s criminality. We can also feel guilty deriving pleasure from a piece of art whose maker caused others great pain.</p> <p>Disgust also plays a central role in our retreat from the criminal’s artwork.</p> <p>Disgust is a powerful emotion that demands we withdraw from an object whose mere presence threatens to infect or invade our bodily integrity.</p> <p>Related to disgust is a anthropological theory known as the “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-xpm-2014-feb-24-la-sci-sn-price-of-fame-celebrity-contact-boosts-value-of-objects-20140222-story.html">magical law of contagion</a>”. An offensive person leaves behind an offensive trace that continues to threaten us. It is not based on reason but instinct.</p> <p>In essence, the criminal has left their “negative” traces on their artwork.</p> <p>This explains why Harris’ paintings, although of innocuous images, suddenly became eyesores and their market value dropped. Owners of such artwork might also feel compelled to show their disgust openly, to publicly extricate themselves from the artist.</p> <p>No one wants to be seen to condone the behaviour of a sexual offender.</p> <p>Even after his death, Harris’ artwork will continue to stand as reminders of his criminal acts.</p> <p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call <a href="https://www.1800respect.org.au">1800RESPECT</a> on 1800 737 732. In an emergency call 000.<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/206282/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></em></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gregory-dale-1441894">Gregory Dale</a>, Lecturer, TC Beirne School of Law, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</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/even-after-his-death-rolf-harris-artwork-will-stand-as-reminders-of-his-criminal-acts-206282">original article</a>.</em></p>

Art

From radical to reactionary: the achievements and legacy of the influential artist John Olsen

<p>After media outlets breathlessly described the late John Olsen as a “<a href="https://fb.watch/jSdCoR-2GN/">genius</a>”, I found myself humming The Chasers’ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXHleozgQ18">Eulogy Song</a>. </p> <p>This is perhaps a bit unfair, but the hyperbole surrounding Olsen’s death seems to have crowded out any assessment of his real and lasting achievements as an artist. There is a danger here. </p> <p>Hyperbole invites a reaction, which is not always kind. It is still hard to have a dispassionate discussion on the merits (and otherwise) of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/from-the-archives-1969-norman-lindsay-dies-20191112-p539sa.html">Norman Lindsay</a>, an artist often called a genius in his lifetime.</p> <h2>John Olsen and Australian art</h2> <p>To understand Olsen, and his importance to Australian art, it is important to give some context. He emerged from that generation of Australians whose childhood was coloured by the deprivations of the second world war, and whose adolescent experience was of an expanding, changing Australia. </p> <p>War meant that he finished school as a boarder at St Josephs Hunters Hill, while his father fought in the Middle East and New Guinea and his mother and sister moved to Yass in rural New South Wales.</p> <p>His ability to draw meant that he escaped the tedium of a clerical job by becoming a freelance cartoonist while moving between a number of different art schools, including Julian Ashtons, Dattilo Rubio, East Sydney Tech and <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/orban-desiderius-dezso-14658">Desiderius Orban</a>’s studio. As with other young artists of his generation, he was especially influenced by the experimental approach and intellectual rigour of <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/passmore-john-richard-15023">John Passmore</a>.</p> <p>He found visual stimulation in <a href="https://www.carlplate.com/">Carl Plate</a>’s Notanda Gallery in Rowe Street, a rare source of information on modern art at the time. Rowe Street was the creative hub for many artists, writers and serious drinkers who later became known as “The Push”. The informal exposure to new ideas on art, literature, food, wine and great conversation was more effective than a university. He learned about Kandinsky, Klee, the beauty of a wandering line, the poetry of Dylan Thomas and T.S. Eliot.</p> <p>Olsen’s first media exposure was as the spokesman for art students protesting at the rigid conservatism of the trustees judging the <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18514782?searchTerm=John%20Olsen%20art%20student%20National%20Art%20Gallery">Archibald Prize</a>. There were no complaints about the Wynne Prize, which had exhibited his work.</p> <h2>The ‘first’ Australian exhibition of Abstract Expressionism</h2> <p>The friendship between Olsen and fellow artists William Rose, Robert Klippel, Eric Smith and their mentor John Passmore, led to the exhibition <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/ARC409.1.147/">Direction 1</a> in December 1956. </p> <p>An art critic’s over enthusiasm led to it being proclaimed as the first Australian exhibition of Abstract Expressionism, and its artists as pioneers of modern art. As a consequence, Robert Shaw, a private collector, paid for Olsen to travel and study in Europe. This was a transformational gift, coming at a time before Australia Council Grants, when travel was expensive.</p> <p>He travelled first to Paris, then Spain where he based himself in Majorca and supported himself by working as an apprentice chef. The fluid approach to learning he had acquired in Sydney was enhanced in Spain. He saw, and appreciated the <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/t/tachisme">Tachiste</a>artists, but took his own path, remembering always Paul Klee’s dictum that a drawing is “taking a line for a walk”.</p> <p>That Spanish experience was distilled in the exuberant works he painted after his return to Sydney in 1960. <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/OA29.1960.a-c/">Spanish Encounter</a>paid tribute to the impact of this culture that continued to intrigue him, its energy and its apparent irrationality. </p> <p>But he also found himself enjoying the “honest vulgarity” he found in the Australian ethos, leading to a series of paintings which incorporated the words <a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/6124/">you beaut country</a> in their title. Olsen’s confident paintings of the 1960s easily place him as the most influential Australian artist of that decade.</p> <h2>Five Bells and landscape</h2> <p>In 1972, Olsen was commissioned to paint a giant mural for the foyer of the concert hall at the Sydney Opera House. <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/archived/booksandarts/my-salute-to-five-bells:-john-olsen/6721222">Salute to Five Bells</a> takes its name from Kenneth Slessor’s poem of death on the Harbour, but is more about elements of subterranean harbour life. </p> <p>The heroic scale of the work meant that he worked with a number of assistants to paint the dominant blue ground. When the mural was unveiled in 1973, it received a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/archived/booksandarts/my-salute-to-five-bells:-john-olsen/6721222">mixed response</a>. It was too muted in tone to cope with the Opera House lighting, too sparse in content, too decorative.</p> <p>In the following years, Olsen turned towards painting the Australian landscape and the creatures that inhabited it. In 1974, he visited Lake Eyre as the once dry giant salt lake flooded to fill with abundant life. He made paintings, drawings and prints of the abundance – both intimate views and overviews from flying over. Lake Eyre and its environs was to be a recurring motif in the art of his later years.</p> <p>While these works were commercially successful, and many were acquired by public galleries, Olsen was no longer seen as being in the avant garde. He was, however, very much a part of the art establishment and his art was widely collected.</p> <h2>A man of his generation</h2> <p>The aerial perspective of many of his later decorative paintings could seem to have echoes of Aboriginal art. Indeed, when the young <a href="https://abdulabdullah.com/home.html">Abdul Abdullah</a> first saw Olsen’s paintings in 2009 he at first assumed Olsen was an Aboriginal artist. </p> <p>It was therefore a surprise to many when in 2017 Olsen mounted a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/john-olsen-says-archibald-prize-win-is-the-worst-decision-ive-ever-seen-20170728-gxl4ze.html">trenchant attack</a> on the Wynne Prize after it was awarded to Betty Kunitiwa Pumani for Antara, a painting of her mother’s country.</p> <p>Despite some visual similarities to his own approach to landscape he claimed her painting existed in “a cloud cuckoo land”. In the same interview, he attacked Mitch Cairns’ Archibald-winning portrait of his wife, Agatha Gothe-Snape, as “just so bad”.</p> <p>While it is not unusual for the radical young to become enthusiastic reactionaries in prosperous old age, there was a particular lack of grace in Olsen’s response to artists who were not a part of his social circle or cultural background. He was in this very much a man of his generation, with attitudes and prejudices that reflect the years of his youth. </p> <p>Looking at Olsen’s paintings of the 1950s and ‘60s is a reminder that there was a time in Australia when brash young men could prove their intellectual credentials by quoting Dylan Thomas while making a glorious multi-coloured paella in paint.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-radical-to-reactionary-the-achievements-and-legacy-of-the-influential-artist-john-olsen-203677" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Art

"Your legacy lives on”: Outpouring of love from Bindi Irwin

<p>Bindi Irwin has shared an emotional tribute to her late father, Aussie icon Steve Irwin, celebrating what would have been his 61st birthday.</p> <p>Bindi expressed her gratitude to her dad for sharing his love of animals with her and younger brother Robert.</p> <p>“Happy Birthday, Dad,” she captioned an image on instagram, posting a photo of herself as a little girl with Steve, who is holding a small reptile.</p> <p>“Thank you for instilling a love for all species, courage to follow my heart and determination to make a difference in the world for wildlife and wild places.</p> <p>“Your legacy lives on and the world is forever changed because of your dedication to conservation.</p> <p>“Mum, Robert and I love and miss you so much.”</p> <p>People flooded the comments with kind words and appreciation for the Crocodile Hunter.</p> <p>Actress Emma Perry commented, “What a blessing he gave to this world and what an honour to continue that legacy, happy birthday to your amazing Dad!</p> <p>“Happy birthday to your daddy. He was a true inspiration to all of us,” another user wrote.</p> <p>“A hugely missed man, a tragedy he was taken so young, but it’s so inspiring to see his message and work carried on through his family,” a fan added.</p> <p>Terri Irwin took to social media to pay tribute to her late husband as well, leaving a simple message on Twitter, “Happy birthday, Steve,”</p> <p>“You did good.”</p> <p>Terri also shared an old picture of herself and Steve with a young Bindi and baby Robert, alongside a recent photo of the family all grown-up, showing Robert, Bindi and her husband Chandler and their daughter Grace.</p> <p>Robert Irwin, also paid tribute to his dad, sharing an image of Steve holding him as a baby with little Bindi watching on paired with the caption “Happy Birthday Dad”.</p> <p>“So much love,” Bindi commented on her brother’s post.</p> <p>“I will never forget the day Robert was born and Steve proudly held him up to the camera,” one fan reminisced.</p> <p>“He was so proud of his wife, Robert and Bindi ... He would have been even more so today.”<br />“Happy birthday to the man who made me fall in love with reptiles! We love and miss you so much!” wrote another.</p> <p>Steve Irwin was born on February 22, 1962, and passed away on September 4, 2006, at age 44, after a stingray barb pierced him in the chest while he was filming on the Great Barrier Reef.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

“A legacy larger than life”: Robert Irwin shares rare snap in emotional tribute

<p>Robert Irwin shared a touching tribute to his parents on the 31st anniversary of their engagement. </p> <p>The 19-year-old shared an old photo of Terri and the late Steve to Instagram, where both Irwins can be seen smiling in the sun, with Steve in his iconic khakis and Terri with a lizard in her hand. </p> <p>“It was on this day 31 years ago that my parents got engaged and set in motion what would become a legacy larger than life,” Robert captioned the image, “I love my mum and dad so much… I’m proud to be their son”.</p> <p>In three days, the post has amassed over 1,200 comments from fans eager to share their love and support for the Irwins. </p> <p>“And they're proud to call you their son!” One fan declared, scattering a couple of yellow hearts throughout, “this legacy will continue on for millennia … The real warriors of our world are you guys''.</p> <p>“I’m sure you make them both so so so proud!” One follower agreed, “you are them and they are you. You have honoured your father’s legacy, Robert.”</p> <p>“Your dad was the reason I love animals and have adopted them throughout my life and the respect I have for nature. Truly a one of a kind human,” wrote another.</p> <p>One noted on the likeness of Robert and his sister, Bindi, to their parents, writing, “you can see by this photo that Bindi is just her father and Robert is Terri when they were young.”</p> <p>Terri and Steve were married in 1992, and launched the worldwide phenomenon The Crocodile Hunter in 1996. Footage filmed during their honeymoon was used for the first episode of the show. The couple were blessed with Bindi in 1998 and Robert in 2003, before Steve tragically lost his life to a stingray in 2006. </p> <p>Terri, Robert, and Bindi have dedicated their lives to keeping Steve’s memory alive and continuing his legacy through their conservation work at home in Australia Zoo - the same zoo founded by Steve’s father, Bob Irwin. </p> <p>“Your dad would be beyond proud of the hard work you do to keep his legacy alive,” one of Robert’s 3.6 million followers stated, with many liking the shared sentiment. </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/CoLLmWfPekc/?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/CoLLmWfPekc/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Robert Irwin (@robertirwinphotography)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Another referenced the late Steve’s own words in their comment for Robert, writing, “as your dad always said: ‘Everything I do in my life I do to make my mum and dad proud. I want to carry on in my dad's footsteps and make sure that his legacy lives on forever’”. </p> <p>As Robert himself told <em>Esquire Middle East </em>in 2017, “I hope in every aspect of my life that I can make him proud, and make sure that his message never dies.”</p> <p>If Robert’s latest tribute is anything to go by, the young Irwin is not only keeping that dream alive, but also close to his heart. </p> <p><em>Image: Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

What will be your legacy?

<p>Maybe you’ve never thought about it, but how you’ll be remembered, and who you’ll be remembered by will be determined by the legacy you’ll leave. If you want your life to count then why leave it to chance when your legacy can be planned and purposeful, and in doing so, establish a firm foundation which generations can build upon?</p> <p>The mistakes of generations-past will be repeated by generations-future up until someone has the vision and determination to derive a different outcome. If not you, then who?</p> <p><strong>A legacy framework</strong></p> <p>Let’s play a game: what’s a word – just one word – you’d like others to use that encapsulates how you’d like to be remembered after you’re gone? For instance, assuming your name was Bobby, imagine a friend at your funeral saying “You know, I always found Bobby to be so…” </p> <p>It might be loving, or honest, or faithful, or sincere or any number of things. Now ask yourself this: "Is how I’m living congruent with how I want to be remembered?" If it is, great. If it isn’t, will you change while you still have time?</p> <p>If you’re interested in being organised and purposeful in leaving a legacy, consider this: your legacy is the summary of your deeds, which is the summary of your actions, which is the summary of your intentions. If you want to leave a bigger legacy then start by being purposeful with your intentions, impactful with your actions, and altruistic with your deeds.</p> <p><strong>Largesse</strong></p> <p>Your largesse is the way and extent to which you distribute money or gifts upon others. Largesse may be, but doesn’t necessarily have to be, financial. To be significant, largesse must be predominantly selfless. Any contribution to humanity that results in a gift qualifies, which is why the largesse of the likes of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa remain significant.</p> <p>Perhaps the ripples of the contribution you leave won’t be as large or as wide as those of Mother Teresa, but that doesn’t make your effort any less important or less worthy. Many small things done well are usually far better than a few great things done poorly. But remember, a selfless act can’t be called so if there are selfish ambitions behind it. Selfish largesse is rarely remembered beyond one generation or is remembered for the wrong reasons like the legacy of any historical tyrant you care to mention whose selfishness caused the death of countless innocent lives.</p> <p><strong>Remembering Nobel</strong></p> <p>Alfred Nobel was a controversial figure for much of this life, and while his inventions improved the industrialised world, he was not universally loved. His work improving military explosives resulted in him being accused of high treason. Upon his death, Nobel bequeathed 94 per cent of his estate be converted into a fund and invested in safe securities, with the income earned from those investments to be ‘distributed annually in the form of prizes to those who during the preceding year have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind’.</p> <p>Why did Nobel perform such a generous act? No-one knows for sure but one possibility is that a French journalist, upon mistakenly reporting his death, eulogised Nobel as a ‘merchant of death’. Reportedly appalled, Nobel shifted his focus to philanthropy and used his fortune to create a legacy to further, not frustrate, humanity. Today, Nobel is revered for his substantial and ongoing contribution to the promotion of peace—a legacy of significance funded by his significant wealth.</p> <p><strong>Do-Doing-Done</strong></p> <p>How do you leave a legacy? First you’ll need to cast a vision for how you want to be remembered. Thereafter every thought and every action in every hour of every day is an opportunity to make a legacy deposit by acting congruently, or legacy withdrawal by acting incongruently, with your vision. </p> <p>The bigger your legacy balance, the more impactful your legacy will be.</p> <p>The trick is to remain persistently consistent with cycling through your intentions (what you want to do), your actions (what you’re doing), and your accomplishments (what you’ve done). Doing so will build momentum and scale. </p> <p>My old high school motto was Spectumer Agendo. It is Latin and means ‘By their deeds they shall be known.’ What are your deeds, and how will you be known? If you want your life to count, do more things that count! Don’t be consumed with petty people or petty matters. Remained focussed on the things you can control. </p> <p><strong>Greek Proverb</strong></p> <p>Here’s a Greek proverb that caught my attention recently: wise men plant trees under whose shade others will sit. This is a beautiful phrase that captures the notion of sowing a blessing today for others tomorrow; a lovely way to capture the concept of legacy. I might have taken the proverb a little too literally because etched on my heart is a vision to return the 600 hectares of land I purchased back in 2018 into a permanent multi-species native forest. If you don’t have your own legacy project on the go and rehabilitating environments, restoring damaged ecosystems or renewing habitat for wildlife is something you care about, you’re welcome to join with me, my family and others as we change the world one tree at a time. Find out more at www.TreeChange.com</p> <p>Will your legacy be a burden or a blessing? It’s not too late to decide, or change if you aren’t happy with the current situation. </p> <p><strong>Edited extract from Steve McKnight’s <em>Money Magnet: How to Attract and Keep a Fortune that Counts</em> (Wiley $32.95), now available at all leading retailers or online at www.moneymagnet.au</strong></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

Mind

Clothes women wanted to wear: a new exhibition explores how Carla Zampatti saw her designs as a tracker of feminism

<p>The late Carla Zampatti is celebrated in a splendid retrospective Zampatti Powerhouse at the Powerhouse Museum. Planned well before the fashion designer’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-carla-zampatti-pioneered-wearable-yet-cosmopolitan-clothes-for-women-and-became-a-fashion-icon-158377">untimely death</a> last year, the unveiling of her legacy will be bittersweet to her many fans. </p> <p>Zampatti is often referred to as “Carla” by friends and those who worked for her, rather than her brand name, Carla Zampatti. Here, the simple name “Zampatti” removes the emphasis from Zampatti as designer to a simpler assertion: businesswoman, mother, philanthropist-entrepreneur. </p> <p>It is a move as deft and elegant as the rest of the exhibition choices. </p> <p>In one of the best-looking fashion exhibition designs Australia has seen, creative director Tony Assness serves up a dynamic vision of clothes punctuated by a vibrant red (one of Zampatti’s favourite design choices) that encourages excitement and discovery. Clothes are arranged by themes – jumpsuit, jungle, graphic, blouson, power – rather than date.</p> <p>Curator Roger Leong leverages his years of experience to do a relatively new thing for Australian museums: tell the stories of clothes through the stories of women who wore them.</p> <h2>A migrant story</h2> <p>Zampatti’s story is an Australian migrant story. Born Maria Zampatti in Italy in 1938 (not 1942, as is often believed), she did not meet her father, who had migrated to Fremantle, until she was 11. </p> <p>In Australia, she was forced to change her name to Mary. It was claimed the other kids could not pronounce Maria. She did not finish school. When she moved to Sydney in her late 20s, she reinvented herself as Carla.</p> <p>The fashion business started on a kitchen table in 1965 under the label ZamPAtti. By 1970, Carla had bought out her business partner husband, and was sole owner of Carla Zampatti Pty Ltd. </p> <p>Zampatti flourished in fashion. She had a finger on the pulse, was in the right place at the right time, and knew a more glamorous role was possible for a fashion designer than the industry “rag trader”.</p> <p>In the 1970s, the markets suggested that the ultra-expensive haute couture was about to disappear, to be replaced by informal ranges created by a new type of designer often called a “stylist”. It was the decade of flower power, retro dressing and ethnic borrowings.</p> <p>Until the 1960s, fashion had been dominated by the rise of haute couture and the “dictator-designer” system – mainly men who determined hem lengths and silhouettes for women. But in 1973, the French body governing high fashion added a new layer of designers, créateurs (literally “creators” or designers), who produced only ready-to-wear. </p> <p>In 1972 Zampatti opened her first Sydney boutique, inspired by informal shops she had seen in St Tropez. Zampatti offered women bright jumpsuits, art deco looks and peasant-inspired ease.</p> <p>She aimed to provide women clothes they wanted to wear. She draped the cloth and colours on herself. Like many women designers historically, she was alert to how her clothes made women customers look and feel. Zampatti remained the fit model for the whole range and would not produce anything in which she did not look and feel well. </p> <p>Zampatti saw her “clothes as a tracker of feminism”.</p> <p>The 1980s cemented Zampatti’s rise to prominence. She became a household name, even designing a car for women. In this time, personal expression became more important than unified looks dictated by designers. Zampatti’s Australian designing coincided with a new development in Italy: the stylisti. Small, focused family businesses alert to the zeitgeist and understanding quality flourished. It was an approach that emphasised quality and glamour. </p> <p>Zampatti identified talent. She employed well-known couturier Beril Jents on the shop floor after she had fallen on hard times. She then employed Jents to improve the cut of her designs. </p> <p>Zampatti continued to embrace the services of stylists and other designers including Romance was Born, whom she recognised could take her work to the next level.</p> <h2>The stories of clothes</h2> <p>Worn equally by politicians and their circles on the right and the left, Zampatti injected more than power dressing into women’s wardrobes. She inspired a sense that women wore the clothes, not the clothes them. </p> <p>In this exhibition we are given many examples, from Linda Burney’s red pantsuit worn for her parliamentary portrait to a gown worn by Jennifer Morrison to the White House.</p> <p>The exhibition viewer can turn from serried ranks of brilliantly styled mannequins and enter large “listening pods”, screening brilliantly edited videos in the manner of artist Bill Viola. The women, who include Dame Quentin Bryce and Ita Buttrose, discuss the creative mind of Zampatti or reflect on their own Zampatti wardrobe. They are amongst the best such “talking heads” I have seen in a museum.</p> <p>Like many designers, Zampatti was not that interested in her own past. She did not keep substantial archives and records, which is a testament to the skills demonstrated by the museum in bringing us this show. </p> <p>Zampatti never turned her back on her personal story, but she was a futurist, one who looked forward rather than backward.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/clothes-women-wanted-to-wear-a-new-exhibition-explores-how-carla-zampatti-saw-her-designs-as-a-tracker-of-feminism-194040" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

Beauty & Style

Australia Zoo insider claims Bindi Irwin never wanted to follow her father's footsteps

<p>An insider at Australia Zoo has claimed that Bindi Irwin never wanted to follow in the footsteps of her late father. </p> <p>Justin Lyons, a cameraman who was there the day Steve Irwin died from a stingray attack in 2006, said in a recent interview that Australia Zoo is almost "cult-like" with Steve's imagery looming everywhere, reminding him of the day the original wildlife warrior died. </p> <p>Among his stunning revelations, he claims the now 24-year-old Bindi initially "didn't really want" to follow in her famous dad's footsteps.</p> <p>"Bindi and I spent a lot of time together," Justin told <a href="https://www.nowtolove.com.au/celebrity/celeb-news/bindi-irwin-carries-on-steve-legacy-75512" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Woman's Day</a>. "We'd go up to Far North Queensland and while they were doing whatever, Bindi and I would go off. She'd say to me, 'I don't really like bugs', but she was expected to do all this crazy stuff."</p> <p>The allegations are a far cry from Bindi's own words, given that in 2018 she told Insider, "Ever since I can remember, I've always said, 'When I grow up, I want to be just like Dad.'"</p> <p>However, some sources close to the Irwin family say there "may be a layer of truth" to Justin's comments. </p> <p>"She couldn't have predicted it back when she was a little kid wandering around the bush with Justin, but the reality is Bindi is in a tough position," says an insider. </p> <p>"She was a big star for a time in America and for a while it looked like she was set to break the big time in Hollywood, but now she's back at the zoo learning the ropes to take over when her mother retires, and as it is currently, its glory days are long over."</p> <p>The insider claimed Bindi feels torn between two worlds, as she strives to make her parents proud with her ongoing work at Australia Zoo, but also the pull back to the US, where she has the potential to make a name for herself in her husband Chandler Powell's home country.</p> <p>"Bindi and Chandler have often toyed with the idea of moving to the States, especially now they have baby Grace, and they've barely seen Chandler's parents in recent years," says a source.</p> <p>"But Bindi feels tied to the zoo, whether she wants to be or not."</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Family & Pets

How Olivia Newton-John’s legacy lives on

<p dir="ltr">The news of <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/health/caring/honouring-dame-olivia-newton-john" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dame Olivia Newton-John’s death</a> at the age of 73 rocked the world following an extremely brave fight against breast cancer.</p> <p dir="ltr">For almost 30 years, Olivia pushed through several treatments and even founded the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in 2012 to help others who were in the same boat.</p> <p dir="ltr">Her heartbreaking death surrounded by family has just proven how powerful her voice was in the treatment for breast cancer.</p> <p dir="ltr">Diagnosed at the age of 44 in 1992, Olivia’s fight was exactly that: a constant battle to ensure she pushed through her cancer treatments.</p> <p dir="ltr">Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre is part of Austin Health which has seen incredible breakthroughs because of the late <em>Grease</em> star.</p> <p dir="ltr">The chief executive of Austin Health, Adam Horsburgh said without Olivia, the centre would not exist.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Without her drive and her commitment, the centre would not be here,” he told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/aug/09/this-was-her-dream-olivia-newton-johns-legacy-lives-on-at-cancer-research-centre" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Guardian</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“And her ongoing support over many years has ensured the success of the centre.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It has enabled us to provide care and support to thousands of patients over the past 10 years.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Todd Harper, the chief executive of Cancer Council Victoria said if it weren’t for Olivia’s determination, research would not be where it is today.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Olivia was a pioneer in the cancer field and her work provided inspiration for many,” he said in a statement.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Her advocacy enabled the work of dedicated scientists advancing scientific discoveries and offered hope to many affected by a cancer diagnosis.</p> <p dir="ltr">“She led the focus on wellness and the importance of physical, emotional and spiritual support not only for the person going through a cancer diagnosis but their carers, families and friends.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Olivia’s impact can’t be overstated, and her legacy will continue in the work of world-leading research, treatment and care.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The ONJ centre first opened in June 2012 and is currently involved with about 200 clinical trials for a variety of cancers, including brain, bowel, breast, melanoma, gastrointestinal, head and neck, pancreatic, prostate and lung cancer</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/ChAntToP_D0/?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/ChAntToP_D0/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Olivia Newton-John (@therealonj)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The news of Olivia’s passing was announced by her husband on Instagram via his late wife’s account, and included an appeal to continue her good works in the field of cancer research:</p> <p dir="ltr">“Dame Olivia Newton-John (73) passed away peacefully at her Ranch in Southern California this morning, surrounded by family and friends. We ask that everyone please respect the family’s privacy during this very difficult time,” he wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Her healing inspiration and pioneering experience with plant medicine continues with the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, dedicated to researching plant medicine and cancer. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any donations be made in her memory to the @onjfoundation."</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

Caring

Goodbye Internet Explorer. You won’t be missed (but your legacy will be remembered)

<p>After 27 years, Microsoft has finally bid farewell to the web browser Internet Explorer, and will redirect Explorer users to the latest version of its Edge browser.</p> <p>As of June 15, Microsoft ended support for Explorer on several versions of Windows 10 – meaning no more productivity, reliability or security updates. Explorer will remain a working browser, but won’t be protected as new threats emerge.</p> <p>Twenty-seven years is a long time in computing. Many would say this move was long overdue. Explorer has been long outperformed by its competitors, and years of poor user experiences have made it the butt of many internet jokes.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Someone built a real tombstone of Internet Explorer in Korea. "He was a good tool to download other browsers." <a href="https://t.co/42vnkoQshd">https://t.co/42vnkoQshd</a> <a href="https://t.co/ud3SMiyLNp">pic.twitter.com/ud3SMiyLNp</a></p> <p>— Soonson Kwon (@ksoonson) <a href="https://twitter.com/ksoonson/status/1536938327395680256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p><strong>How it began</strong></p> <p>Explorer was first introduced in 1995 by the Microsoft Corporation, and came bundled with the Windows operating system.</p> <p>To its credit, Explorer introduced many Windows users to the joys of the internet for the first time. After all, it was only in 1993 that Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the web, <a href="https://thenextweb.com/news/20-years-ago-today-the-world-wide-web-opened-to-the-public" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> the first public web browser (aptly called WorldWideWeb).</p> <p>Providing Explorer as its default browser meant a large proportion of Windows’s global user base would not experience an alternative. But this came at a cost, and Microsoft eventually faced multiple <a href="https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/strategy/microsoft-antitrust-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">antitrust investigations</a> exploring its monopoly on the browser market.</p> <p>Still, even though <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browsers/browser-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a number</a> of other browsers were around (including Netscape Navigator, which pre-dated Explorer), Explorer remained the default choice for millions of people up until around 2002, when Firefox was launched.</p> <p><strong>How it ended</strong></p> <p>Microsoft has released 11 versions of Explorer (with many minor revisions along the way). It added different functionality and components with each release. Despite this, it lost consumers’ trust due to Explorer’s “legacy architecture” which involved poor <a href="https://www.optimadesign.co.uk/blog/internet-explorer-end-of-life-or-not" target="_blank" rel="noopener">design and slowness</a>.</p> <p>It seems Microsoft got so comfortable with its monopoly that it let the quality of its product slide, just as other competitors were entering the battlefield.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">is Internet Explorer ever truly dead? <a href="https://t.co/KQGndprUxn">pic.twitter.com/KQGndprUxn</a></p> <p>— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1536687397798350849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 14, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p>Even just considering its cosmetic interface (what you see and interact with when you visit a website), Explorer could not give users the authentic experience of <a href="https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-fix-internet-explorer-pages-not-displaying-correctly" target="_blank" rel="noopener">modern websites</a>.</p> <p>On the security front, Explorer exhibited its <a href="https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-26/product_id-9900/Microsoft-Internet-Explorer.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fair share of weaknesses</a>, which cyber criminals readily and successfully exploited.</p> <p>While Microsoft may have patched many of these weaknesses over different versions of the browser, the underlying architecture is <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-security-iemode-safer-than-ie" target="_blank" rel="noopener">still considered vulnerable</a> by security experts. Microsoft itself has <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-security-iemode-safer-than-ie" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acknowledged</a> this:</p> <blockquote> <p>… [Explorer] is still based on technology that’s 25 years old. It’s a legacy browser that’s architecturally outdated and unable to meet the security challenges of the modern web.</p> </blockquote> <p>These concerns have resulted in the United States <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department for Homeland Security</a> repeatedly advising internet users against <a href="https://windowsreport.com/internet-explorer-security-issues/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">using Explorer</a>.</p> <p>Explorer’s failure to win over modern audiences is further evident through Microsoft’s ongoing attempts to push users towards Edge. Edge was first introduced in 2015, and since then Explorer has only been used as a compatibility solution.</p> <p><strong>What Explorer was up against</strong></p> <p>In terms of <a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share#monthly-202206-202206-bar" target="_blank" rel="noopener">market share</a>, more than 64% of browser users currently use Chrome. Explorer has dropped to less than 1%, and even Edge only accounts for about 4% of users. What has given Chrome such a leg-up in the browser market?</p> <hr /> <p><iframe class="flourish-embed-iframe" style="width: 100%; height: 600px;" title="Interactive or visual content" src="https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/10361649/embed" width="100%" height="400" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe></p> <div style="width: 100%!; margin-top: 4px!important; text-align: right!important;"><a class="flourish-credit" href="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/10361649/?utm_source=embed&utm_campaign=visualisation/10361649" target="_top"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/made_with_flourish.svg" alt="Made with Flourish" /> </a></div> <hr /> <p>Chrome was first introduced by Google in 2008, on the open source <a href="https://www.chromium.org/chromium-projects/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chromium project</a>, and has since been actively developed and supported.</p> <p>Being open source means the software is publicly available, and anyone can inspect the source code that runs behind it. Individuals can even contribute to the source code, thereby enhancing the software’s productivity, reliability and security. This was never an option with Explorer.</p> <p>Moreover, Chrome is multi-platform: it can be used in other operating systems such as Linux, MacOS and on mobile devices, and was supporting a range of systems long before Edge was even released.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Explorer has <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/zune-hd-no-youtube-in-the-browser-for-you/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mainly</a> been <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-supported-operating-systems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">restricted</a> to Windows, XBox and a few versions of MacOS.</p> <p><strong>Under the hood</strong></p> <p>Microsoft’s Edge browser is using the same <a href="https://www.chromium.org/chromium-projects/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chromium</a> open-source code that Chrome has used since its inception. This is encouraging, but it remains to be seen how Edge will compete against Chrome and other browsers to win users’ confidence.</p> <p>We won’t be surprised if Microsoft fails to nudge customers towards using Edge as their favourite browser. The latest stats suggest Edge is still far behind Chrome in terms of market share.</p> <p>Also, the fact Microsoft took seven years to retire Explorer after Edge’s initial release suggests the company hasn’t had great success in getting Edge’s uptake rolling.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469137/original/file-20220616-13070-5lnc2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469137/original/file-20220616-13070-5lnc2u.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/469137/original/file-20220616-13070-5lnc2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469137/original/file-20220616-13070-5lnc2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469137/original/file-20220616-13070-5lnc2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469137/original/file-20220616-13070-5lnc2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469137/original/file-20220616-13070-5lnc2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469137/original/file-20220616-13070-5lnc2u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="A screenshot of a Microsoft web page showing Internet Explorer has been retired." /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Only some Microsoft operating systems (mainly server platforms) will continue to receive security updates for Explorer under long-term support agreements.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p><strong>What’s next?</strong></p> <p>Web browsers play a vital role in establishing privacy and security for users. Design and convenience are important factors for users when selecting a browser. So ultimately, the browser that can most effectively balance security and ease of use will win users.</p> <p>And it’s hard to say whether Chrome’s current popularity will be sustained over time. Google will no doubt want it to continue, since web browsers are significant <a href="https://fourweekmba.com/how-does-mozilla-make-money/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revenue sources</a>.</p> <p>But Google as a corporation is becoming increasingly unpopular due to massive <a href="https://theconversation.com/google-is-leading-a-vast-covert-human-experiment-you-may-be-one-of-the-guinea-pigs-154178" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data gathering</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-google-getting-worse-increased-advertising-and-algorithm-changes-may-make-it-harder-to-find-what-youre-looking-for-166966" target="_blank" rel="noopener">intrusive advertising</a> practices. Chrome is a key component of Google’s data-gathering machine, so it’s possible users may slowly turn away.</p> <p>As for what to do about Explorer (if you’re one of the few people that still has it sitting meekly on your desktop) – simply <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/developer/browsers/installation/disable-internet-explorer-windows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">uninstall</a> it to avoid security risks.</p> <p>Even if you’re not using Explorer, just having it installed <a href="https://mashable.com/article/internet-explorer-hacker-windows-pc-exploit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">could present</a> a threat to your device. No one wants to be the victim of a cyber attack via a dead browser!</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">👋 Internet Explorer.</p> <p>Was one of the best subjects for memes, here's my favourite one from the collection. <a href="https://t.co/7T5u7jAB5C">pic.twitter.com/7T5u7jAB5C</a></p> <p>— Shruti Kaushik (@ShrutiKaushikIT) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShrutiKaushikIT/status/1537005145711472641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p><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/185130/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mohiuddin-ahmed-698936" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mohiuddin Ahmed</a>, Lecturer of Computing & Security, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/edith-cowan-university-720" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Edith Cowan University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/m-imran-malik-963778" target="_blank" rel="noopener">M Imran Malik</a>, Cyber Security Researcher, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/edith-cowan-university-720" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Edith Cowan University</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/paul-haskell-dowland-382903" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paul Haskell-Dowland</a>, Professor of Cyber Security Practice, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/edith-cowan-university-720" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Edith Cowan University</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/goodbye-internet-explorer-you-wont-be-missed-but-your-legacy-will-be-remembered-185130" target="_blank" rel="noopener">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

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