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Julian Assange has been in the headlines for almost two decades. Here’s why he’s such a significant public figure

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matthew-ricketson-3616">Matthew Ricketson</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a></em></p> <p>“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” is a famous quotation usually attributed to Thomas Jefferson, a founder of US democracy.</p> <p>For Julian Assange, the price of freedom has been five years in jail while he fought extradition to the United States to face charges no democracy worthy of the name should ever have brought.</p> <p>It is profoundly heartening news to see Assange’s release from London’s Belmarsh prison and flight home to Australia via a US territory in the western pacific. He’ll face a hearing and sentencing <a href="https://theconversation.com/julian-assange-plea-deal-what-does-it-mean-for-the-wikileaks-founder-and-what-happens-now-233207">this morning</a> in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, to formalise a plea deal with the US government.</p> <p>It is profoundly disheartening, though, to see the lengths to which a nation state has gone to punish a publisher who released documents and videos that revealed US troops allegedly committing war crimes in the Iraq war two decades ago.</p> <p>Assange has been a controversial international figure for so many years now it’s easy to lose sight of what he has done, why he attracted such fiercely polarised views, and what his incarceration means for journalism and democracy.</p> <h2>What did he do?</h2> <p>Assange, an Australian national, came to prominence in the 2000s for setting up <a href="https://wikileaks.org/">WikiLeaks</a>, a website that published leaked government, military and intelligence documents disclosing a range of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47907890">scandals</a> in various countries.</p> <p>Most of the documents were released in full. For Assange, this fulfilled his aim of radical transparency. For critics, it led to the release of documents that could <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2011/9/3/wikileaks-criticised-over-uncensored-cables">endanger the lives</a> of intelligence sources.</p> <p>This remains a point of contention. Some have asserted Assange’s attitude toward those named in leaked documents was cavalier and that the publication of some documents was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/b70da83fd111496dbdf015acbb7987fb">simply unnecessary</a>.</p> <p>But critics, especially those in the US military, have been unable to point to <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-book-argues-julian-assange-is-being-tortured-will-our-new-pm-do-anything-about-it-183622">specific instances</a> in which the release of documents has led to a person’s death. In 2010, Joe Biden, the then vice-president, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna40702904">acknowledged</a> WikiLeaks’ publications had caused “no substantive damage”. Then US Defense Secretary Robert Gates <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/12/712659290/how-much-did-wikileaks-damage-u-s-national-security">said</a> at the time countries dealt with the US because it was in their best interests, “not because they believe we can keep secrets”.</p> <p>The key to WikiLeaks’ success was that Assange and his colleagues found a way to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-11026659">encrypt the documents</a> and make them untraceable, to protect whistleblower sources from official retribution. It was a strategy later <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/05/guardian-launches-securedrop-whistleblowers-documents">copied</a> by mainstream media organisations.</p> <p>WikiLeaks became famous around the globe in April 2010 when it released hundreds of thousands of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47907890">documents</a> in tranches known as the Afghan war logs, the Iraq war logs and Cablegate. They revealed numerous alleged war crimes and provided the raw material for a shadow history of the disastrous wars waged by the Americans and their allies, including Australia, in Afghanistan and Iraq following the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks.</p> <p>Documents are one thing, video another. Assange released <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/CollateralMurder.ogv/CollateralMurder.ogv.360p.vp9.webm">a video</a> called “Collateral Murder”. It showed US soldiers in a helicopter shooting and killing Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists in 2007.</p> <p>Apart from how the soldiers in the video speak – “Hahaha, I hit them”, “Nice”, “Good shot” – it looks like most of the victims are civilians and the journalists’ cameras are mistaken for rifles.</p> <p>When one of the wounded men tries to crawl to safety, the helicopter crew, instead of allowing their US comrades on the ground to take him prisoner as required by <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/rules-of-war">the rules of war</a>, seeks permission to shoot him again.</p> <hr /> <p><iframe id="tc-infographic-1064" class="tc-infographic" style="border: none;" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/1064/0f0903c8d2249ac24316f2a86f5e0f231b6546e6/site/index.html" width="100%" height="400px" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <hr /> <p>The soldiers’ request for authorisation to shoot is granted. The wounded man is carried to a nearby minibus, which is then shot to pieces with the helicopter’s gun. The driver and two other rescuers are killed instantly while the driver’s two young children inside are seriously wounded.</p> <p>US army command investigated the matter, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-book-argues-julian-assange-is-being-tortured-will-our-new-pm-do-anything-about-it-183622">concluding</a> the soldiers acted in accordance with the rules of war. Despite this, US prosecutors <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jun/15/julian-assange-indictment-fails-to-mention-wikileaks-video-that-exposed-us-war-crimes-in-iraq">didn’t include</a> the video in its indictment against Assange, leading to accusations it didn’t want such material further exposed in public.</p> <p>Equally to the point, the public would never have known an alleged war crime had been committed without the release of the video.</p> <h2>Going into exile</h2> <p>Assange and WikiLeaks had no sooner become famous than it all began to come to a halt.</p> <p>He was alleged to have sexually assaulted <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50473792">two women</a>. He holed up the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/17/world/americas/ecuador-to-let-assange-stay-in-its-embassy.html">Ecuadoran embassy</a> in London for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/7276b35e8d5944e7b5ca280ab0390b26">seven years</a> to avoid being extradited to Sweden for questioning over the alleged assaults, from where he could then be extradited to the US. Then he was <a href="https://mondediplo.com/2024/02/11assange">imprisoned in England</a> for the past five years.</p> <p>It has been confusing to following the byzantine twists and turns of the Assange case. His character has been reviled by his opponents and revered by his supporters.</p> <p>Even journalists, who are supposed to be in the same business of speaking truth to power, have adopted contradictory stances towards Assange, oscillating between giving him awards (a <a href="https://www.walkleys.com/board-statement-4-16/">Walkley</a> for his outstanding contribution to journalism) and shunning him (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/opinion/julian-assange-wikileaks.html">The New York Times</a> has said he is a source rather than a journalist).</p> <h2>Personal suffering</h2> <p>After Sweden eventually <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50473792">dropped</a> the sexual assault charges, the US government swiftly ramped up its request to extradite Assange to face charges under the Espionage Act, which, if successful, could have led to a jail term of up to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/25/explainer-who-is-julian-assange-and-what-are-the-details-of-his-plea-deal#:%7E:text=After%20his%20departure%20from%20the,to%20175%20years%20in%20prison.">175 years</a>.</p> <p>Until this week, most of the recent headlines about Assange have been about this extradition attempt. Most recently, he was granted the <a href="https://theconversation.com/julian-assanges-appeal-to-avoid-extradition-will-go-ahead-it-could-be-legally-groundbreaking-227859">right to appeal</a> the UK Home Secretary’s order that he be extradited to the US.</p> <p>This brings us to now, where if all goes according to legal planning, Assange will <a href="https://theconversation.com/julian-assange-plea-deal-what-does-it-mean-for-the-wikileaks-founder-and-what-happens-now-233207">plead guilty</a> to one count under the US Espionage Act, then fly back to Australia.</p> <p>But the long, protracted and very public case, legal or otherwise, has raised questions yet to be fully reckoned with.</p> <p>Nils Melzer, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, thoroughly investigated the case against Assange and laid it out in forensic detail in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-book-argues-julian-assange-is-being-tortured-will-our-new-pm-do-anything-about-it-183622">2022 book</a>.</p> <p>In it, he wrote:</p> <blockquote> <p>The Assange case is the story of a man who is being persecuted and abused for exposing the dirty secrets of the powerful, including war crimes, torture and corruption. It is a story of deliberate judicial arbitrariness in Western democracies that are otherwise keen to present themselves as exemplary in the area of human rights.</p> </blockquote> <p>He’s also suffered significantly in legal and diplomatic processes in at least four countries.</p> <p>Since being imprisoned in 2019, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/25/julian-assange-plea-deal-with-us-free-to-return-australia#:%7E:text=WikiLeaks%20said%20on%20X%20that,isolated%2023%20hours%20a%20day%E2%80%9D">Assange’s team says</a> he’s spent much of that time in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day, has been denied all but the most limited access to his legal team, let alone family and friends, and was kept in a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54060427">glass box</a> during his seemingly interminable extradition hearing.</p> <p>His physical and mental health have suffered to the point where he has been put on <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wikileaks-julian-assange-at-very-high-risk-of-suicide-attempt-psychiatric-expert-tells-court/">suicide watch</a>. Again, that seems to be the point, as Melzer writes:</p> <blockquote> <p>The primary purpose of persecuting Assange is not – and never has been – to punish him personally, but to establish a generic precedent with a global deterrent effect on other journalist, publicists and activists.</p> </blockquote> <p>So while Assange himself is human and his suffering real, his lengthy time in the spotlight have turned him into more of a symbol. This is true whether you think of him as the hero exposing the dirty secrets of governments, or as something much more sinister.</p> <p>If his experience has taught us anything, it’s that speaking truth to power can come at an unfathomable personal cost.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><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/233232/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matthew-ricketson-3616">Matthew Ricketson</a>, Professor of Communication, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Vianney Le Caer/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/julian-assange-has-been-in-the-headlines-for-almost-two-decades-heres-why-hes-such-a-significant-public-figure-233232">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

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Loch Ness monster back in headlines after "most exciting" photo in decades

<p>A recent potential Loch Ness monster sighting has generated immense excitement among monster enthusiasts, who claim these photographs are the most captivating seen in decades.</p> <p>The incident unfolded when Chie Kelly, 51, inadvertently captured images of an unidentified, sizeable creature gliding across the surface of Loch Ness five years ago in August.</p> <p>At the time, she hesitated to release the images, fearing public ridicule. However, her decision changed after the largest 'Nessie' search in over half a century took place last month – called The Quest Weekend.</p> <p>Kelly, accompanied by her family, was enjoying a meal at an inn nestled on the shores of the Scottish loch when she began snapping photos.</p> <p>According to the <a href="https://lochness.com/findings-revealed-from-the-quest-weekend/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lochness.com website</a>, Chie Kelly "had lunch in the Dores Inn and then started walking around. I was just taking pictures with my Canon camera of Scott and our daughter Alisa, who was then five, when about 200 metres from the shore, moving right to left at a steady speed was this creature.</p> <p>"It was spinning and rolling at times. We never saw a head or neck. After a couple of minutes, it just disappeared and we never saw it again.</p> <p>"At first I wondered if it was an otter or a pair of otters or a seal, but we never saw a head and it never came up again for air.</p> <p>"It was making this strange movement on the surface. We did not hear any sound. There were these strange shapes below the surface. I could not make out any colours – the water was dark. I could not accurately assess its length, but the two parts that were visible were less than two metres long together.</p> <p>"I don’t know what it was, but it was definitely a creature – an animal. At the time I did not want to face public ridicule by making the photographs public. But I met Steve Feltham at the weekend and showed him the images, and he said immediately that they were ‘very interesting’.”</p> <p>Feltham has dedicated more than 30 years to the search for Nessie since abandoning his job and selling his house in 1991. After looking at the images, he said, “These are the most exciting surface pictures I have seen. They are exactly the type of pictures I have been wanting to take for three decades.</p> <p>"It is rare to see something so clear on the surface. They are vindication for all the people who believe there is something unexplained in Loch Ness. They are remarkable. I have studied them and still do not know what it is. I persuaded them that these pictures were so important they should make them public. They warrant further investigation. It is not driftwood – it is a moving creature and totally unexplained.”</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/CrRewR8txip/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;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/CrRewR8txip/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Chie Tchié Kelly-Kano (@kelly.chie)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Reports of the Loch Ness monster have spanned ancient history, with stories dating back to an Irish missionary allegedly rescuing a swimmer from a creature in the loch during the 7th century.</p> <p>The completion of a road adjacent to the loch in 1933 led to a surge in monster sightings. Despite numerous searches over the years, a DNA survey conducted in 2018 failed to provide any evidence of a plesiosaur or other large animals residing in the lake.</p> <p><em>Images: Instagram / Chie Kelly</em></p> <p> </p>

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Comic makes headlines after taking on landlord

<p dir="ltr">Australian comedian Tom Cashman is looking to start a trend that could help revolutionise the rental market.</p><p dir="ltr">While on his search for a new apartment in Sydney, Tom was successful on an application for a property that “wasn’t my favourite”, but he decided to seize his opportunity. </p><p dir="ltr">Tom emailed the real estate agent handling the rental property to request something he’s “never asked for before”. </p><p dir="ltr">He went on to ask the agent for a “landlord reference”, which would involve the landlord of the property providing feedback from a past tenant. </p><p dir="ltr">Tom argues that turning the tables on the rental application dynamic could make for a more honest and informed arrangement from both the landlord and prospective tenants. </p><p dir="ltr">“It occurs to me I’ve never heard anyone ask for this, but they [the landlord] ask me for like three references to see if I’m a good guy; what about them?” Mr Cashman said in the social media post.</p><p dir="ltr">“Are you [the landlord] a good guy? Are you going to fix stuff? Are you going to reply to my emails, or are you just going to ignore me once I’m in there?”</p><p dir="ltr">Documenting the experience on his social media accounts, Tom updated his followers when he got a response from the leasing agent. <span id="docs-internal-guid-9e472c85-7fff-8c1a-34a6-58cb28966910"></span></p><blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF;border: 0;border-radius: 3px;margin: 1px;max-width: 540px;min-width: 326px;padding: 0;width: calc(100% - 2px)" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CZbDSh4lIDa/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"><div style="padding: 16px"><div style="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="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="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="flex-direction: row;margin-bottom: 14px;align-items: center"><div><div style="background-color: #f4f4f4;border-radius: 50%;height: 12.5px;width: 12.5px"> </div><div style="background-color: #f4f4f4;height: 12.5px;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"> </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"> </div></div><div style="margin-left: auto"><div style="width: 0px;border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4;border-right: 8px solid transparent"> </div><div style="background-color: #f4f4f4;flex-grow: 0;height: 12px;width: 16px"> </div><div style="width: 0;height: 0;border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4;border-left: 8px solid transparent"> </div></div></div><div style="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"><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/tv/CZbDSh4lIDa/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Tom Cashman (@tomcashman1)</a></p></div></blockquote><p dir="ltr">The agent asked for clarification on what Tom meant, and when he elaborated, the agent claimed the landlord did not want to provide a reference, saying it was “not a requirement”.</p><p dir="ltr">After more back and forth via email, Tom was shocked when his previously successful application to rent the property was withdrawn. </p><p dir="ltr">Since his experience has gone viral, the Real Estate Institution of Australia has backed Tom’s idea, saying a landlord reference is a “reasonable request”.</p><p dir="ltr">“I think it's quite a reasonable request for a tenant to say, 'Look, I just want to get a bit of a feel for how the landlord is. Are they popping in all the time unannounced? Are they purporting to be looking at the garden or something like that?” Real Estate Institute of Australia president Hayden Groves <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-04/the-renter-who-asked-for-references/100802402">told the ABC</a>. </p><p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images / Instagram @tomcashman1</em></p>

Real Estate

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Humans v Machine: fake news headlines or real deal?

<div class="copy"> <p>Can you tell whether the title of a scientific article was written by a human or an AI? Because half the time, not even doctors can spot the fake science headline, according to a<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj-2021-067732" target="_blank"> paper</a> published in <em>BMJ.</em></p> <p>In a study worthy of the silly season, researchers used an AI to generate research paper titles and tested whether readers could tell if they were fake.</p> <p>They took the top titles from 10 years of <em>BMJs </em>Christmas edition – which are often quirkier than normal – to teach an AI to write its own titles. These were then rated by a random sample of doctors from multiple disciplines and countries.</p> <p>They found that AI-generated titles were rated at least as enjoyable (69%) compared to real titles (64%), although the real titles were rated as more plausible (73%) than AI titles (48%).</p> <p>They also found that the AI titles were deemed less scientific if generated at random, but this became less apparent when the titles were then curated by a human.</p> <p>The authors say that this shows how the best results come from an AI and a human working together, where the AI can compensate for human oversights but humans can make the final call.</p> <p>The two AI-generated titles deemed the most plausible were: “The clinical effectiveness of lollipops as a treatment for sore throats” and “The effects of free gourmet coffee on emergency department waiting times: an observational study.”</p> <p>The silliest title generated by the AI was: “Superglue your nipples together and see if it helps you to stop agonising about <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/mediterranean-diet-helps-ed/" target="_blank">erectile dysfunction</a> at work.” The authors note that this demonstrates the AI doesn’t know how to be polite, which limits its real-world application without human help.</p> <em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></div> <div id="contributors"> <p><em>This article was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/ai/fake-science-headline/" target="_blank">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Deborah Devis. </em></p> </div>

Technology

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Doctor makes international headlines for unusual note on patient's chart

<p dir="ltr">A Canadian doctor who cited climate change on a patient’s medical chart and attracted worldwide attention has now clarified what he meant by doing so.</p> <p dir="ltr">During a heatwave in Nelson, British Columbia, in late June, a 70-year-old woman’s health deteriorated, and GP Dr Kyle Merritt believed that extreme weather conditions during the North American summer were a contributing factor. The woman was already suffering from diabetes and heart failure, and lived in a caravan with no air conditioning, during a heatwave that would come to be known as the<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.timescolonist.com/bc-news/bcs-chief-coroner-reveals-city-death-tolls-due-to-heat-wave-4710606" target="_blank">hottest and deadliest</a><span> </span>in Canadian history.</p> <p dir="ltr">Speaking to<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/doctor-reveals-why-he-wrote-climate-change-on-patients-medical-chart-023010837.html?guccounter=1" target="_blank"><em>Yahoo News</em></a>, Dr Merritt said, “Oftentimes it's vulnerable patients that are the most affected. It’s people who don't have air conditioning in their homes in the case of the heat dome, or live in places where they can’t get away from the wildfire smoke. ‘</p> <p dir="ltr">“To see a patient affected that way and being forced to come in and get admitted to hospital because where they're living is not really safe for them anymore, I found it upsetting. “ wanted to think about the the underlying factors that were driving (her deterioration), so that's why I wrote it down.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Dr Merritt clarified that he only mentioned climate change on one patient’s chart, as he believed it “had to be part of the reason” his 70-year-old patient was admitted to the emergency room. He said he “wasn’t trying to make a big deal out of it”, but felt that it was important for both him and his colleagues to “recognise the truth” and acknowledge the contributing factor of climate change on people’s ill health.</p> <p dir="ltr">While some headlines have claimed he diagnosed a patient with ‘climate change’, Dr Merritt confirmed that this was not the case, as "climate change is not a medical condition”, but merely a contributing factor which can worsen existing illnesses, much like exposure to any extreme temperatures or weather conditions can worsen people’s health.</p> <p dir="ltr">He explained, “The diagnosis has to be a specific medical condition that's recognised as a medical condition. As physicians, we can’t just start making things up, of course we work within a medical framework."</p> <p dir="ltr">The links between climate change and people’s health are already well documented, with the<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health" target="_blank">World Health Organisation</a><span> </span>describing climate change as the “biggest health threat facing humanity”. The WHO predicts that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, primarily from malnutrition, diarrhoea, and heat stress. This is because climate change severely impacts the social and environmental determinants of health - clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter. Without these basic necessities, it becomes incredibly difficult for people to maintain good health.</p> <p dir="ltr">Dr Merritt told<span> </span><em>Yahoo<span> </span></em>that he hopes that in the coming years, GPs will seek to recognise the impact of climate change on the health of their patients. He said, “In a lot of places, and certainly in my corner of the world, we're starting to see the direct impacts of climate change on human health.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s always difficult to make the link, but it's got a lot more clear as time has gone on.”</p>

Caring

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If you can read this headline, you can read a novel. Here’s how to ignore your phone and just do it

<p>Public anxiety about the capacity of digital-age children and young adults to read anything longer than a screen grab has come to feel like moral panic. But there is plenty of evidence to suggest we must take such unease seriously.</p> <p>In 2016, the US National Endowment for the Arts reported the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/09/07/the-long-steady-decline-of-literary-reading/">proportion of American adults</a> who read at least one novel in 2015 had dropped to 43.1% from 56.9% in 1982.</p> <p>In 2018, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-it-matters-that-teens-are-reading-less-99281">US academic reported</a> that in 1980, 60% of 18-year-old school students read a book, newspaper or magazine every day that wasn’t assigned for school. By 2016, the number had plummeted to 16%.</p> <p>Those same 12th graders reported spending “six hours a day texting, on social media and online”.</p> <p>American literacy expert and neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf describes the threat screen reading poses to our capacity for “the slower cognitive processes such as critical thinking, personal reflection, imagination, and empathy that are all part of deep reading”.</p> <p>She <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/386632978/Excerpt-from-Reader-Come-Home-by-Maryanne-Wolf">asks</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Will the mix of continuously stimulating distractions of children’s attention and immediate access to multiple sources of information give young readers less incentive either to build their own storehouses of knowledge or to think critically for themselves?</p> </blockquote> <p>But rather than taking up defensive positions on either side of the digital-analogue reading divide, Wolf encourages us to embrace both. As parents and teachers we can help our children develop a <a href="https://now.tufts.edu/articles/slow-down-reader">bi-literate reading brain</a>. There are several ways we can do this.</p> <p><strong>Reading pathways</strong></p> <p>Reading is a learned skill that <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/71cf/5d3dd4a5037003f0bca787874f2d68077cf9.pdf">requires the development</a> of particular neural networks. And different reading platforms encourage the development of different aspects of those networks.</p> <p>Screen-reading children, immersed from toddlerhood in the pleasures and instant gratification of skimming, clicking and linking, develop cognitive skills that make them adept power browsers, good at the useful ability to scan for information and analyse data.</p> <p>But Wolf suggests this kind of reading “can short-circuit the development of the slower, more cognitively demanding comprehension processes that go into the formation of deep reading and deep thinking.”</p> <p>Unless the cognitive skills required for deep reading are similarly developed and nurtured, new generations of readers – distracted by the ready availability of digital information – may not learn to venture beyond the shallows of the reading experience.</p> <p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309816/original/file-20200114-103966-4rr4lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309816/original/file-20200114-103966-4rr4lz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="" /></a> <span class="caption">We can help children gain a love of reading on paper from an early age.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></p> <p>Along with others concerned with early childhood education Wolf advises encouraging paper literacy from infancy. She doesn’t recommend forbidding devices. Instead we should regularly turn them off and make the time and space to read books on paper with children.</p> <p>We can model our own reading practices by setting aside our own smart phones to lose ourselves in a book.</p> <p>But how can secondary and tertiary teachers help inexperienced readers? The problem is likely to be aliteracy, meaning students can read but they choose not to because they don’t see it to be important for learning. And because they haven’t read much, it’s hard work. The problem can seem intractable. But it can be done.</p> <p><strong>Turn off the phone and read</strong></p> <p>My first venture into helping tertiary students read better was a 2011-2013 <a href="https://ltr.edu.au/resources/CG10_1566_Kennedy_Toolkit_2013.pdf">cross-university government-funded project</a> that set out to foster what we termed “reading resilience”. We found if students were persuaded to prioritise reading as they did a test or an essay, they would invest the time to get into the zone that is the other world of the text.</p> <p>We complemented complex texts with a guide that encouraged students to think critically as they read and to keep going when the language seemed impenetrable, the narrative incomprehensible (or dull) and the length endless. Or when the siren call of the smart phone became irresistible.</p> <p>They experimented with switching off their devices for blocks of two hours while they simply read. And they did read.</p> <p>Students prioritised this difficult work because we rewarded pre-class reading with marks. Some classes uploaded one-page, carefully argued responses; others answered complex feedback-rich quizzes.</p> <p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309826/original/file-20200114-103982-1pgksj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309826/original/file-20200114-103982-1pgksj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="" /></a> <span class="caption">Can you ignore your phone for two hours and keep reading?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></p> <p>I surveyed a large first-year introduction to literary studies at the University of Queensland in 2013 before testing a version of the same “reading resilience” course in 2014. The rise in reading rates was exponential.</p> <p>The number of students who completed all ten primary texts (including the poem Beowulf and Toni Morrison’s Beloved) more than tripled, and the number who completed the ten accompanying secondary texts (selected chapters from an <a href="http://site.iugaza.edu.ps/ahabeeb/files/2012/02/An_Introduction_to_Literature__Criticism_and_Theory.pdf">introduction to literary theory and criticism</a>) went up by more than six times.</p> <p>Reported student satisfaction for this course from 2008 to 2012 had ranged between 64% and 75%. Once reading resilience was introduced, many complained about the reading load yet the level of overall satisfaction jumped to 86%.</p> <p><strong>We can all do it</strong></p> <p>It’s not just readers raised in a digital-age who have difficulty with long-form text. Have you have lost the skill of deep reading? Are you finding it increasingly difficult to stay with, say, a literary novel? You are not alone.</p> <p>Wolf, who despite having two degrees in literature, confesses to the shocking discovery that <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/27/17787916/reader-come-home-maryanne-wolf-neuroscience-brain-changes">recently she found herself</a> struggling to stick with a beloved Herman Hesse novel.</p> <p>We too can switch off our devices and set aside a space and time to revitalise the neural pathways that once made us immersive readers.</p> <p>As Wolf <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/71cf/5d3dd4a5037003f0bca787874f2d68077cf9.pdf?_ga=2.263432204.1683872892.1573681450-1249221942.1573681450">argues</a>, the skills of “deep reading” that involve “slower, more time-consuming cognitive processes […] are vital for contemplative life”. Deep readers are likely to be more thoughtful members of the community at a time when good citizenship may never have been more important.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><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; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116524/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/judith-seaboyer-131588">Judith Seaboyer</a>, Senior Lecturer, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a></em></span></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/if-you-can-read-this-headline-you-can-read-a-novel-heres-how-to-ignore-your-phone-and-just-do-it-116524">original article</a>.</p>

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Newspaper's awkward Julia Roberts typo goes viral

<p>A local newspaper has had its chance in the spotlight after making an unfortunate typo in the headline of a Julia Roberts story.</p> <p>The <em>Post-Journal</em> of Jamestown, New York, paid tribute to the Hollywood actress and her phenomenal career spanning over 30 years, but while their intentions were pure, the headline was what caught people’s attention the most.</p> <p>It read: “Julia Roberts Finds Life And Her Holes Get Better With Age.”</p> <p>While it meant to say her “Roles Get Better W<span>ith Age”, it was too late to retract the mistake, as the article on the 51-year-old had been published and soon, was in the hands of readers around the city.</span></p> <p>It didn’t take long for the blunder to make its way around the world as users took to Twitter to share photos of the printing error.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"> <p dir="ltr">Headline of the day <br /><br />Julia Roberts Finds Life And Her Holes Get Better With Age <a href="https://t.co/85oU83ijgi">pic.twitter.com/85oU83ijgi</a></p> — raf taylor (@truthis24fps) <a href="https://twitter.com/truthis24fps/status/1072126786253791232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">10 December 2018</a></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"> <p dir="ltr">I feel this title about Julia Roberts and Holes perhaps needs a little finessing <a href="https://t.co/z2o7EmJKbk">pic.twitter.com/z2o7EmJKbk</a></p> — Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrJenGunter/status/1072268067181289472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">10 December 2018</a></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"> <p dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/TheEllenShow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheEllenShow</a> can’t believe this headline in our local paper... Julia Roberts will be glad to know her holes are getting better with age😂😂 <a href="https://t.co/gvZkOsBjyN">pic.twitter.com/gvZkOsBjyN</a></p> — elizabeth (@eadavisus) <a href="https://twitter.com/eadavisus/status/1071797333497647104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">9 December 2018</a></blockquote> <p>In the story, the Oscar winner spoke about her age and how her life experiences reflect the roles she chooses to play.</p> <p>“You know, I’m happy and I have fun at home, so it would take a lot for someone to say: ‘Look, you can play this part where you’re happy and have fun.’ Well, I just do that at home,” she said.</p> <p>Despite starring in mega hit rom-coms in the past, back in October, Julia said she was done playing the damsel in distress as she cannot convince the audience that she’s a naïve character.</p> <p>“There came a point in my career where people thought I had turned on romantic comedies, which I love them, I love to be in them, I love to watch them,” she told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.etonline.com/" target="_blank"><em>Entertainment Tonight</em></a>.</p> <p>“But sometimes, they just don’t work at a certain point of life experience.”</p>

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