Search

New details about Queen Elizabeth's final hours revealed

The final hours of Queen Elizabeth's life have been shared in a tell-all new book about the royals, detailing how Her Majesty was forced to pull out of an important meeting before she died. In his book, Charles III: New King, New Court, author Robert Hardman shared that the day before her death, Queen Elizabeth had met the departing British prime minister, Boris Johnson, and his replacement, Liz Truss, at Balmoral and attended a drinks party that same evening. Hardman wrote that the Queen felt "buzzy" at the event, but her health quickly took a turn for the worst. “She was quite buzzy over pre-dinner drinks,” one guest at the party told Hardman. “But then she said she was going upstairs to have dinner alone.” The monarch then spent the next day in bed, but reportedly arranged with the Privy Council to dial in via video link for an important meeting. As her health deteriorated throughout the day, that was changed to allow for her to call from her bedroom in an audio-only capacity, according to Hardman. But just moments before the meeting was set to get underway, the Queen reportedly made the difficult decision to cancel entirely on “medical advice”. It was that evening that then-Prince Charles was advised by Princess Anne and his private secretary to make his way urgently to his mother’s bedside, with fears that the end was near. Hardman writes that the following day, Charles was told his mother had died over the phone, having briefly left her bedside to have a moment to himself outside. Sadly, most of the royal family didn't make it to Balmoral in time to see the Queen before she passed, with Prince William, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie all landing 40 minutes later. Prince Harry shared in his own memoir Spare that he learned of his grandmother’s death by reading it in a BBC breaking news alert, moments after his own flight landed. The Queen died at 3:10pm on September 8th 2022, after more than 70 years on the throne. Image credits: Shutterstock

Caring

King Charles' final message to Barry Humphries hours before he died

In a touching tribute to the late comedian Barry Humphries, the King has sent a personal message to be read out at the state memorial. The King, who shared a close friendship with the legendary comedian, expressed his deep sadness following Humphries' passing at the age of 89. The King, at 75, was not just a monarch but a friend who spoke to Humphries mere hours before his passing on April 22. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson at the time conveyed the King's profound sadness and mentioned that he was privately reaching out to Mr Humphries' family. Charles' connection with Humphries extended beyond formalities. The duo's friendship was a source of joy and laughter, exemplified by Humphries' memorable performance as Dame Edna at the 2013 Royal Variety Performance. Lord Archer, a close friend of Humphries, has also revealed that the King attended many of the comedian's shows, even bringing his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, backstage when they were young boys. The Australian newspaper also revealed recently that Charles sent Humphries an email just hours before his passing, with film director Bruce Beresford sharing the story: "Barry said, 'Well, I always admired him. We always got on well and I really liked his company and enjoyed being with him'," Mr Beresdord told the newspaper. "Barry was one of those people, he had a great capacity for friendship. He was so interested in people." Now, years later, the state memorial service at the Sydney Opera House promises to be a fitting tribute to Humphries as family, friends and fans gather to celebrate the comedian's illustrious career. The Australian Chamber Orchestra, a favourite of Humphries, will perform, adding a touch of elegance to the proceedings. The presence of Humphries' widow, Lizzie Spender, and his children at the memorial underscores the profound impact he had on those closest to him. Humphries' association with royalty was not limited to the King; he was a mainstay at royal performances, meeting Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana at various events. The comedian's contributions were acknowledged with a CBE by the late Queen in 2007, and he continued to be a familiar face at royal gatherings, including a delightful encounter with Queen Camilla at The Oldie of the Year Awards in 2021. The state memorial, with its mix of laughter, music and shared memories, will undoubtedly be a fitting tribute to a man who brought joy and laughter to millions around the world. Images: Getty

Caring

"I’m sorry, but no": Passenger on 12-hour flight stops woman from reclining

A passenger on a 12-hour flight from Paris to Los Angeles went to great lengths to stop the woman in front of her from reclining her seat. The footage captured on August 13 shows a woman in a black jumper stretching her arms out in attempt to prevent the passenger in front of her from reclining, reported The Sun. The chair jolts as the passenger in front kept trying to move back the seat, but the woman behind her was persistent, and used all of her strength to push the seat forward and keep it in an upright position. The traveller seemed to give up trying to recline her seat, but the woman behind her continued to place her hands on the seat. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but no,” she says as she continued her attempts. As tension rose between the two passengers, the woman in front gets fed up and asked if she could talk to someone, before confronting the traveller behind her. “Just let me know, what’s going on?,” she asked. “I said respectfully, can you please stop moving it back?" the woman behind her responded. “Respect the person behind you,” as the person in front explained that she is trying to recline her seat so she can sleep. The woman behind continued to tell her to “respect the person behind you” as she tried to watch a movie on her laptop. The confrontation seemed to work as the seat in front came to a standstill. Images: The Sun

Travel Trouble

Tina Turner's husband's loving act during her darkest hours

When Tina Turner met Erwin Bach in 1985, it was love at first sight. The lasting kind, too, with the pair going on to enjoy nearly 40 years together - and 9 years of marriage after tying the knot in July 2013 - before <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/news/news/tributes-flow-for-tina-turner">the legendary singer passed away at 83</a>, in the home the couple shared. Tina had been battling various health issues in the years leading up to her passing, and had faced a particularly dark spot back in 2017 - but Erwin had been determined to help. The story of their relationship - and Erwin’s heartfelt gift - was covered in Tina’s 2018 memoir, with the star sharing that she had first met her future husband after landing at Cologne’s airport ahead of her Private Dancer tour. Bach, who at the time was the executive for EMI, had been there to collect her, along with a gift - a Mercedes Jeep. But as Tina noted, it wasn’t the car that caught her eye, but instead Bach. “My heart suddenly started to beat ‘BOOM, BOOM, BOOM’,” she recalled. “My hands were ice cold. “‘So this is what they call love at first sight’, I thought. ‘Oh my God, I am not ready for this’.” It was a far cry from Tina’s first marriage to her abusive first husband, Ike Turner, and the couple happily settled into their quiet life in Zurich. However, things took a challenging turn when - after 9 years of marriage - Tina’s health declined. As she shared in her autobiography, “I couldn’t eat. I was surviving but not living,” she shared in her autobiography. I began to think about death. “If my kidneys were going, and it was time for me to die, I could accept that. It was okay. When it’s time, it’s really time.” Things became so difficult that she even looked into assisted suicide, before Bach stepped in to do what he could for his wife, telling Tina that he “didn’t want another woman, or another life”. “Then he shocked me,” she said. “He said he wanted to give me one of his kidneys.” The next step was to find out if they were a match - with tests confirming that they could go ahead with the donation - and the pair underwent surgery in 2017. It was, thankfully, a success, though Tina’s favourite part of it all was seeing “when Erwin came rolling into my room in his wheelchair. “He somehow managed to look good, even handsome, as he greeted me with an energetic ‘hi, darling!’ “I was so emotional - happy, overwhelmed, and relieved that we’d come through this alive.” Images: Getty

Caring

Little girl praised for shielding baby brother for 36 hours in quake

A seven-year-old girl and her younger brother have been rescued after a 7.8 magnitude quake in southeast Turkey and northern Syria destroyed their home and trapped them beneath tonnes of heavy concrete. Mariam and Ilaaf, along with the rest of their family, were asleep at home in Besnaya-Bseineh, a small village in Haram, Syria, when the Monday quake occurred. It is believed the siblings were confined in the debris for 36 gruelling hours before rescuers located them. Footage has emerged of the moment the children were found, and has revealed that despite the horrors of their situation, Mariam had one priority - protecting her little brother. Their father has since informed reporters that Illaf’s name is an Islamic one meaning ‘protection’. With an arm sheltering his head and covering his face from the dust and debris, Mariam can be seen stroking Ilaaf’s hair in what some believe to be the remains of their bed. A concrete slab lies precariously above them, pinning the two to the spot. “Get me out of here,” Mariam pleads to the rescuers in the now viral clip, “I’ll do anything for you.” To the relief of millions, the children were pulled safely from the scene of the disaster, and transferred to hospital to receive medical treatment. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> While under the rubble of her collapsed home this beautiful 7yr old Syrian girl has her hand over her little brothers head to protect him. Brave soul They both made it out ok. <a href="https://t.co/GrffWBGd1C">pic.twitter.com/GrffWBGd1C</a> — Vlogging Northwestern Syria (@timtams83) <a href="https://twitter.com/timtams83/status/1623060122695004169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2023</a></blockquote> UN representative Mohamad Safa took to Twitter to urge people to “share positivity” in light of the rescue. With a death toll in the thousands - a number only predicted to rise - and aid a desperate need, the siblings’ story has become a moment of bittersweet brightness in a time of tragedy. Around the world, people who heard their story have taken to social media to praise Mariam for her bravery, hailing her as a hero for her actions and love in a time of disaster. “Oh bless her,” tweeted one, “children's love and resilience makes me weep.” “Miracles happen. What a great big sister. Lovingly protective under such stressful circumstances,” wrote another. “Hope for all those still trapped. Respect for all the rescuers working tirelessly.” Their father, Mustafa Zuhir Al-Sayed, has confirmed that their family - he, his wife, and their three children - were asleep when it all happened. “We felt the ground shaking,” he said, “and rubble began falling over our heads, and we stayed two days under the rubble. We went through, a feeling, a feeling I hope no one has to feel.” “People heard us,” he explained, after recounting how he and his family prayed for someone to find them, “and we were rescued – me, my wife and the children. Thank God, we are all alive and we thank those who rescued us.” Images: Twitter

Caring

"I don't understand": Heartbroken bride mourns husband's passing mere hours after wedding

A bride has been left heartbroken as she mourns the death of her new husband just hours after they tied the knot. Oklahoma singer-songwriter Jake Flint and his fiancée Brenda Wilson said their vows in a beautiful ceremony on November 26. The pair then went home and Flint just never woke up again after dying in his sleep. However the cause of death has still not been confirmed. “We should be going through wedding photos but instead I have to pick out clothes to bury my husband in. People aren't meant to feel this much pain,” a devastated Brenda wrote. “My heart is gone and I just really need him to come back. I can't take much more. I need him here.” <iframe style="overflow: hidden; border: initial none initial;" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=476&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fbrenda.wilson.14224094%2Fvideos%2F4989810367788613%2F&show_text=false&width=267&t=0" width="267" height="476" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Flint’s longtime publicist Clif Doyal confirmed the horrific news and said that he was “loved by everybody”. “He was not only a client, he was a dear friend and just a super nice guy,” he wrote. “As you can see from the outpouring on social media, he was loved by everybody. I think a lot of it was just that he was a people person, and he had an amazing sense of humor. “He made everybody laugh, and he made everybody feel welcome.” Flint's manager, Brenda Cline, also confirmed his death in a sad social media post. “With a broken heart and in deep grief I must announce that Jake Flint has tragically passed away,” she wrote. “I've tried several times today to make a post, but you can't comment on what you can't process.” Images: Facebook

Family & Pets

Missing cruise passenger rescued after over 15 hours in ocean

A passenger on a Carnival Valor cruise ship has been rescued by the US Coast Guard after spending more than 15 hours in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The 28-year-old was with his sister at the ship’s bar on the night of Wednesday, November 23, but didn’t return after he left to use the toilet. According to a statement from Carnival, the sister reported her brother missing the following day. Another passenger on the cruise, Mike Anderson, told CNN that announcements were made on the ship and people “noticed security starting to search the boat with a photo of the missing (passenger) in their phones”. Mr Anderson said passengers were later told their arrival to their port of call in Cozumel, Mexico, was delayed, while his wife said one of the pools was drained. After a lengthy search, the man was finally spotted about 30 kilometres off the coast of Louisiana on Thursday night by rescue crews that had been scouring a 320-kilometre area along the gulf. Lieutenant Seth Gross of the US Coast Guard said the man may have been in the water for over 15 hours, the “absolute longest that I’ve heard about”. He said that “all available resources” were launched to locate the man, including a small boat from Florida, a New Orleans-based helicopter, and planes from Florida and Alabama. The man was hoisted onto the helicopter and was responsive. "He was able to identify his name, confirmed that he was the individual that fell overboard," Lieutenant Gross told CNN on Friday, adding that the man had signs of “hypothermia, shock and dehydration” but could walk and talk. "The fact that he was able to keep himself afloat and above the surface of the water for such an extended period of time, it's just something you can't take for granted and certainly something that'll stick with me forever," Lieutenant Gross added, describing it as “just one of those Thanksgiving miracles”. He said that the case was unlike anything he had seen in his 17-year career with the Coast Guard and “could have had a much more difficult ending”. "It took a total team effort from Coast Guard watchstanders, response crews, and our professional maritime partners operating in the Gulf of Mexico to locate the missing individual and get him to safety,” he said. While the man has been reported to be in a stable condition, it is still unclear how or when he fell into the water. Image: Getty Images

Cruising

"A kind of meditative peace": Quiet hour shopping makes us wonder why our cities have to be so noisy

The idea behind “quiet hour” shopping is to set aside a time each week for a retail experience that minimises noise and other sources of sensory overload. It is aimed at people who are <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/explainer-neurodivergence-mental-health/">neurodivergent</a> – an umbrella term for people with autism, ADHD and other sensory-processing conditions. What began as a boutique or specialist retail strategy has become more mainstream. Major <a href="https://www.coles.com.au/about-coles/community/accessibility/quiet-hour">supermarket</a> <a href="https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/au/en/media/news-archive/2019/woolworths-rolls-out-quiet-hour-to-select-stores-across-australia.html">chains</a> and <a href="https://insideretail.com.au/news/westfield-tuggerah-introduces-quiet-hour-for-people-with-dementia-autism-201907">shopping centres</a> in Australia and overseas have introduced it in recent years. In newly published <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/07255136221133188">research</a> we explored quiet hour as an aspect of the impacts of sound on how people experience city life. As expected, we found it did benefit people who are neurodivergent. But other people also welcomed the relief from sensory overload once they’d overcome the feeling of having wandered into an eerily quiet “post-apocalyptic scene”. Our work has made us question the acceptance of urban noise and light as being part and parcel of a vibrant city. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> As families around Australia prepare for Santa’s arrival Coles and Woolworths supermarkets become a centre of activity. Both stores offer ‘Quiet Hour’ on Tuesday for a low sensory shopping experience. Coles hours: <a href="https://t.co/jZV0f5bGwm">https://t.co/jZV0f5bGwm</a> Woolworths hours: <a href="https://t.co/X5iMm05cOr">https://t.co/X5iMm05cOr</a> <a href="https://t.co/R5CyXcB9R3">pic.twitter.com/R5CyXcB9R3</a> — NDIS (@NDIS) <a href="https://twitter.com/NDIS/status/1458706093492817923?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <h2>What does quiet hour involve?</h2> Quiet hour is intended to make retail spaces more inclusive or sensory-friendly. Its features include retailers or mall managers agreeing to: <ul> <li> switch automatic doors to open </li> <li> pause collection of trolleys </li> <li> turn off the PA and music </li> <li> fix flickering lights and turn off as much lighting as practicable </li> <li> remove scented reeds and pause automatic scent dispensers </li> <li> switch off hand dryers </li> <li> turn down the volume on checkout scanners. </li> </ul> One of the tools we used for mapping quiet hour was a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/07255136221133188">thematic analysis</a> of reports about it in Australian print media from 2017 to 2019. We found the following themes: <ul> <li> an emphasis on the kinds of discomforts associated with retail environments </li> <li> the importance of providing a “low-sensory environment” as a form of inclusion </li> <li> while lighting was often mentioned, the main recurring theme was the reduction of sound. </li> </ul> <h2>Why does reducing sound matter?</h2> Sound and sensory hypersensitivity are important themes in neurodivergent people’s accounts of how they struggle with everyday experiences others take for granted. Leading autism researcher and advocate Sandra Thom-Jones <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/growing-in-to-autism-paperback-softback">writes</a> that neurodivergents’ sensitivity to sound is complex. It’s affected by “what the sound actually is, how loud it is, whether I am expecting it, and whether I can control it”. People might assume everyone has the ability to <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203033142-4/radio-texture-self-others1-jo-tacchi">frame which sounds are important</a> and which are “irrelevant to what we are listening to or doing”. However, the ability to single out sound sources and block out background noise is a major point of differentiation between neurotypicals and neurodivergents. Thom-Jones, who received her autism diagnosis at age 52, <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/growing-in-to-autism-paperback-softback">reports</a> that when she is “in an environment with multiple sounds” she tends to “hear all of them”. Thus, when she is catching up with a friend in a café, she may be “listening intently” to what her friend is saying but she will also be “hearing the piped music, the people talking at the next table, cars driving past, the coffee machine”. <h2>Others welcome quiet hour too</h2> Given how neurodivergents process sound, quiet hour is likely to increase their sense of comfort in retail spaces. However, quiet hour also suspends or – to use a term coined by <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Frame_Analysis/XBpmAAAAIAAJ?hl=en">Erving Goffman</a> – “rekeys” the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/symb.506">sensory frames</a> of all shoppers. A quiet hour could benefit lots of people who may not have a specific condition but simply prefer a quieter retail environment. We found this is an under-researched area, but did find anecdotal accounts to suggest this. Take the <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/12-07-2020/the-quiet-hours-in-praise-of-supermarket-serenity">case</a> of New Zealand actress and author Michelle Langstone. She reports visiting stores across Auckland and Rotorua that offer quiet-hour shopping. She stumbled upon it by “sheer luck”. At first, she admits, it felt “a bit like a post-apocalyptic scene”. Once she adjusted to the unfamiliar sensory environment, she felt herself succumbing to changed supermarket routines, “I cruised every single [aisle], taking in the quiet for nearly 45 minutes, at the end of which I felt a kind of meditative peace come over me.” Langstone also <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/12-07-2020/the-quiet-hours-in-praise-of-supermarket-serenity">reports</a> avoiding impulse buying. That first time she left with “only [the] bread and eggs” she had gone to the shop for. She was able to focus on shopping rather than “multi-tasking”, and quiet hour left her with a “feeling of goodwill towards all shoppers”. In other words, even if the strategy is about levelling the sensory playing field for neurodivergents, it seems to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/soin.12232">change the shopping experience</a> for other people too. <h2>Why the bias towards the noisy city?</h2> As researchers interested in sound and space, quiet hour made us reflect on how we think about these issues and our attitudes to noise. It made us question, for example, why one of the most cited texts in our field is entitled <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/noise">Noise: The Political Economy of Music</a>? Studies of silence or quietude are rare in urban or spatial studies. One has to turn to fields such as the study of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1466138109339041">meditation practices</a> or the silence associated with <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-au/A+History+of+Silence:+From+the+Renaissance+to+the+Present+Day-p-9781509517350">nature or sacred spaces</a> to find positive accounts of reduced noise. This needs correcting. Sound intensity matters if cities, buildings or public spaces are to foster hospitality and “<a href="https://www.metrolab.brussels/publications/the-qualities-of-hospitality-and-the-concept-of-inclusive-city">support people in their activities by facilitating their stay</a>”. What quiet hour teaches us is that an inclusive or welcoming city is a city that “<a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Resonance%3A+A+Sociology+of+Our+Relationship+to+the+World-p-9781509519927">resonates</a>” with different kinds of minds, bodies and styles of sensory processing. Quiet hour might therefore be both an inclusion strategy and an experiment that forces us to think more deeply about our cities and how they sound. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-kind-of-meditative-peace-quiet-hour-shopping-makes-us-wonder-why-our-cities-have-to-be-so-noisy-193461" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Travel Tips

Family told to make way for highway project hours after moving in to new home

Hours after picking up the keys to his newly-built family home, Anil Konda was informed that his whole property would be used in upgrades to Queensland’s Bruce Highway. After putting down an initial deposit on the land in Griffin, in Brisbane’s north, Mr Konda relocated his young family of four to Queensland, and they found a rental to stay in, a new school for the kids, and endured 11 months of building delays before stepping into their new home. But their good news was short-lived, with the state government’s Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) sending an email requesting Mr Konda to call them for more information on the “future land requirement” before calling him that afternoon. "When I asked specific details like, 'How is it impacted? Am I going to lose a certain amount of land?', they told me like it's going to be the entire thing," he told the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-19/qld-home-owners-angry-bruce-highway-update-land-resumption/101549992" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABC</a>. "The entire house has to be taken out." Mr Konda said the family wanted to see the construction of their new home in person since it was their first house, and that even if they can live in their home for the next few years, they know it will be taken away. “They just took away the joy of our new home,” he said. "We don't have the belongingness (sic)." But Mr Konda’s family isn’t alone. Their home is part of the relatively new Aspire development, where there are still vacant lots, houses in the midst of construction, and residents who have mostly moved in within the past few months. A TMR spokesperson confirmed that the owners of 24 residential lots have been contacted about the plans. Charmaine and James Jackson are owners of another of the affected blocks of land, which they purchased and built their dream home on in 2021, the same year they had their second child. "It was eight days after he was born we went to the office to pick out our tile colours, our paint and everything like that," Mrs Jackson said. With their youngest just turning one, they had hopes of staying in the home until both boys had left school. "I just need an explanation," Mr Jackson said. "How could this have happened where you've allowed people so freshly to have built new houses only to tell them that they're going to be torn down in the middle of a housing crisis." After receiving the email, Mr Jackson contacted TMR to ask why the title was allowed to be registered. "They said when Aspire put in the planning application we didn't have planning up-to-date at that time to confirm any impacts," he said. Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said the highway project was still in its very early planning stages, and that more specific numbers of residents who will be impacted will be determined as planning progresses. "If we do require someone's property, we get independent evaluations and market rates, so that we make sure that people who are impacted in the end, that they are looked after and that they get fair value and compensation,” he said. "It's never a good process and of course these are relatively recent approvals by the local governments involved, so I can appreciate why they would feel aggrieved by the process." Image: ABC News (Facebook)

Real Estate

Princess Anne gives touching insight into Queen's final hours

Princess Anne has opened up about her mother’s final 24 hours before she passed away. Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96 on September 8 while under medical supervision due to her deteriorating health. Her daughter Princess Anne was “grateful” to spend the final 24 hours with the late monarch before her tragic death. “I was fortunate to share the last 24 hours of my dearest Mother’s life,” Princess Anne’s statement read. “It has been an honour and a privilege to accompany her on her final journeys. Witnessing the love and respect shown by so many on these journeys has been both humbling and uplifting.” She went on to thank everyone who sent their well wishes to her late mother before acknowledging the understanding given to her brother, King Charles III. “We will all share unique memories. I offer my thanks to each and every one who share our sense of loss,” she wrote. “We may have been reminded how much of her presence and contribution to our national identity we took for granted. “I am also so grateful for the support and understanding offered to my dear brother Charles as he accepts the added responsibilities of The Monarch. “To my mother, The Queen, thank you.” The Queen will be laid to rest on September 19. Image: Twitter

Family & Pets

Incredible teenage boy cracks coded coin in hours, but he isn’t the first

Within hours of its release to the general public, a 14-year-old boy had cracked the codes hidden on <a href="https://oversixty.com.au/finance/money-banking/coins-covered-in-coded-clues-will-test-your-spy-skills" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a coin released by an Australian intelligence agency</a> - but some had solved them days earlier, due to an unusual legal rule. A 50-cent coin celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) was released last Thursday containing four levels of codes with hidden messages. But, the puzzles were already being discussed online ten days earlier, with some codes already being solved by August 20. This was due to requirements on the Australian Government to include the characters featured on the coin in legislation, available online, before the coin was made available to purchase on September 1. As well as a celebration of the agency’s history, it’s hoped the coin will act as a kind of recruitment drive and attempt to raise the profile of the ASD among the general public, with the agency planning to recruit another 1,900 people over the next decade as part of a $9.9 billion expansion. Dr Richard Bean, a research fellow at the University of Queensland who solved the coin’s puzzles within two hours of getting his hands on it, said the move was about attracting those interested in a career with the ASD. "The kind of people who would sit down and solve this kind of code on the coin, they're the kind of people the ASD wants to attract — innovative thinkers to solve difficult problems in cryptography in both an offensive and defensive sense," Dr Bean said. "So solving other nation's codes and protecting Australian government communications security. "It's about attracting the right candidates and putting the ASD in their mind, instead of having to go out in traditional recruitment channels." But let’s go back to our teenage whiz kid. Though the Tasmanian boy’s identity hasn’t been revealed, it’s clear he has talent and instinct according to Distinguished Professor Willy Susilo, who also directs the Institute of Cybersecurity and Cryptology at the University of Wollongong. “[What] is very important is actually not about whether you can crack the code or not, [what] is important is the thinking behind it, how to solve this kind of puzzle,” he told the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-05/how-to-solve-spy-australian-signals-directorate-50-cent-coin/101405266" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABC</a>. “To me, I think to get a person who, especially in this case, is 14 years old, can crack the code within just one or two hours is actually incredible in my opinion. "That really is the kind of skill needed in the Australian Signals Directorate." Image: ASD

Money & Banking

John Farnham health update after 11-hour surgery

After learning that <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/health/caring/john-farnham-hospitalised-after-cancer-diagnosis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Farnham has developed a cancerous growth</a>, the "You're the Voice" singer has undergone a long and intensive surgical procedure in efforts to remove it. The operation took place in a hospital in Melbourne on the morning of August 23 and finished at 7:30pm, according to a family spokesperson. Farnham, 73, is in a stable condition and was transferred to an intensive care unit, with a further statement issued on behalf of the family stating that he is grateful to have the best specialist care in the world,. “Cancer diagnosis is something that so many people face every single day, and countless others have walked this path before me,” he said. “The one thing I know for sure is that we have the best specialist healthcare professionals in Victoria, and we can all be grateful for that. I know I am.” Richard Wilkins shares the 73-year-old is in good spirits and had been “cracking jokes with the doctors” before the surgery. “Surgeons are confident they can get it all and that the operation will be successful,” Wilkins said. Having previous health scares in the past, the singer was hospitalised with a severe kidney infection in 2019, this episode prompted him to quit smoking and cut back on alcohol, focusing on a healthy lifestyle. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was difficult to hear the news that Farnham had been diagnosed with cancer. “All Australians love John Farnham,” Albanese said. “John Farnham has been and continues to be a great Australian. He has not only provided entertainment for Australians over many decades, he also has been a contributor to the nation.” Former Labor leader Bill Shorten has wished Farnham “all the best [with his] surgery and recovery”. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Thinking of <a href="https://twitter.com/johnfarnham?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@johnfarnham</a> and his family and friends. John, wishing you all the best for your surgery today and for your recovery. — Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) <a href="https://twitter.com/billshortenmp/status/1561856707776872448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2022</a></blockquote> US singer Richard Marx, who has performed with Farnham on various occasions and collaborated with the musician on his 1994 album Then Again, said he was “sending much love, strength and healing to my friend the great John Farnham and to his lovely family”. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Sending much love, strength and healing to my friend the great <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JohnFarnham?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JohnFarnham</a> and to his lovely family. — Richard Marx (@richardmarx) <a href="https://twitter.com/richardmarx/status/1561860205192695809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2022</a></blockquote> Image: Getty

News

A robot dog with a virtual spinal cord can learn to walk in just one hour

We’ve all seen those adorable clips of newborn giraffes or foals first learning to walk on their shaky legs, stumbling around until they finally master the movements. Researchers wanted to know how animals learn to walk and learn from their stumbling, so they built a four-legged, dog-sized robot to simulate it, according to a new study <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42256-022-00505-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> in Nature Machine Intelligence. They found that it took their robot and its virtual spinal cord just an hour to get its walking under control. Getting up and going quickly is essential in the animal kingdom to avoid predators, but learning how to co-ordinate leg muscles and tendons takes time. Initially, baby animals rely heavily on hard-wired spinal cord reflexes to co-ordinate muscle and tendon control, while motor control reflexes help them to avoid falling and hurting themselves during their first attempts. More precise muscle control must be practised until the nervous system adapts to the muscles and tendons, and the young are then able to keep up with the adults. “As engineers and roboticists, we sought the answer by building a robot that features reflexes just like an animal and learns from mistakes,” says first author Dr Felix Ruppert, a former doctoral student in the Dynamic Locomotion research group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS), Germany. “If an animal stumbles, is that a mistake? Not if it happens once. But if it stumbles frequently, it gives us a measure of how well the robot walks.” <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> <div class="entry-content-asset"> <div class="embed-wrapper"> <div class="inner"><iframe title="Learning Plastic Matching of Robot Dynamics in Closed-loop Central Pattern Generators" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LPL6nvs_GEc?feature=oembed" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div> </div> </div> </div> </figure> Building a virtual spinal cord to learn how to walk The researchers designed a <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/machine-learning-tool-brain-injury/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">learning algorithm</a> to function as the robot’s spinal cord and work as what’s known as a Central Pattern Generator (CPG). In humans and animals, the CPGs are networks of neurons in the spinal cord that, without any input from the brain, produce periodic muscle contractions. These are important for rhythmic tasks like breathing, blinking, digestion and walking. <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p198628-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> </div> </div> The CPG was simulated on a small and lightweight computer that controlled the motion of the robot’s legs and it was positioned on the robot where the head would be on a dog. The robot – which the researchers named Morti – was designed with sensors on its feet to measure information about its movement. Morti learnt to walk while having no prior explicit “knowledge” of its leg design, motors, or springs by continuously comparing the expected data (modelled from the virtual spinal cord) against the sensor data as it attempted to walk. “Our robot is practically ‘born’ knowing nothing about its leg anatomy or how they work,” Ruppert explains. “The CPG resembles a built-in automatic walking intelligence that nature provides and that we have transferred to the robot. The computer produces signals that control the legs’ motors and the robot initially walks and stumbles. “Data flows back from the sensors to the virtual spinal cord where sensor and CPG data are compared. If the sensor data does not match the expected data, the learning algorithm changes the walking behaviour until the robot walks well and without stumbling.” Sensor data from the robot’s feet are continuously compared with the expected touch-down data predicted by the robot’s CPG. If the robot stumbles, the learning algorithm changes how far the legs swing back and forth, how fast the legs swing, and how long a leg is on the ground. “Changing the CPG output while keeping reflexes active and monitoring the robot stumbling is a core part of the learning process,” Ruppert says. Within one hour, Morti can go from stumbling around like a newborn animal to walking, optimising its movement patterns faster than an animal and increasing its energy efficiency by 40%. “We can’t easily research the spinal cord of a living animal. But we can model one in the robot,” says co-author Dr Alexander Badri-Spröwitz, head of the Dynamic Locomotion research group. “We know that these CPGs exist in many animals. We know that reflexes are embedded; but how can we combine both so that animals learn movements with reflexes and CPGs? “This is fundamental research at the intersection between robotics and biology. The robotic model gives us answers to questions that biology alone can’t answer.” <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=198628&title=A+robot+dog+with+a+virtual+spinal+cord+can+learn+to+walk+in+just+one+hour" width="1" height="1" /> <div id="contributors"> <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/robot-machine-learning-to-walk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/imma-perfetto" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Imma Perfetto</a>. Imma Perfetto is a science writer at Cosmos. She has a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Science Communication from the University of Adelaide. Dynamic Locomotion Group (YouTube) </div>

Technology

Floating fracas: Hour-long brawl breaks out on cruise ship

A mass brawl has broken out on a cruise ship heading into New York. However, it remains unsure if anybody will be charged. The brawl broke out on the dancefloor of a nightclub of the Carnival Magic cruise ship in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday the 28th of June. At the moment of the brawl, the ship was heading back to New York, but the exact location of the vessel will have a bearing on a criminal investigation depending on the jurisdiction of law enforcement it falls under. However, if it took place in international waters, it is possible everybody involved will get away scot-free. The NYPD has confirmed security on-board were unable to contain the fight and had to summon the Coast Guard. "Security onboard the boat attempted to de-escalate the situation and subsequently called for the Coast Guard," the police said in a statement. "The Coast Guard escorted the cruise ship to Pier 88, confines of the MTN Precinct. Uniformed personnel and Traffic Agents met the ship and the ship disembarked passengers without further incident". An eyewitness passenger Theresa James claims the fight began over a "threesome". <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Massive brawl breaks out in nightclub of Carnival cruise ship just off New York harbor. It started because someone got jealous over a “threesome”. The Coast Guard was summoned to escort the ship back to New York. <a href="https://t.co/2Xnljgi3O9">pic.twitter.com/2Xnljgi3O9</a> — Mike Sington (@MikeSington) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeSington/status/1542467886223982592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 30, 2022</a></blockquote> She said the fight lasted for an hour and stretched from the fifth floor to the first floor, involving up to 60 people. Carnival described the brawl as an "altercation". "Thankfully no serious injuries were reported and our onboard security team intervened." The brawl came at the end of an eight-day voyage, which went into various islands in the West Indies before heading back up the US east coast. Image: Shutterstock

Travel Trouble

Woman reveals how to perfectly ripen avocados in just 24 hours

A popular health influencer has shared a unique avocado ripening hack, demonstrating the method in a Instagram video. Caroline Groth says the hack is "something I heard about years ago". "The kiwi actually doesn't ripen, funnily enough," she says. In the video descriptions she writes: "Guys, Green Skin + Shepard Avocado season means I legit need a spreadsheet to keep track of when I'll have avocados to eat because they take foreeeeeeeever to ripen." "But no more… insert the best 101 life hack ever," Caroline continues. She explains: "The kiwi fruit releases ethylene gas - a plant hormone that aids the ripening process - and the paper bag traps the gas so the process works faster meaning you'll have ripe avocados in 24 hours." <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CdVQwgqjU30/?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/CdVQwgqjU30/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Caroline Høgh Groth (@carolinehgroth)</a> </div> </blockquote> Caroline ends her video description by saying: "You're bloody welcome." Caroline makes the most of this hack, sharing recipes of some of her favourite meals using avocados including salads and variations of breakfast favourite smashed avocado on toast. Once your avocado is perfectly ripe, there is another hack that will keep it that way for longer. Cut your avocado in half and remove the stone, then it can stay fresh for longer by being placed in a container filled with cold water and then stored in the fridge. "As a major avocado lover I will definitely be using this hack," one person commented. Images: Instagram

Food & Wine

Child dies hours after being discharged from hospital

A family has been left heartbroken after their child died just hours after being discharged from hospital. Six-year-old Hiyaan Kapil had been experiencing stomach pains for a few days when his parents took him to an emergency room in Logan, south of Brisbane on Sunday night. Little Hiyaan spent four hours in the hospital where he was constantly vomiting before he was discharged about 10pm. His family said that the boy was still in pain when they got home and collapsed on the floor within two hours. Hiyaan’s father rushed him to hospital but by then it was too late to save him. Family and friends have called for answers as to what happened to Hiyaan and why he was discharged. "We want to know what happened, that's the only question," family friend Rajbir Gil told Nine News. "We don't want to blame, we don't want to claim anything... we don't need it because we can't get him back. "The only important thing we lost. He's not with us." Images: Nine News

Caring

Great grandma left outside hospital for two hours in the cold

A 92-year-old great grandmother who was rushed to hospital by her family due to a shortage of ambulances was left out in the cold for two hours. Maureen Wortley suffered a fall and was taken to Lyell McEwin Hospital in Adelaide about 6.30pm on Monday night. Upon arrival, Maureen underwent a Covid test before having to do another one due to miscommunication with staff. While waiting to be treated, Maureen was forced to wait outside in the freezing cold for two hours dressed only in her dressing gown. "She was asked to sit on her walker, wasn't provided with a wheelchair or a blanket, asked to sit on her walker outside in 10 or 12 degrees," a family member told <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/south-australia-news-great-grandmother-left-two-hours-in-cold-outside-adelaide-emergency-room/ea975d2d-f2ad-4a37-b173-0d623e86849c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nine News</a>. The family made a formal complaint about Maureen’s treatment and claimed that staff were provided with heating while patients were not. South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas was made aware of the complaint and offered his personal apology. "We saw someone not getting the sort of care that any Australian with a degree of compassion would want to see or certainly expect," he said. Dr Penny Conor from the Northern Adelaide Health Network confirmed that the hospital was busy but was not at capacity. "I probably wouldn't describe it as a substantial stuff up but yes we could've done better," she said. "Again I apologise unreservedly to the family." Image: Nine News

Caring

P-plate speedster loses licence an hour after passing driving test

A P-plater has been caught driving at a whopping 193 km/h and lost his licence just one hour after passing his driving test. The 18-year-old Sydney man was pulled over by police from Burwood Highway Patrol in Moombooldool, about 50km east of Griffith, after he was clocked speeding in an old Toyota Hilux. The officers - also from Sydney - were en-route to Griffith to start a traffic enforcement campaign in the area and shared their encounter on social media. “After stopping the vehicle and speaking to the driver (officers) discovered the driver had only (an) hour earlier passed his driving test,” the post on NSW Police’s Traffic and Highway Patrol Command page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TrafficServicesNSWPF/posts/5245654198832851" target="_blank" rel="noopener">read</a>. Police revealed the driver’s teenage sibling was also in the car and that the driver received a hefty punishment, including a penalty notice for speeding by more than 45 km/h and not displaying his newly-received P plates. “His licence was suspended on the spot for a minimum of six months, which will be extended due to the excessive loss of demerit points,” the post read. Highway patrol officers based in rural areas who spoke to <a href="https://www.drive.com.au/news/p-plate-driver-busted-at-193km-h-moments-after-getting-licence-also-a-toyota-hilux-can-do-193km-h/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Drive</a> said they were surprised by how many city motorists get caught at high speeds. “People don’t realise (the highway patrol) are everywhere across the state,” one officer told the publication. “A lot of people think they can floor it in remote areas, but the dangers are significant, with wildlife, livestock and trees by the side of the road. “It’s also easier to detect speeds because there is usually only one road in or out of a regional centre. If you speed, you will get caught because we’re out there.” Image: Traffic and Highway Patrol Command - NSW Police Force (Facebook)

Legal

Woman drives 2.5 hours for date

A woman has been left heartbroken after driving almost three hours for a date only to find he had blocked her before meeting her. Kiera McGinnity shared the devastating ordeal to TikTok, revealing it was a person she was speaking to on the dating app Bumble. “Drives 2.5 hours to meet up with a guy I had been talking to for over a month,” she wrote. “He blocks me on everything as soon as I get there.” Hurting over what happened, Kiera asked viewers to “don’t come at me for driving that far either”. However, viewers completely disregarded Kiera’s request, questioning why she would drive so far for a date. “That's why a man should always come to you. Don’t ever do that again,” someone wrote. “You dodged a bullet!” another commented. “Why would you do that in the first place?” someone asked “Red flag #1 you drive 2.5 hours,” another pointed out. Images: TikTok

Relationships

The pursuit for 8 hours of sleep could be keeping us up at night

We’re constantly told 8 hours is the optimal amount of sleep for health and energy, but if you don’t or can’t get it you might be left feeling stressed and even concerned for your health. However, a leading sleep expert wants us all to know the furphy we've been made to believe about a perfect eight-hour block of sleep. Dr David Cunnington, specialist sleep physician, says that the idea of eight hours of sleep was invented by humans and isn't necessarily the way Mother Nature has programmed us. "This concept of eight hours' sleep is a concept of industrialisation, it's a social construct," he said. In fact, Dr Cunnington says that a lot of our sleep ideas stem from the slogan coined in 1817 by labour rights activist Robert Owen: "Eight hours labour, eight hours' recreation, eight hours' rest." "Up until the early 19th century … human sleep had been three to four hours at the start of the night, an hour or two awake in the night, and then some dozing until the sun came up, and a nap in the day if the opportunity arose," Dr Cunnington explains. "That’s more biologically how we sleep, that flexibility of sleep and wake being a bit dispersed across the day." But when industrialisation occurred, we began "shoehorning" sleep into a designated window. Dr Cunnington says that can work perfectly fine when life is going smoothly, but can pave the way for anxiety if you have sleeping difficulties or a lot of life stress. "[We have] rigid time domain constraints around sleep and wakefulness — sleep must only occur in this eight-hour window," he says. "[We think we must] get eight hours in the eight hours we allocate for it, and then wakefulness must occur for 16 hours continuously with no sleep interrupting that continuous wakefulness, and performance across that wakeful period must be uniform. "That’s a societal construct … it’s just not biological. We have ebbs and flows in energy across the day, but that allocation of time, that eight-eight-eight doesn’t pay any respect to that." While our society is unlikely to change to allow us to sleep in chunks, Dr Cunnington says the knowledge that sleep wasn't always forced into a particular block and did not always have so much pressure on it, is useful to know. Image: Getty

Mind

Over 60

News

Shop

Catalogues

Travel

Health

Lifestyle

Finance

Entertainment

Property

Information

Keep up to date

Search

New details about Queen Elizabeth's final hours revealed

King Charles' final message to Barry Humphries hours before he died

"I’m sorry, but no": Passenger on 12-hour flight stops woman from reclining

Tina Turner's husband's loving act during her darkest hours

Little girl praised for shielding baby brother for 36 hours in quake

"I don't understand": Heartbroken bride mourns husband's passing mere hours after wedding

Missing cruise passenger rescued after over 15 hours in ocean

"A kind of meditative peace": Quiet hour shopping makes us wonder why our cities have to be so noisy

Family told to make way for highway project hours after moving in to new home

Princess Anne gives touching insight into Queen's final hours

Incredible teenage boy cracks coded coin in hours, but he isn’t the first

John Farnham health update after 11-hour surgery

A robot dog with a virtual spinal cord can learn to walk in just one hour

Floating fracas: Hour-long brawl breaks out on cruise ship

Woman reveals how to perfectly ripen avocados in just 24 hours

Child dies hours after being discharged from hospital

Great grandma left outside hospital for two hours in the cold

P-plate speedster loses licence an hour after passing driving test

Woman drives 2.5 hours for date

The pursuit for 8 hours of sleep could be keeping us up at night