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Readers response: What was the worst hotel experience you had?

<p>We asked our readers to share their stories of the worst hotel experience that have endured while on holiday, and the response was overwhelming. Here's what they said. </p> <p><strong>Deedee Cullum</strong> - At a 5 star in Beijing. Arrived from the airport after 1am. Let into the room to find it occupied with someone having a bath. Instead of changing our room we waited in the lobby for 1 and 1/2 hours while they changed to the correct room and cleaned ours. The wet towels were neatly folded on the towel rack and the used soap was on the basin. When I turned the bedside light on I got a shock. To be fair management were most apologetic and gave us free dining in their top restaurant for the 4 days we were there. It was a few years ago but never forgotten.</p> <p><strong>Bruce Hopkins</strong> - I stopped at a Hotel in Hobart, arrived in the afternoon, checked out the next day, the whole time I stopped there, I never saw anyone on reception or any staff at all. Creepiest hotel I stayed in.</p> <p><strong>Carol Henwood</strong> - When we went to have a shower, and the towels disintegrated! The shower had black mould in all the corners. The carpet was so sticky, we kept our shoes on. We slept on top of the bed as the sheets were crumpled and smelly. What a night.</p> <p><strong>Sheila Kell </strong>- When my eldest son was about 2 years old we took a holiday to Shute Harbour in QLD and in middle of night we heard lots of scratching so turned on light and sat up in bed and there were hundreds of field mice crawling up walls and back of bed. They apparently were having a plague, but we dressed and left. Couldn't sleep in that motel.</p> <p><strong>Christine Warner</strong> - A country pub only option one night. Our room has no lock on the door, and there were gaps in the floorboards so we could see straight down to the bar where it was very noisy. We had already been warned of people breaking in to hotel and motel rooms in that region, so we slept in the car and returned to the room in the morning for a shower.</p> <p><strong>Helen Wilson</strong> - In Singapore, they gave us a “free” breakfast while someone rummaged through our belongings and took stuff.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock </em></p> <p><em> </em></p>

Travel Trouble

Dwayne Johnson's emotional moment with cancer-stricken fan

<p>A heartfelt moment between Hollywood actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and a fan battling stage 4 cancer has gone viral. </p> <p>While on a trip to Target in New Jersey, Johnson met a woman who shared candidly that she was facing stage 4 pancreatic cancer. </p> <p>Johnson greeted her warmly in the shop, “Good to see you, how are you feeling?”</p> <p>With a smile, the woman replied: “Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Can’t do anything about it.”</p> <p>Johnson then offered to take a photo with her, to which she responded, “I would love to.”</p> <p>As they posed together, the woman proudly declared, “I’m a warrior,” prompting Johnson to affirm, “You are a warrior,” before the woman joked that they looked alike since they both had no hair.</p> <p>Before he parted, she told Johnson: “We gotta keep fighting, fight fight fight.”</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCTEM7ixvm1/?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/DCTEM7ixvm1/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Dwayne Johnson (@therock)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The Rock then posted a video of the sweet moment to his Instagram, reflecting on the moment with the caption, "As frenzied, and chaotic as all this was - it hit me here just how unpredictable, yet beautiful life truly is."</p> <p>The video quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of likes, with many commenting words of support for the fan. </p> <p>"The Rock is the most humble guy ever," one person wrote, while another added, "You made that woman's day!"</p> <p><em>Image credits: Instagram </em></p>

Caring

Readers response: What’s the most interesting cultural experience you've had while travelling?

<p>When travelling abroad, we are often exposed to new and fascinating cultures that can open our eyes to different ways of life.</p> <p>We asked our readers to share the most interesting cultural experience they've had while travelling, and the response was overwhelming. Here's what they said.</p> <p><strong>Sandra Beckett</strong> - Staying overnight in a Ger in Mongolia miles from anywhere, listening to Throat singing accompanied by two traditionally dressed musicians playing Horsehead fiddles. Also, travelling across Russia by train, visiting the Galapagos islands, Skara Brae in the Orkneys, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.</p> <p><strong>Denise Ryan</strong> - Listening to glorious classical music played in Havana’s Plaza de la Catedral and attending a stunning performance of Swan Lake in the Grand Theatre of Havana.</p> <p><strong>Deedee Cullum</strong> - Visiting Ypres in Belgium and staying the night so we could see the evening ceremony at the Menin gate.</p> <p><strong>Alison Davenport</strong> - 50 years ago visiting a Fijian village made me realise everyone didn't live like I did. Have been amazed at all travel experiences since.</p> <p><strong>Glenn Turton</strong> - Staying in a farmhouse in Normandy for a week. Visiting D-Day beaches and Mont St Michel from there and local villages and markets on the days between. Back to the farmhouse each night to cook local produce and sit by an open fire.</p> <p><strong>Karen Psaila</strong> - Sitting in a small ally sipping black sweet tea in Egypt looking at the pyramids and sphinx whilst camels are strolling by. Amazing.</p> <p><strong>Patricia Watson</strong> - Darwin. Spending a day with First Nation Women and Children in the bush and learning about food that grows and is edible in that area.</p> <p><strong>James Langabeer</strong> - This are my three top three most interesting cultural experiences.</p> <p>1. Japan's Tea Ceremony: Attending a traditional tea ceremony in Kyoto, Japan, where I learned about the intricate rituals and Zen Buddhism's influence.</p> <p>2. Indian Holi Festival: Celebrating Holi, the Festival of Colors, in Mumbai, India, surrounded by vibrant colors, music, and joyful locals.</p> <p>3. Moroccan Hammam: Experiencing a traditional Moroccan bathhouse (hammam) in Marrakech, where I discovered local customs and relaxation techniques.</p> <p><strong>Margaret Mason</strong> - Staying for a couple of days in a small, traditional village in China.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock </em></p>

International Travel

Controversial suicide capsule applications suspended amid investigation

<p>Advocacy groups behind the suicide capsule have suspended the process of taking applications amid a criminal investigation into its first use in Switzerland. </p> <p>In a statement on Sunday, they said that 371 people were “in the process of applying” to use the device, known as the Sarco, as of September 23 and applications were suspended after its first use. </p> <p>The Sarco capsule is designed to allow the person inside to push a button that injects nitrogen gas from a tank underneath into the sealed chamber, allowing the person to fall asleep and then die of suffocation in a few minutes. </p> <p>On September 23, an unidentified 64-year-old woman from the US Midwest, became the first person to use the device in a forest in the northern Schaffhausen region. </p> <p>The president of Switzerland-based The Last Resort, Florian Willet, said at the time that the woman's death was "peaceful, fast, and dignified", although those claims could not be independently verified. </p> <p>On the same day as the woman's death, Swiss Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told parliament that use of the Sarco would not be legal.</p> <p>Willet and several others were taken into custody following her death and prosecutors opened an investigation on suspicion of incitement and accessory to suicide.</p> <p>Willet is currently being held in pretrial detention, according to The Last Resort and Exit International, an affiliate founded in Australia over a quarter-century ago. The others who were detained were released from custody. </p> <p>Exit International also clarified that their lawyers in Switzerland believed the use of the device is legal.</p> <p>“Only after the Sarco was used was it learned that Ms Baume-Schneider had addressed the issue,” the advocacy groups said in the statement Sunday.</p> <p>“The timing was a pure coincidence and not our intention.”</p> <p>Switzerland has some of the most permissive laws when it comes to assisted suicide, but the first use of the Sarco has prompted debate among lawmakers. </p> <p>Laws in the country permit assisted suicide, as long as the person takes their own life with no “external assistance” and those who help the person die do not do so for “any self-serving motive”. </p> <p><em>Image: Exit International</em></p> <p> </p>

Legal

World’s longest treasure hunt ends as Golden Owl finally unearthed in France

<p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">After more than three decades of mystery and intrigue, the world’s longest-running treasure hunt has come to a thrilling conclusion with the discovery of the elusive Golden Owl. Valued at approximately $240,000, the treasure had captivated the imaginations of thousands since it was first buried in France in the early 1990s.</span></p> <p>The hunt began with the publication of the now-famous book, <em>On the Trail of the Golden Owl</em>, written by communications expert Régis Hauser under the pseudonym “Max Valentin” and illustrated by artist Michel Becker. The 1993 book challenged readers to solve a series of intricate riddles and clues, which, when deciphered, would reveal the owl’s secret location.</p> <p>Despite years of painstaking attempts to crack the mystery, the Golden Owl remained hidden for decades, surviving even its creator. Hauser passed away in 2009, leaving the prize still buried. Michel Becker, who took over the management of the hunt, delivered the long-awaited news on October 3 via an online announcement that sparked a frenzy among treasure hunters: “A potential winning solution is currently being verified.”</p> <p>Two hours later, he confirmed: “Don’t go digging! We confirm that the Golden Owl countermark was unearthed last night.”</p> <p>The treasure hunt’s <a href="https://goldenowlhunt.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">official website was also updated with the announcement</a>, bringing an end to a search that has been both thrilling and, for some, overwhelming.</p> <p><strong>The obsession and madness behind the search</strong></p> <p>For over 30 years, the Golden Owl hunt transcended being just a hobby for many treasure hunters and became an all-consuming obsession. While some enjoyed it as a leisurely pursuit, others were driven to extreme lengths – financially, emotionally and mentally. The search for the owl has been linked to personal crises, including financial ruin and broken marriages. At least one individual reportedly ended up in an asylum due to their fixation on solving the hunt’s riddles.</p> <p>The toll wasn’t limited to individuals. Searchers caused considerable disruption across France, digging unauthorised holes in public and private lands. In one eastern French village, the local mayor was forced to plead with hunters to stop digging around its chapel, while in other cases, searchers brought power tools to banks and even considered destroying structures in the hopes of unearthing the treasure.</p> <p><strong>The Golden Owl’s elusive clues</strong></p> <p><em>On the Trail of the Golden Owl</em> contained a complex series of 11 riddles, each paired with a painting by Becker. The riddles, combined with maps, colours and hidden details, challenged readers to work out the owl’s hidden location.</p> <p>Before his death, Hauser revealed three crucial elements to solving the puzzle:</p> <p>The use of maps: Hunters needed to work with maps to narrow down the search area and use a specific map to pinpoint the final zone.</p> <p>A “mega trick”: This was the key to using the sequence of riddles to locate the final area where the owl was hidden.</p> <p>A final hidden riddle: Once in the final zone, hunters had to uncover one last riddle to lead them to the exact spot of the treasure.</p> <p><strong>Joyous celebration among treasure hunters</strong></p> <p>The treasure-hunting community was overjoyed when the news broke, with many expressing their disbelief and excitement. “Finally – liberated!” exclaimed one fan on the hunt’s Discord forum. Another added, “I didn’t think I’d live to see the day.”</p> <p>As of now, the exact location of the owl’s discovery and the identity of the finder remain undisclosed. However, Becker hinted at the complexity involved in concluding this monumental hunt. “Tons of emotions to manage for all those who are responsible for managing the end of this episode and complex logistics to put in place,” he said in a statement on October 6.</p> <p>For now, the Golden Owl, a treasure that has held a generation of sleuths in its grasp, has been unearthed. Yet, the fascination with its story will undoubtedly linger for years to come.</p> <p><em>Images/Illustrations: Michel Becker</em></p>

International Travel

Readers response: What's a pain you can't truly explain until you've endured it?

<p>When it comes to experiencing pain, many of us are used to hearing people say "I know how you feel" while they're empathising with your suffering. </p> <p>However, there are some kinds of pain - either physical or emotional - that cannot be understood until you experience them yourself.</p> <p>We asked our readers what pain you can't truly explain until you've endured it yourself, and the response was overwhelming. Here's what they said. </p> <p><strong>Anne Hare</strong> - Shingles! Absolutely excruciating. I seriously considered topping myself until I was finally prescribed Lyrica. Took five months to recover as misdiagnosed twice so antivirals prescribed too late. Have the shot!</p> <p><strong>Karen Ambrose</strong> - Childbirth. 15.5 hours of agony.</p> <p><strong>Annette Maree</strong> - Pain from a dying nerve in a tooth.</p> <p><strong>Royce Jowett</strong> - The worst pain is always the one you are currently experiencing, especially as you get older and forgetful.</p> <p><strong>Julia Santos</strong> - Hip pain is hard to explain how it affects your whole day. Even trying to sleep is an adventure. And sneezing while your hips are inflamed is always fun.</p> <p><strong>Betty Weller Edwards</strong> - Gallbladder stones. I would rather go through labor for 12 hours than have 4 hours off gallbladder pain.</p> <p><strong>Sandra Morris</strong> - The loss of your child. </p> <p><strong>Kevin Chapman</strong> - Chronic arthritis. The pain is 24/7, it never goes away.</p> <p><strong>Danny Bennett</strong> - Divorce. </p> <p><strong>Patricia White</strong> - Dislocated shoulder. </p> <p><strong>Jill Harker</strong> - A couple of bulging discs in my back!</p> <p><strong>Linda Charlton</strong> - Clot in the lungs, couldn't breathe thought I was having a heart attack in my 30's. Other than that, definitely childbirth.</p> <p><strong>George Dworcowyi </strong>- Back spasms after a 7 hour operation on my broken spine. </p> <p><strong>Maxine Cuevas</strong> - Losing two adult children at separate times.</p> <p><strong>Josephine Broughton</strong> - White tail spider bite.</p> <p><strong>Shelley Woolley</strong> - Ruptured ovarian cysts.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock </em></p>

Body

Readers response: What was your worst flying experience?

<p>When it comes to travelling by plane, some trips are better than others. </p> <p>While some people have a general fear of flying, others are traumatised from flights from hell that turn bumpy for a list of different reasons. </p> <p>We asked our readers to tell us about their worst flying experience, and the response was overwhelming. Here's what they said. </p> <p><strong>Lee Ayles</strong> - On a flight Melbourne to LA. No kidding, 8hrs of rocking and rolling the whole time. The lady sitting behind me had her rosary beads and praying non- stop, my daughter slept through the whole ordeal. The flight attendants were so helpful and put us at ease. Think I drank gin and tonics through the whole thing. Needless to say slept the next 4 hours before a great landing in LA.</p> <p><strong>Roz Weitenberg</strong> - Flying from Columbo (Sri Lanka) to the Maldives in a twin engine King Air 350. My husband was flying the airplane and we got caught up in a storm that was so intense, I really thought the poor little aircraft would break up. Even the Sri Lankan B777 ahead of us was going to turn back to Columbo. That was the worst flying experience I have ever had.</p> <p><strong>Anne Morrison</strong> - Last year flying Singapore to Johannesburg, South Africa and return (which was worse). So much turbulence the whole way I was actually sick, lady in front said "we're all going to die" and I thought so too. Absolutely frightening.</p> <p><strong>George Jan Cafcakis</strong> - Flying Qantas from Sydney to Dallas. Worst flight I have ever had. Tray broken, no screen and food and service nearly non existent. Disgusting, and the same on the way back. Never flown Qantas ever again.</p> <p><strong>Jim Janush</strong> - Flying from Budapest to Vilnius in 1993, during an electrical storm late at night. The lightning was very intense, seemed to be so close that it appeared all the planes interior lights were on.</p> <p><strong>Audrey Forrester</strong> - Flying out of Kununurra and the pilot forgot to put cap on fuel. We ran out and had to emergency land on Lake Argilewe, thankfully we were in a sea plane. </p> <p><strong>Lorraine Taylor </strong>- Singapore to Zurich with Swiss Air. The woman in front of me lowered her seat far back I was pinned in my seat. I asked the air hostess for help and she said there was nothing she could do. I couldn’t move for 8 hours and despite continually asking her to raise her seat she just laughed. Worst trip ever and I’ll never fly Swiss Air again.</p> <p><strong>Linda Sutherland</strong> - Looking out the window of the 747 over the Indian Ocean and watching the engine fall off.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</em></p>

Travel Trouble

Sam Neill moved to tears by simple question

<p>Sam Neill has unexpectedly broken down in tears over one question posed to him by a university student. </p> <p>The <em>Jurassic Park </em>actor was the surprise guest during the premiere of ABC's new series, <em>The Assembly, </em>based off the UK show which sees high-profile figures being interviewed by a class of university students who are all autistic. </p> <p>The students can ask whatever they want, and one student, Abby brought the actor to tears with her question. </p> <p>“What’s the best lesson you learned from your parents?” she asked. </p> <p>“Ooft, wow. That’s a really interesting question … A really, really interesting question,” Neill replied, before pausing as he began tearing up. </p> <p>“I don’t know why that question has moved me so much, but it has.”</p> <p>The actor then went on to explain that his parents were “of the generation that went through a lot” – including the Great Depression and World War One, in which his maternal grandfather was killed – leaving both his parents “very stoic”.</p> <p>“And I’d done a year of university and I’d done bugger all. I was acting in plays and trying to find a girlfriend, you know … so it came to exam time and I realised I’d done almost no work,” Neill recalled.</p> <p>“It got me very anxious. Anyway, I got home and Mum said, ‘How are you, darling?’ and I said, ‘I think I’m having a breakdown, I’ve got exams in a couple of weeks …’ and she just looked at me and said, ‘Well, you’re just going to have to pull yourself together’.”</p> <p>He continued: “And I think that’s the best lesson I learned from her. Sometimes you just have to pull yourself together. It’s a tough lesson, but a good one – and thank you for that question." </p> <p>Elsewhere during the interview, he also spoke candidly about his recent blood cancer battle, and while he is in remission after a year of chemotherapy, he still requires monthly treatments which he'll have to do for the rest of his life. </p> <p>One student asked him, "what motivated you to keep going, and did you have anyone supporting you through it?”</p> <p>He admitted that while it had been a "pretty brutal" process, he is grateful for all the treatments keeping him alive "and living is much better than the other thing.”</p> <p><em>Images: ABC</em></p>

Family & Pets

Woman “bullied” on plane over budget seating trick

<p dir="ltr">A young woman has recalled a flight from hell when she was “bullied” by a couple who were trying to utilise a seating hack that went viral on TikTok. </p> <p dir="ltr">The solo traveller took to Reddit to recount the story and ask social media users if she was in the wrong for her action. </p> <p dir="ltr">The woman began by saying she usually pays more to select her plane seat ahead of time, but a medical emergency on another plane had her waiting on standby and left with no option other than to sit in a middle seat.</p> <p dir="ltr">When she was finally able to board, she was greeted by a couple who had purchased both the window and aisle seats in a bid to have more space, utilising a travel “trick” that has been popular on TikTok.</p> <p dir="ltr">The method, which has been dubbed the 'poor man's business class', usually leaves travellers with an empty middle seat and more space, and few travellers opt to pick a middle seat. </p> <p dir="ltr">“When I got to my row the man and woman were chatting and sharing a snack... it was obvious they were together. I mentioned to the man that I'm in the middle, and he got up to let me in,” the unsuspecting traveller wrote on Reddit. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I asked them if they would prefer to sit together, I said I was totally okay with that. The woman reacted rudely to this and said ‘you're not supposed to be sitting here anyway’.”</p> <p dir="ltr">After noticing how the plane was full, she offered to show the pair her new ticket with the correct seat number on it.</p> <p dir="ltr">“She flicked her hand at my ticket and made a disgusted sound. I offered again if they wanted to sit together to which she didn't reply, her partner said it's okay and... made some small talk,” she continued. </p> <p dir="ltr">The man’s girlfriend then interrupted their conversation to ask,”'Did you use one of those third party websites to book your flight? It's so frustrating when people cheap out to inconvenience others.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The American woman explained that she had booked her flight directly and she had been placed on standby like everyone else and didn't choose the middle seat - she was assigned it.</p> <p dir="ltr">She then tried to keep the peace by refusing to engage with the furious woman. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I was so done with her attitude, I put my headphones on and attempted to do my own thing,” she explained.</p> <p dir="ltr">But the “entitled” girlfriend wasn't letting it go, as the woman explained, “This woman kept reaching over me and tapping her partner and trying to talk to him in a way that was super intrusive.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“I could tell even her partner was trying to engage her less so that she would hopefully stop, but she didn't.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“I think they tried to pull that tactic where they don't sit together on purpose...hoping no one will sit between them. But on full flights it doesn't work. And even so - it's not the other person's fault.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The traveller's post was met with hundreds of comments slamming the girlfriend’s behaviour, as one person wrote, “It's like a toddler having a tantrum.”</p> <p dir="ltr">“She was disappointed and a total a**hole. Gross entitled people,” another added. </p> <p dir="ltr">Another person applauded the traveller’s level-headed behaviour, writing, “Wow! You are my hero for keeping it classy - I’m afraid I would not have been as kind as you.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Shutterstock </em></p>

Travel Trouble

Trump's insult to Biden after he drops out of presidential race

<p>Joe Biden has officially withdrawn from the presidential race against former president Donald Trump. </p> <p>Biden, who is the oldest US president at 81, has been facing mounting calls to drop out of the election from both his opponents and supporters, amid fears of his failing health, mental clarity and age. </p> <p>On Sunday, the 46th president shared a lengthy statement to share that he would be dropping out of the race, saying it is "in the best interest" for both his Democratic Party and the country to take a step back. </p> <p>“While it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Mr Biden wrote in a letter he posted on his X account.</p> <p>“I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision. It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve as your President.”</p> <p>Biden shared a second announcement to social media following his bombshell withdrawal, saying he would be endorsing his Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee to run for President in the November election against Trump. </p> <p>"My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President, and it’s been the best decision I’ve made," he began.</p> <p>"Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this."</p> <p>Mere hours after Biden's announcement, former President Donald Trump reacted to the news on TRUTH social, his own social media platform, exactly as many expected. </p> <p>“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve — And never was!” Trump said.</p> <p>“All those around him, including his doctor and the media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t. We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly.”</p> <p>In a phone call with CNN minutes after Biden announced his exit from the 2024 race, former Trump described Biden as going “down as the single worst president by far in the history of our country”.</p> <p>Mr Biden will remain President until the end of his term next January.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Bonnie Cash / Pool via CNP/ Ron Sachs/CNP /Shutterstock Editorial </em></p>

News

Joe Biden has COVID. Here’s what someone over 80 can expect

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hassan-vally-202904">Hassan Vally</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a></em></p> <p>If US politics leading up to the 2024 presidential election was a Hollywood thriller, it would be a movie full of plot twists and surprises. The latest twist is President Joe Biden has <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/17/politics/joe-biden-tests-positive-covid-19/index.html">COVID</a> and is isolating at home.</p> <p><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/07/17/statement-from-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-3/">Biden’s doctor says</a> his symptoms are mild and include a runny nose, cough and generally feeling unwell. His temperature, oxygen levels and respiratory rate are said to be normal.</p> <p>Biden, who has <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cv2gj8314nqo">been diagnosed</a> with COVID twice before, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/07/17/statement-from-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-3/">has received</a> his COVID vaccine and booster shots, and has taken the first dose of the antiviral drug Paxlovid.</p> <p>No doubt, Biden will be receiving the best of medical care. Yet, as much <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-joe-biden-experiencing-cognitive-decline-heres-why-we-shouldnt-speculate-234487">recent media coverage</a> reminds us, he is 81 years old.</p> <p>So let’s look at what it means for an 81-year-old man to have COVID in 2024. Of course, Biden is not just any man, but we’ll come to that later.</p> <h2>Luckily, it’s not 2020</h2> <p>If we were back in 2020, a COVID diagnosis at this age would have been a big deal.</p> <p>This was a time before COVID vaccines, before specific COVID treatments and before we knew as much about COVID as we do today. Back then, being over 80 and being infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the virus that causes COVID) represented a significant threat to your health.</p> <p>It was very clear early in the pandemic that your chances of getting severe disease and dying <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-older-people-more-at-risk-of-coronavirus-133770">increased with age</a>. The early data suggested that if you were over 80 and infected, you had about a 15% likelihood of dying from the illness.</p> <p>Also, if you did develop severe disease, we didn’t have a lot in the toolkit to deal with your infection.</p> <p>Remember, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson <a href="https://theconversation.com/scott-morrison-has-covid-its-a-big-deal-but-not-how-you-think-178298">ended up in the ICU</a> with his COVID infection in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/17/boris-johnson-and-coronavirus-inside-story-illness">April 2020</a>, despite being 55 at the time. That’s a much younger age than Biden is now.</p> <p>Former US President Donald Trump also had what was understood to be a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/11/trump-coronavirus-ventilator-covid-illness">very severe case</a> of COVID in October 2020. He was 74 at the time.</p> <h2>How things have changed</h2> <p>So let’s wind the clock forward to 2024. A lot has happened in four years.</p> <p>COVID is still a disease that needs to be <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncird/whats-new/changing-threat-covid-19.html">taken seriously</a>. And for some people with other health conditions (for instance, people with heart disease or diabetes) it poses more of a threat. And of course we know more about the well-publicised <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-have-covid-how-likely-am-i-to-get-long-covid-218808">longer term effects</a> of COVID.</p> <p>But the threat COVID poses to an individual is far less now than it has ever been.</p> <h2>More of us have some immunity</h2> <p>First, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/03/who-estimates-90-of-world-have-some-resistance-to-covid">most people</a> have some immunity to COVID now, whether this has come from vaccination or prior infection, and for many both.</p> <p>The fact that your immune system has had some exposure to the virus is transformative in how you respond to infection. Yes, there’s the ongoing problem of waning immunity over time and the virus mutating meaning you need to have regular booster vaccines. But as your immune system has “seen” the virus before it allows it to respond more effectively. This means the threat posed by infection has fallen drastically.</p> <p>We know Biden has received his booster shots. Boosters have been shown to offer <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-the-new-covid-booster-vaccines-can-i-get-one-do-they-work-are-they-safe-217804">substantial protection</a> against severe illness and death and are particularly important for older age groups.</p> <h2>Now we have antivirals</h2> <p>Second, we also have antiviral medicines, such as Paxlovid, which is effective in reducing the likelihood of severe illness from COVID if taken soon after developing symptoms.</p> <p>In <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2118542">one study</a>, if taken soon after infection, Paxlovid reduced the likelihood of severe illness or death by 89%. So it is <a href="https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapies/antivirals-including-antibody-products/ritonavir-boosted-nirmatrelvir--paxlovid-/">highly recommended</a> for those at higher risk of severe illness. As we know, Biden is taking Paxlovid.</p> <p>Paxlovid has also been associated with rebound symptoms. This is when a person looks to have recovered from infection only to have symptoms reappear. Biden experienced this <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-some-people-who-take-paxlovid-for-covid-get-rebound-symptoms-or-test-positive-again-like-president-biden-188002">in 2022</a>.</p> <p>The good news is that even if this occurs in most instances the symptoms associated with the recurrence tend to be mild.</p> <h2>Biden would have the best care</h2> <p>The other factor of course is that Biden would have access to some of the world’s best medical care.</p> <p>If his symptoms were to become more severe or any complications were to develop, you can be assured he would get the best treatment.</p> <p>So is Biden’s diagnosis news? Well of course, given all the speculation about his health. But in terms of COVID being a major threat to Biden’s health, there are no indications it should be.<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/234999/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hassan-vally-202904"><em>Hassan Vally</em></a><em>, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Bonnie Cash/Pool via CNP/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/joe-biden-has-covid-heres-what-someone-over-80-can-expect-234999">original article</a>.</em></p>

Body

"Rest in love": All Blacks legend and Dancing with the Stars winner dies at 55

<p>The sports and entertainment communities are mourning the loss of former All Blacks hooker and <em>Dancing with the Stars</em> winner Norm Hewitt, who has passed away at the age of 55.</p> <p>Hewitt, a beloved figure both on and off the rugby field, succumbed to a lengthy battle with motor neurone disease, as confirmed by his family in a heartfelt statement.</p> <p>"Although rugby dominated his early life, he established a thriving human relations consultancy after retirement, and his services were much in demand both nationally and internationally," his family shared. "He walked confidently in both Māori and Pākehā worlds and was a particular role model for troubled youth, citing his own background, and offering inspirational teachings that one’s present life need not be one’s future."</p> <p>Hewitt leaves behind his wife Arlene and their two children, Elizabeth and Alexander. Born and raised in Pōrangahau, southern Hawke’s Bay, Hewitt's rugby career was nothing short of illustrious. Over 13 seasons, he played 296 representative matches for Hawke’s Bay, Southland and Wellington, earning 23 caps for the All Blacks. Hewitt was also a pivotal member of the Hurricanes during the formative years of Super Rugby, missing only one match in the first five years.</p> <p>The rugby community has been profoundly affected by Hewitt's passing. Former teammate Ofisa Tonu’u posted a touching tribute on Facebook: "I’m just devastated finding out the news today. I will never forget how you always stuck up for me during the Black Tracker days when no one else would, you always look after all the players and we always followed you into battle. No more pain, brother, you can now rest in Love. Fa’afetai tele lava my uso for having my back as I did yours. I know the other boys will be welcoming you with open arms at the gates. Rest in Love, Normy."</p> <p>Beyond his rugby career, Hewitt transitioned into a public speaker and mentor, focusing heavily on violence prevention programmes and advocacy. He worked with the SPCA as an animal cruelty and anti-violence publicity officer, visiting schools to spread his message. In 2005, Hewitt showcased his versatility by winning the first season of<em> Dancing with the Stars</em> alongside professional dancer Carol-Ann Hickmore.</p> <p>Hewitt's life was not without its struggles. In 1999, he made a public apology for a drunken incident in Queenstown, marking a turning point as he renounced alcohol and dedicated himself to helping others facing similar challenges.</p> <p>The outpouring of tributes was immediate, with The All Blacks expressing their sorrow: “We are saddened by the loss of All Black #938 Norm Hewitt who passed away yesterday in Wellington. Hewitt played 9 Tests and 14 Games between 1993 and 1998. Our thoughts are with Norm’s family and loved ones at this time.”</p> <p>Podcaster Martin Devlin shared his personal experience: “RIP Norm Hewitt. Not a lot of people know how kind & generous this man was. A truly wonderful person. Reached out to me and helped me considerably a long time ago when things were very rough. Love & respect.”</p> <p>Richard Hills echoed the sentiments of many: “This is bloody sad. A sad way to lose a kiwi icon so young. He had a really rough childhood and upbringing and faced it and turned his life around to become not only a rugby legend but also helped others who’d been through similar issues.”</p> <p>Norm Hewitt’s legacy will endure through the lives he touched and the positive change he inspired. His story is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the profound impact one individual can have on the world.</p> <p><em>Image: Radio New Zealand</em></p>

Caring

Still fab after 60 years: how The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night made pop cinema history

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alison-blair-223267">Alison Blair</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-otago-1304">University of Otago</a></em></p> <p>I first saw A Hard Day’s Night at a film festival over 20 years ago, at the insistence of my mum. By then, it was already decades old, but I remember being enthralled by its high-spirited energy.</p> <p>A Beatles fan, mum had introduced me to the band’s records in my childhood. At home, we listened to Please Please Me, the band’s 1963 single, and the Rubber Soul album from 1965, which I loved.</p> <p>Television regularly showed old black-and-white scenes of Beatlemania that, to a ten-year-old in the neon-lit 1980s, seemed like ancient history. But then, I’d never seen a full-length Beatles film. I had no idea what I was in for.</p> <p>When the lights went down at Dunedin’s Regent Theatre, the opening chord of the film’s title song announced its intentions: an explosion of youthful vitality, rhythmic visuals, comical high jinks and the electrifying thrill of Beatlemania in 1964.</p> <p>This time, it didn’t seem ancient at all.</p> <p>Since that first viewing, I’ve returned to A Hard Day’s Night again and again. I now show it to my students as a historically significant example of pop music film making – visually inventive cinema, emblematic of a fresh era in youth culture, popular music and fandom.</p> <h2>Beatlemania on celluloid</h2> <p>A musical comedy depicting a chaotic 36 hours in the life of the Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night has now reached its 60th anniversary.</p> <p>Directed by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0504513/">Richard Lester</a>, the film premiered in London on July 6 1964, with its first public screening a day later (incidentally, also Ringo Starr’s birthday), and the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/24003-The-Beatles-A-Hard-Days-Night">album of the same name</a> released on July 10.</p> <p>The band’s popularity was by then reaching dizzying heights of hysteria, all reflected in the film. The Beatles are chased by hordes of fans, take a train trip, appear on TV, run from the police in a Keystone Cops-style sequence, and play a televised concert in front of screaming real-life Beatles fans.</p> <p>Side one of the album provides the soundtrack, and the film inspired pop music film and video from then on, from the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060010/">Monkees TV series</a> (1966–68) to the Spice Girls’ <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120185/">Spice World</a> (1997) and music videos as we know them today.</p> <h2>The original music video</h2> <p>Postwar teen culture and consumerism had been on the rise since the 1950s. In 1960s Britain, youth music TV programmes, notably <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196287/">Ready Steady Go!</a> (1963–66), meant pop music now had a developing visual culture.</p> <p>The youthful zest and vitality of ‘60s London was reflected in the pop-cultural sensibility, modern satirical humour and crisp visual impact of A Hard Day’s Night.</p> <p>Influenced by <a href="https://nofilmschool.com/french-new-wave-cinema">French New Wave</a> film making, and particularly the early 1960s work of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000419/">Jean-Luc Godard</a>, A Hard Day’s Night employs <em><a href="https://indiefilmhustle.com/cinema-verite/">cinéma vérité</a></em>-style hand-held cinematography, brisk jump cuts, unusual framing and dynamic angles, high-spirited action, and a self-referential nonchalance.</p> <p>The film also breaks the “fourth wall”, with characters directly addressing the audience in closeup, and reveals the apparatus of the visual performance of music: cameras and TV monitors are all part of the frame.</p> <p>Cutting the shots to the beat of the music – as in the Can’t Buy Me Love sequence – lends a visual rhythm that would later become the norm in music video editing. Lester developed this technique further in the second Beatles film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059260/">Help!</a> (1965).</p> <p>The closing sequence of A Hard Day’s Night is possibly the film’s most dynamic: photographic images of the band edited to the beat in the style of stop-motion animation. Sixty years on, it still feels fresh, especially as so much contemporary film making remains hidebound by formulaic Hollywood rules.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&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/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="A Hard Day's Night movie poster" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new pop aesthetic: original film poster for A Hard Day’s Night.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure> <h2>Slapstick and class awareness</h2> <p>As with much popular culture from the past, the humour in A Hard Day’s Night doesn’t always doesn’t land the way it would have in 1964. And yet, there are moments that seem surprisingly modern in their razor-sharp irony.</p> <p>In particular, the band’s Liverpudlian working-class-lad jibes and chaotic energy contrast brilliantly with the film’s upper-class characters. Actor Victor Spinetti’s comically over-anxious TV director, constantly hand-wringing over the boys’ rebelliousness, underscores the era-defining change the Beatles represented.</p> <p>Corporate pop-culture consumerism is also satirised. John Lennon “snorts” from a Coca-Cola bottle, a moment so knowingly silly it registers as more contemporary than it really is. George Harrison deflects a journalist’s banal questions with scathingly witty answers, and cuts a fashion company down to size by describing their shirt designs as “grotesque”.</p> <p>And there is Paul McCartney’s running joke that his grandfather – played by Wilfred Brambell from groundbreaking sitcom <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057785/">Steptoe and Son</a> (1962–74) – is “very clean”.</p> <p>Even the film’s old-fashioned visual slapstick still holds up in 2024. Showing the film to this year’s students, I didn’t expect quite as much laughter when Ringo’s attempts to be chivalrous result in a fall-down-a-hole mishap.</p> <p>In 2022, the <a href="https://www.criterion.com/">Criterion Collection</a> released a high-resolution restoration of the film, so today A Hard Day’s Night can be seen in all its fresh, black-and-white, youthful vigour.</p> <p>Happy 60th, A Hard Day’s Night. And happy 84th, Ringo. Both still as lively and energetic as ever.<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/228598/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alison-blair-223267"><em>Alison Blair</em></a><em>, Teaching Fellow in Music, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-otago-1304">University of Otago</a></em></p> <p><em>Image </em><em>credits: THA/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/still-fab-after-60-years-how-the-beatles-a-hard-days-night-made-pop-cinema-history-228598">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Movies

How you experience the menopause may have a lot to do with your family

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/megan-arnot-416253">Megan Arnot</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/ucl-1885">UCL</a></em></p> <p>The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30346539">menopause</a> happens around the age of 50, and for many women, the end of their fertile life is accompanied by uncomfortable symptoms, such as hot flashes, night sweats and anxiety. In the West, it is generally taken as read that these symptoms are a normal part of the menopause. But <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11330770">cross-cultural research</a> suggests that menopause symptoms are not necessarily inevitable.</p> <p>For example, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18521049">Japanese women</a> rarely report hot flashes, whereas for European women they are a common complaint. As a result, scientists have begun to focus on what causes this difference in experience and the potential impact that behavioural and lifestyle factors, such as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16735636">smoking</a>, might have.</p> <p>Our latest <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.5705">study</a> adds to this knowledge. We found that living away from your genetic family may worsen the menopause.</p> <h2>Family matters?</h2> <p>Where people live once they’re married varies across cultures. To investigate whether these different living arrangements affect menopause symptoms, we travelled to south-west China to collect data.</p> <p>In this region, there are groups with distinct living arrangements. First, the Han and the Yi, in which women typically leave their family after they’ve got married and live with their husband’s family. Second, the Mosuo and Zhaba, who engage in the practice of <em>zou hun</em> (“<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23486437">walking marriage</a>”), where the husband and wife live separately with their own related families, and only visit each other at night.</p> <p>We found that women who remained living with their own family following marriage had significantly less severe menopause symptoms than those who went to live with their husband’s family.</p> <h2>In-law conflict</h2> <p>Many anthropologists are interested in how different levels of relatedness within households can have behavioural and physiological implications. For the menopause, we think the difference in symptom severity between the groups may be the result of the different levels of conflict that result from being more or less related to other members of your household.</p> <p>If a woman lives with her husband’s family, then until she has children, she is unrelated to anyone in the household. This lack of relatedness can cause <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-017-0114-8">tension</a> between the new wife and her husband’s relatives as they have little direct genetic interest in her.</p> <p>As well as conflict with non-related household members, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/evan.20226">earlier research</a> has shown that women who live with their husband’s family tend to argue with their partners more and are also more likely to get divorced. Additionally, rates of domestic violence are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27279077">higher</a> when women live away from their genetic family.</p> <p>But how does this relate to the severity of menopause symptoms? We think that increased levels of household conflict would result in the woman being more stressed. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4795524/">Stress</a> is known to worsen pain perception and so could aggravate menopause symptoms.</p> <p>In contrast to women who leave their kin group, women who live with their own family once they’re married also tend to have higher levels of <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/slowes/publications/matrilineal-spousal-cooperation">social support</a>. There are more people to help with childcare and more shoulders to cry on. This can help to lower stress and thus soften the mental and physical burden of the menopause.</p> <h2>Global perspectives</h2> <p>While our research was conducted in China, globally, we see a wide range of living arrangements, which themselves can bring different levels of conflict and social support. In the West, many women live away from their families, which may mean that they lack social support, perhaps contributing to more turbulent menopause symptoms. Distance from one’s own family can also be seen to increase <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2005.00155.x">conflict</a> within the household – be it between a husband and wife, or wife and in-laws.</p> <p>These results aren’t an excuse to visit your in-laws less, but they show that menopause symptoms are not only about hormonal irregularities. They may also be a product of your social environment, which should be worth bearing in mind when approaching and going through the menopause.<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/123621/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/megan-arnot-416253">Megan Arnot</a>, PhD Candidate, Evolutionary Anthropology and Behavioural Ecology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/ucl-1885">UCL</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</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/how-you-experience-the-menopause-may-have-a-lot-to-do-with-your-family-123621">original article</a>.</em></p>

Body

Lion King at 30: the global hit that Disney didn’t believe in

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/joel-gray-1539770">Joel Gray</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/sheffield-hallam-university-846">Sheffield Hallam University</a></em></p> <p>Thirty years ago audiences were introduced to the epic story of one little lion’s journey to find himself and his family. Little did Disney know what a roaring success the Lion King would be when it was released in 1994. In fact, they fully expected it wouldn’t be.</p> <p>In the 80s and 90s, the movie studio experienced huge hits with the animated films The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1991). This left many of the creatives at the Disney studio keen to <a href="https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/7/19/20699678/the-lion-king-original-animation-1994">continue making princess stories</a>. Disney executive and Hollywood stalwart Jeffrey Katzenberg was banking on Pocahontas (1995) to be their next hit.</p> <p>Therefore, the Lion King’s development was undertaken by artists and storytellers who were expected to produce something that would only ever be second best. It’s this underdog feeling that resulted in a hungry and competitive creative team producing this original hit story (it’s <a href="https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/tv-movies/a28376309/the-lion-king-hamlet-comparison/">not a direct retelling of Hamlet</a>, as some might think).</p> <p>Taking heed of its immediate film predecessors, Disney ensured the movie put music at the forefront of its storytelling, teaming up film scorist Hans Zimmer (Rain Man, Gladiator) with lyricist Tim Rice (Aladdin, Jesus Christ Superstar) and acclaimed international pop star Elton John. This combination of talent resulted in a soundtrack that won the film two Oscars in 1995 (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB5k_flnqf0">best score</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjgWWjkNbhU">best original song for Can You Feel The Love Tonight?</a>). The songs and music have played a critical role in the cultural and commercial impact of The Lion King. While some elements might change, in nearly every adaptation the songs have remained.</p> <p>The measure of success often used for movies is box office revenue, and the film’s 1994 total was <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0110357/">US$763 million</a> (£603 million) worldwide. Compare that with Disney’s previous great successes, The Little Mermaid <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0097757/">US$84 million</a> worldwide and Beauty and the Beast <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0101414/?ref_=bo_se_r_2">US$249 million</a>. Pocahontas, the great hope, also failed to outperform The Lion King bringing in <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0114148/?ref_=bo_se_r_1">US$142 million</a>.</p> <p>Its success spawned direct-to-video sequels, including The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride. In 1997, the film was adapted into a <a href="https://www.thelionking.co.uk/about-the-show">musical theatre production</a>, which, as well as touring globally, is a permanent fixture in the West End of London and on Broadway in New York. Then in 2019, Disney released <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TavVZMewpY">a live-action remake</a>. And now, as the original celebrates its 30th anniversary, the prequel, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjQG-a7d41Q">Mufasa: The Lion King</a>, will hit cinemas.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lFzVJEksoDY?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Disney has cleverly followed the fans with these iterations. The 1997 stage adaptation tapped into the late <a href="https://www.onstageblog.com/columns/2017/4/13/the-50-best-musicals-of-the-1990s">90s resurgence in live musical theatre</a>. Since its debut the musical has received 70 major arts awards, including the 1999 Grammy for best musical show album and the 1999 Laurence Olivier awards for best choreography and best costume design.</p> <p>Then 25 years after the original’s release, Disney decided to remake The Lion King (following other hits such as Beauty and the Beast remake in 2017) – but the social environment had changed. In 2019, the “live action” remake of the movie ensured that this story set in Africa was rightly <a href="https://toofab.com/2019/07/04/original-lion-king-had-35-percent-black-main-cast/">cast with majority Black performers</a>. The cast introduced new names, but also attracted huge stars, including Beyoncé Knowles-Carter who voiced the character Nala.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MjQG-a7d41Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>After The Lion King’s early success, Disney’s subsequent movies (including Pocahontas) did not live up to commercial expectations. From the mid-90s, Disney’s dominance at the animated movie box office was overtaken by Pixar and their hits, including Toy Story.</p> <p>Disney experienced inconsistent success until 2010 when they embraced CGI 3D animation as the primary production technique for their movies. This new style was applied to their tried-and-tested format of retelling classic fairytales and placing music at the heart of the storytelling, leading to hits such as Tangled (2010) and Frozen (2013).</p> <p>The Lion King’s enduring success should be a stand-out moment of clarity for Disney: with a focus on good quality animation and solid music storytelling, even the unexpected can become a roaring success.<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/233024/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/joel-gray-1539770">Joel Gray</a>, Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/sheffield-hallam-university-846">Sheffield Hallam University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Walt Disney Pictures </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/lion-king-at-30-the-global-hit-that-disney-didnt-believe-in-233024">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Movies

Princess Kate makes first public appearance since cancer diagnosis

<p>The Princess of Wales has made her first public appearance in almost six months following her cancer diagnosis. </p> <p><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">Princess Kate</span>, who was last seen in public at a church service on Christmas Day, underwent abdominal surgery in January and has been receiving chemotherapy since late February. </p> <p>The royal took part in Trooping the Colour on Saturday, after taking time away from royal duties, and left Buckingham Palace in a carriage with her children shortly before 11am local time to watch the parade. </p> <p>After the King's Birthday Parade, she appeared at the balcony alongside King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William and other members of the royal family. </p> <p>The family waved to the cheering crowd as they watched military aircrafts fly by to mark the monarch's official birthday. </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/C8Pt2DrN61b/?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/C8Pt2DrN61b/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by The Prince and Princess of Wales (@princeandprincessofwales)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Princess Kate confirmed in a statement on Friday that she would be attending the King's Birthday Parade, as well as a few other public engagements over the summer. </p> <p>However, she also said that her treatment was "ongoing, and will be for a few more months". </p> <p>"On the days I feel well enough, it is a joy to engage with school life, spend personal time on the things that give me energy and positivity, as well as starting to do a little work from home," she wrote in the statement on Friday. </p> <p>"I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty.</p> <p>"Taking each day as it comes, listening to my body, and allowing myself to take this much needed time to heal."</p> <p>King Charles, who is also being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer, travelled in a carriage with Queen Camilla this year, instead of on horseback as he did last year. </p> <p>He has also been easing back into public duties, and just last week he attended commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. </p> <p><em>Image: Ray Tang/ Shutterstock Editorial</em></p>

Caring

Does intermittent fasting have benefits for our brain?

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hayley-oneill-1458016">Hayley O'Neill</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/bond-university-863">Bond University</a></em></p> <p>Intermittent fasting has become a popular dietary approach to help people lose or manage their <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8683964/">weight</a>. It has also been promoted as a way to reset metabolism, control chronic disease, slow ageing and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27810402">improve overall health</a>.</p> <p>Meanwhile, some research suggests intermittent fasting may offer a different way for the brain to access energy and provide protection against neurodegenerative diseases like <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11011-023-01288-2">Alzheimer’s disease</a>.</p> <p>This is not a new idea – the ancient Greeks believed fasting <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8839325/">enhanced thinking</a>. But what does the modern-day evidence say?</p> <h2>First, what is intermittent fasting?</h2> <p>Our <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35487190/">diets</a> – including calories consumed, macronutrient composition (the ratios of fats, protein and carbohydrates we eat) and when meals are consumed – are factors in our lifestyle we can change. People do this for cultural reasons, desired weight loss or potential health gains.</p> <p>Intermittent fasting consists of short periods of calorie (energy) restriction where food intake is limited for 12 to 48 hours (usually 12 to 16 hours per day), followed by periods of normal food intake. The intermittent component means a re-occurrence of the pattern rather than a “one off” fast.</p> <p>Food deprivation beyond 24 hours typically constitutes starvation. This is distinct from fasting due to its specific and potentially harmful biochemical alterations and nutrient deficiencies if continued for long periods.</p> <h2>4 ways fasting works and how it might affect the brain</h2> <p>The brain accounts for about <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-much-energy-do-we-expend-thinking-and-using-our-brain-197990">20% of the body’s energy consumption</a>.</p> <p>Here are four ways intermittent fasting can act on the body which could help explain its potential effects on the brain.</p> <p><strong>1. Ketosis</strong></p> <p>The goal of many intermittent fasting routines is to flip a “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5913738/">metabolic switch</a>” to go from burning predominately carbohydrates to burning fat. This is called ketosis and typically occurs after 12–16 hours of fasting, when liver and glycogen stores are depleted. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493179/">Ketones</a> – chemicals produced by this metabolic process – become the preferred energy source for the brain.</p> <p>Due to this being a slower metabolic process to produce energy and potential for lowering blood sugar levels, ketosis can <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10844723/">cause symptoms</a> of hunger, fatigue, nausea, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8754590/">low mood</a>, irritability, constipation, headaches, and brain “fog”.</p> <p>At the same time, as glucose metabolism in the brain declines with ageing, studies have shown ketones could provide an alternative energy source to <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aau2095">preserve brain function</a> and prevent <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32709961/">age-related neurodegeneration disorders and cognitive decline</a>.</p> <p>Consistent with this, increasing ketones through <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31027873/">supplementation</a> or <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31757576/">diet</a> has been shown to improve cognition in adults with mild cognitive decline and those at risk of Alzheimer’s disease respectively.</p> <p><strong>2. Circadian syncing</strong></p> <p>Eating at times that <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32480126/">don’t match our body’s natural daily rhythms</a> can disrupt how our organs work. Studies in shift workers have suggested this might also make us more prone to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22010477/">chronic disease</a>.</p> <p>Time-restricted eating is when you eat your meals within a six to ten-hour window during the day when you’re most active. Time-restricted eating causes changes in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36599299/">expression of genes in tissue</a> and helps the body during rest and activity.</p> <p>A 2021 <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7827225/">study of 883 adults</a> in Italy indicated those who restricted their food intake to ten hours a day were less likely to have cognitive impairment compared to those eating without time restrictions.</p> <p><strong>3. Mitochondria</strong></p> <p>Intermittent fasting may provide <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35218914/">brain protection</a> through improving mitochondrial function, metabolism and reducing oxidants.</p> <p>Mitochondria’s <a href="https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Mitochondria">main role is to produce energy</a> and they are crucial to brain health. Many age-related diseases are closely related to an energy supply and demand imbalance, likely attributed to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41574-021-00626-7">mitochondrial dysfunction during ageing</a>.</p> <p>Rodent studies suggest alternate day fasting or reducing calories <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1038/jcbfm.2014.114">by up to 40%</a> might protect or improve <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21861096">brain mitochondrial function</a>. But not all studies support this theory.</p> <p><strong>4. The gut-brain axis</strong></p> <p>The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6469458/">gut and the brain communicate with each other</a> via the body’s nervous systems. The brain can influence how the gut feels (think about how you get “butterflies” in your tummy when nervous) and the gut can affect mood, cognition and mental health.</p> <p>In mice, intermittent fasting has shown promise for <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5913738/">improving brain health</a> by increasing survival and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12354284/">formation of neurons</a> (nerve cells) in the hippocampus brain region, which is involved in memory, learning and emotion.</p> <p>There’s <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8470960/">no clear evidence</a> on the effects of intermittent fasting on cognition in healthy adults. However one 2022 study interviewed 411 older adults and found <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9646955/">lower meal frequency</a> (less than three meals a day) was associated with reduced evidence of Alzheimer’s disease on brain imaging.</p> <p>Some research has suggested calorie restriction may have a protective effect against <a href="https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article/81/9/1225/7116310">Alzheimer’s disease</a> by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation and promoting vascular health.</p> <p>When we look at the effects of overall energy restriction (rather than intermittent fasting specifically) the evidence is mixed. Among people with mild cognitive impairment, one study showed <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26713821/">cognitive improvement</a> when participants followed a calorie restricted diet for 12 months.</p> <p>Another study found a 25% calorie restriction was associated with <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30968820">slightly improved working memory</a> in healthy adults. But a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022316623025221?via%3Dihub">recent study</a>, which looked at the impact of calorie restriction on spatial working memory, found no significant effect.</p> <h2>Bottom line</h2> <p>Studies in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9740746/">mice</a> support a role for intermittent fasting in improving brain health and ageing, but few studies in humans exist, and the evidence we have is mixed.</p> <p>Rapid weight loss associated with calorie restriction and intermittent fasting can lead to nutrient deficiencies, muscle loss, and decreased immune function, particularly in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8749464/">older adults</a> whose nutritional needs may be higher.</p> <p>Further, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6314618/">prolonged fasting</a> or <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9042193/">severe calorie restriction</a> may pose risks such as fatigue, dizziness, and electrolyte imbalances, which could exacerbate existing health conditions.</p> <p>If you’re considering <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMra1905136?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed">intermittent fasting</a>, it’s best to seek advice from a health professional such as a dietitian who can provide guidance on structuring fasting periods, meal timing, and nutrient intake. This ensures intermittent fasting is approached in a safe, sustainable way, tailored to individual needs and goals.<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/223181/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/hayley-oneill-1458016">Hayley O'Neill</a>, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/bond-university-863">Bond University</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-intermittent-fasting-have-benefits-for-our-brain-223181">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty </em></p>

Body

Legendary Star Wars and James Bond actor passes away

<p>The galaxy far, far away has dimmed a little with the passing of Michael Culver, a distinguished British actor whose name became etched in the annals of cinematic history, particularly for his role in the iconic 1980 film <em>Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back</em>.</p> <p>Culver, who portrayed Captain Needa, the unfortunate Imperial officer, met his demise in one of the franchise's most memorable scenes at the hands of Darth Vader. However, his legacy extends far beyond the realms of science fiction, encompassing a career spanning over five decades of stage, screen and political activism.</p> <p>Born in 1938 in Hempstead, North London, to esteemed parents within the theatre industry, Culver was destined for a life under the spotlight. His father, Roland Culver, was a notable West End stage actor, while his mother, Daphne Rye, served as a casting director in London-based theatre. Following in their footsteps, Culver honed his craft at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, laying the foundation for a prolific acting career.</p> <p>Culver's journey in the performing arts began in the late 1950s, with appearances on Broadway in Shakespearean classics such as <em>King Henry V</em>, <em>Hamlet</em>, and <em>Twelfth Night</em>. His talent soon graced the West End stage in 1962, marking the start of a distinguished theatrical career. Transitioning to the small screen, Culver made his onscreen debut in 1961, captivating audiences with his versatile performances in British television series and movies.</p> <p>However, it was Culver's portrayal of Captain Needa in <em>The Empire Strikes Back</em> that solidified his status as a cultural icon. Despite his character's brief appearance, Culver left an indelible mark on audiences worldwide, immortalised in one of cinema's most unforgettable moments. His confrontation with Vader, culminating in a chilling demise, remains etched in the memories of countless fans, a testament to Culver's ability to captivate audiences with his presence.</p> <p>Beyond his intergalactic exploits, Culver's talents graced a multitude of productions, including notable roles in <em>Sherlock Holmes, A Passage to India</em>, <em>Secret Army, </em>and even appearing in two James Bond movies – <em>From Russia With Love </em>and <em>Thunderball</em> – in uncredited roles. His versatility and dedication to his craft earned him admiration and respect from peers and audiences alike. Yet, Culver's contributions extended beyond the realms of entertainment; in the early 2000s, he shifted his focus to political activism, leveraging his platform to advocate for causes close to his heart.</p> <p>Despite bidding farewell to the limelight, Culver's legacy endures through the countless lives he touched and the memories he forged on stage and screen.</p> <p>An extended message on the Alliance Agents Facebook page, who represented Culver, read as follows:</p> <p>"We are very sad to confirm the passing of our friend and client Michael Culver. A career spanning over 50 years with notable roles in Sherlock Holmes, A Passage to India, Secret Army and of course one of the most memorable death scenes in the Star Wars franchise. Michael largely gave up acting in the early 2000's to concentrate his efforts into his political activism. It's been an honor to have represented Michael for for the last decade and to have taken him to some of the best Star Wars events in the UK and Europe. A real highlight was taking Michael to Celebration in Chicago in 2019. He was lost for words when he saw his queue line with nearly 200 people waiting to see him. We worked with Michael just 3 weeks ago at his last home signing with our friends at Elite Signatures. Michel died on Tuesday 27th February at the age of 85." </p> <p>"We miss him."</p> <p>His passing leaves a void in the hearts of fans and colleagues, a reminder of the fleeting nature of life's curtain call. As we reflect on his remarkable journey, let us celebrate the life and legacy of Michael Culver, an actor whose talents transcended galaxies and whose spirit will continue to inspire generations to come.</p> <p>In his memory, let us heed the timeless words of Captain Needa himself: "We shall double our efforts."</p> <p>Rest in peace, Michael Culver. The force will always be with you.</p> <p><em>Images: IMDB / Wookiepedia</em></p>

Caring

Yes, Kate Middleton’s photo was doctored. But so are a lot of images we see today

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/t-j-thomson-503845">T.J. Thomson</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063">RMIT University</a></em></p> <p>Rumours and conspiracies have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/style/princess-kate-middleton-health.html">swirling</a> following the abdominal surgery and long recovery period of Catherine, Princess of Wales, earlier this year. They intensified on Monday when Kensington Palace released a photo of the princess with her three children.</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/C4U_IqTNaqU/?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/C4U_IqTNaqU/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by The Prince and Princess of Wales (@princeandprincessofwales)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The photo had clear signs of tampering, and international wire services <a href="https://apnews.com/article/kate-princess-photo-surgery-ca91acf667c87c6c70a7838347d6d4fb">withdrew the image</a> amid concerns around manipulation. The princess later <a href="https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1767135566645092616">apologised for any confusion</a> and said she had “experimented with editing” as many amateur photographers do.</p> <p>Image editing is extremely common these days, and not all of it is for nefarious purposes. However, in an age of rampant misinformation, how can we stay vigilant around suspicious images?</p> <h2>What happened with the royal photo?</h2> <p>A close look reveals at least eight inconsistencies with the image.</p> <p>Two of these relate to unnatural blur. Catherine’s right hand is unnaturally blurred, even though her left hand is sharp and at the same distance from the camera. The left side of Catherine’s hair is also unnaturally blurred, while the right side of her hair is sharp.</p> <p>These types of edits are usually made with a blur tool that softens pixels. It is often used to make the background of an image less distracting or to smooth rough patches of texture.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581145/original/file-20240312-26-rhmkk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581145/original/file-20240312-26-rhmkk1.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/581145/original/file-20240312-26-rhmkk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581145/original/file-20240312-26-rhmkk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581145/original/file-20240312-26-rhmkk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581145/original/file-20240312-26-rhmkk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581145/original/file-20240312-26-rhmkk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581145/original/file-20240312-26-rhmkk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">At least eight logical inconsistencies exist in the doctored image the Prince and Princess of Wales posted on social media.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C4U_IqTNaqU/">Photo by the Prince of Wales/Chart by T.J. Thomson</a></span></figcaption></figure> <p>Five of the edits appear to use the “clone stamp” tool. This is a Photoshop tool that takes part of the same or a different image and “stamps” it onto another part.</p> <p>You can see this with the repeated pattern on Louis’s (on the left) sweater and the tile on the ground. You can also see it with the step behind Louis’s legs and on Charlotte’s hair and sleeve. The zipper on Catherine’s jacket also doesn’t line up.</p> <p>The most charitable interpretation is that the princess was trying to remove distracting or unflattering elements. But the artefacts could also point to multiple images being blended together. This could either be to try to show the best version of each person (for example, with a smiling face and open eyes), or for another purpose.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C</p> <p>— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) <a href="https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1767135566645092616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2024</a></p></blockquote> <h2>How common are image edits?</h2> <p>Image editing is increasingly common as both photography and editing are increasingly becoming more automated.</p> <p>This sometimes happens without you even knowing.</p> <p>Take HDR (high dynamic range) images, for example. Point your iPhone or equivalent at a beautiful sunset and watch it capture the scene from the brightest highlights to the darkest shadows. What happens here is your camera makes multiple images and automatically stitches them together to make an image <a href="https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/hub/guides/what-is-hdr-photography.html">with a wider range of contrast</a>.</p> <p>While face-smoothing or teeth-whitening filters are nothing new, some smartphone camera apps apply them without being prompted. Newer technology like Google’s “Best Take” <a href="https://blog.google/products/photos/how-google-photos-best-take-works/">feature</a> can even combine the best attributes of multiple images to ensure everyone’s eyes are open and faces are smiling in group shots.</p> <p>On social media, it seems everyone tries to show themselves in their best light, which is partially why so few of the photos on our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15551393.2020.1862663">camera rolls</a> make it onto our social media feeds. It is also why we often edit our photos to show our best sides.</p> <p>But in other contexts, such as press photography, the <a href="https://www.ap.org/about/news-values-and-principles/telling-the-story/visuals">rules are much stricter</a>. The Associated Press, for example, bans all edits beyond simple crops, colour adjustments, and “minor adjustments” that “restore the authentic nature of the photograph”.</p> <p>Professional photojournalists haven’t always gotten it right, though. While the majority of lens-based news workers adhere to ethical guidelines like those published by the <a href="https://nppa.org/resources/code-ethics">National Press Photographers Association</a>, others have let deadline pressures, competition and the desire for exceptional imagery cloud their judgement.</p> <p>One such example was in 2017, when British photojournalist Souvid Datta admitted to <a href="https://time.com/4766312/souvid-datta/">visually plagiarising</a> another photographer’s work within his own composition.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Photographer Souvid Datta appears to have plagiarized Mary Ellen Mark: <a href="https://t.co/iO1Lm8CowU">https://t.co/iO1Lm8CowU</a> <a href="https://t.co/jswHyApGNj">pic.twitter.com/jswHyApGNj</a></p> <p>— PetaPixel (@petapixel) <a href="https://twitter.com/petapixel/status/859824132258537472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 3, 2017</a></p></blockquote> <p>Concerns around false or misleading visual information are at an all-time high, given advances in <a href="https://theconversation.com/nine-was-slammed-for-ai-editing-a-victorian-mps-dress-how-can-news-media-use-ai-responsibly-222382">generative artificial intelligence (AI)</a>. In fact, this year the World Economic Forum named the risk of misinformation and disinformation as the world’s greatest <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/01/ai-disinformation-global-risks/">short-term threat</a>. It placed this above armed conflict and natural disasters.</p> <h2>What to do if you’re unsure about an image you’ve found online</h2> <p>It can be hard to keep up with the more than <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-2-billion-images-and-720-000-hours-of-video-are-shared-online-daily-can-you-sort-real-from-fake-148630">3 billion photos</a> that are shared each day.</p> <p>But, for the ones that matter, we owe it to ourselves to slow down, zoom in and ask ourselves a few simple <a href="https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck-resources/how-we-check-the-facts/">questions</a>:</p> <p>1. Who made or shared the image? This can give clues about reliability and the purpose of making or sharing the image.</p> <p>2. What’s the evidence? Can you find another version of the image, for example, using a <a href="https://tineye.com/">reverse-image search engine</a>?</p> <p>3. What do trusted sources say? Consult resources like <a href="https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/">AAP FactCheck</a> or <a href="https://factcheck.afp.com/">AFP Fact Check</a> to see if authoritative sources have already weighed in.<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/225553/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/t-j-thomson-503845">T.J. Thomson</a>, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063">RMIT University</a></em></p> <p>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/yes-kate-middletons-photo-was-doctored-but-so-are-a-lot-of-images-we-see-today-225553">original article</a>.</p> <p><em>Hero image: The Conversation / X / Instagram</em></p>

Technology

We talked to dozens of people about their experience of grief. Here’s what we learned (and how it’s different from what you might think)

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michelle-peterie-564209">Michelle Peterie</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alex-broom-121063">Alex Broom</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a></em></p> <p>Have you ever felt a sudden pang of sadness? A bird seems to stop and look you in the eye. A photo drops out of a messy drawer from long ago, in the mundanity of a weekend spring clean.</p> <p>Your day is immediately derailed, unsettled. You are pulled into something you thought was past. And yet, in being pulled back, you are grateful, reconnected, and grief-stricken all over again.</p> <p>“You’ll get over it”. “Give it time”. “You need time to move on”. These are common cultural refrains in the face of loss. But what if grief doesn’t play by the rules? What if grief is a different thing altogether?</p> <p>We talked to 95 people about their experiences of grief surrounding the loss of a loved one, and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00380261241228412">their stories</a> provided a fundamentally different account of grief to the one often presented to us culturally.</p> <h2>Disordered grief?</h2> <p>Grief is often imagined as a time-bound period in which one processes the pain of loss – that is, adjusts to absence and works toward “moving on”. The bereaved are expected to process their pain within the confines of what society deems “normal”.</p> <p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-dsm-and-how-are-mental-disorders-diagnosed-9568">DSM-5 psychiatric manual</a> says if grief drags on too long, in fact, it becomes a pathology (a condition with a medical diagnosis). “Prolonged grief disorder” is the name given to “persistent difficulties associated with bereavement that exceeded expected social, cultural, or religious expectations”.</p> <p>While there can be <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-prolonged-grief-should-be-listed-as-a-mental-disorder-4262">value</a> in clinical diagnostic categories such as this, the danger is they put artificial boundaries around emotions. The pathologisation of grief can be deeply alienating to those experiencing it, for whom the pressure to “move on” can be hurtful and counterproductive.</p> <p>The stories we gathered in our research were raw, complex and often fraught. They did not sit comfortably with commonsense understandings of how grief “should” progress. As bereaved daughter Barbara told us: "Grief is not in the little box, it doesn’t even come close to a little box."</p> <h2>Grief starts early</h2> <p>The tendency is to think of grief as something that happens post death. The person we love dies, we have a funeral, and the grief sets in. Then it slowly subsides with the steady march of time.</p> <p>In fact, grief often begins earlier, often in a clinical consultation where the words “terminal” or “nothing more we can do” are used. Or when a loved one is told “go home and get your life in order”. Grief can begin months or even years before bereavement.</p> <p>As the people we interviewed experienced it, loss was also cumulative. The gradual deterioration of a loved one’s health in the years or months before their death imposed other painful losses: the loss of chosen lifestyles, the loss of longstanding relational rhythms, the loss of shared hopes and anticipated futures.</p> <p>Many participants felt their loved ones – and, indeed, the lives they shared with them – slipping away long before their physical deaths.</p> <h2>Living with the dead</h2> <p>Yet the dead do not simply leave us. They remain with us, in memories, rituals and cultural events. From <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-ancient-cultures-teach-us-about-grief-mourning-and-continuity-of-life-86199">Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/japans-obon-festival-how-family-commemoration-and-ancestral-worship-shapes-daily-life-179890">Japan’s Opon</a>, festivals of the dead play a key role in cultures around the world. In that way, remembering the dead remains a critical aspect of living. So too does <a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-not-always-closure-in-the-never-ending-story-of-grief-3096">the ongoing experience of grief</a>.</p> <p>Events of this kind are not merely celebratory. They are critical forms through which life and death, joy and grief, are brought together and integrated. The absence of remembering can hold its own trouble, as our participants’ accounts revealed. </p> <p>As bereaved wife Anna explained: "I just find it really frustrating and I do get quite angry and upset sometimes. I know that life goes on. I’d be talking to girlfriends and stuff like that and it’s like they’ve forgotten that I’ve lost my husband. They haven’t, but nothing really changed in their life. But for me, and my family, it has."</p> <p>Part of the problem, here, is the ambivalent role grief plays in advanced industrialised societies like ours. Many of our participants felt pressure to perform resilience or (in clinical terms) to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1363459317724854">“recover” quickly after loss</a>.</p> <p>But whose interests does a swift recovery serve? An employer’s? Friends who just want to get on with a death-free life? And, even more importantly, mightn’t ongoing connections with the dead enable better living? Might bringing the dead along with us actually make for better deaths and better lives?</p> <p>Many of our participants felt their loved ones remained with them, and experienced their “absent presence” as a source of comfort. Grieving, in this context, involved spending time “with” the dead. </p> <p>Anna described her practice as follows: "I had a diary, so I just write stuff in it about how I’m feeling or something happened and I’ll say to [my deceased husband], it’s all to [my deceased husband], “Do you remember, blah, blah, blah.” I’ll just talk about that memory that I have of that particular time and I find that that helps."</p> <h2>Caring for those who grieve</h2> <p>Grief does not begin at death, but neither do relationships end there.</p> <p>To rush the bereaved through grief – to usher them towards “recovery” and the more comfortable territories of happiness and productivity – is to do them a disservice.</p> <p>And, perhaps more critically, ridding our lives of the dead and grief may, in the end, make for more limited and muted emotional lives.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223848/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michelle-peterie-564209"><em>Michelle Peterie</em></a><em>, Research Fellow, Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alex-broom-121063">Alex Broom</a>, Professor of Sociology & Director, Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</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/we-talked-to-dozens-of-people-about-their-experience-of-grief-heres-what-we-learned-and-how-its-different-from-what-you-might-think-223848">original article</a>.</em></p>

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Yes, Kate Middleton’s photo was doctored. But so are a lot of images we see today

We talked to dozens of people about their experience of grief. Here’s what we learned (and how it’s different from what you might think)