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Almost half of Moon missions fail. Why is space still so hard?

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gail-iles-761554">Gail Iles</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063">RMIT University</a> In 2019, India attempted to land a spacecraft on the Moon – and ended up painting a kilometres-long streak of debris on its barren surface. Now the Indian Space Research Organisation has returned in triumph, with the Chandrayaan-3 lander <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-counts-down-crucial-moon-landing-2023-08-23/">successfully touching down</a> near the south pole of Earth’s rocky neighbour. India’s success came just days after a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02659-6">spectacular Russian failure</a>, when the Luna 25 mission tried to land nearby and “ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface”. These twin missions remind us that, close to 60 years after the first successful “soft landing” on the Moon, spaceflight is still difficult and dangerous. Moon missions in particular are still a coin flip, and we have seen several high-profile failures in recent years. Why were these missions unsuccessful and why did they fail? Is there a secret to the success of countries and agencies who have achieved a space mission triumph? <h2>An exclusive club</h2> The Moon is the only celestial location humans have visited (so far). It makes sense to go there first: it’s the closest planetary body to us, at a distance of around 400,000 kilometres. Yet only four countries have achieved successful “soft landings” – landings which the spacecraft survives – on the lunar surface. The USSR was the first. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_9">Luna 9</a> mission safely touched down on the Moon almost 60 years ago, in February 1966. The United States followed suit a few months later, in June 1966, with the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/1966-the-real-first-moon-landing-118785850/">Surveyor 1</a> mission. China was the next country to join the club, with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e_3">Chang'e 3</a> mission in 2013. And now India too has arrived, with <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/23/india-chandrayaan-3-moon-landing-mission">Chandrayaan-3</a>. Missions from Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Russia, the European Space Agency, Luxembourg, South Korea and Italy have also had <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_to_the_Moon">some measure of lunar success</a> with fly-bys, orbiters and impacts (whether intentional or not). <h2>Crashes are not uncommon</h2> On August 19 2023, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced that “communication with the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02659-6">Luna 25 spacecraft</a> was interrupted”, after an impulse command was sent to the spacecraft to lower its orbit around the Moon. Attempts to contact the spacecraft on August 20 were unsuccessful, leading Roscosmos to determine Luna 25 had crashed. Despite more than 60 years of spaceflight experience extending from the USSR to modern Russia, this mission failed. We don’t know exactly what happened – but the current situation in Russia, where resources are stretched thin and tensions are high due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, may well have been a factor. The Luna 25 failure recalled two high-profile lunar crashes in 2019. In April that year, the Israeli <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beresheet">Beresheet lander</a> crash-landed after a gyroscope failed during the braking procedure, and the ground control crew was unable to reset the component due to a loss of communications. It was later reported a capsule containing microscopic creatures called tardigrades, in a dormant “cryptobiotic” state, may have survived the crash. And in September, India sent its own Vikram lander down to the surface of the Moon – but it did not survive the landing. NASA later <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/dec/03/indias-crashed-vikram-moon-lander-spotted-on-lunar-surface">released an image</a> taken by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the site of the Vikram lander’s impact. Debris was scattered over almost two dozen locations spanning several kilometres. <h2>Space is still risky</h2> Space missions are a risky business. Just over <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/success-rate-of-lunar-missions-is-a-little-over-50-as-per-nasa-database/articleshow/101774227.cms">50% of lunar missions succeed</a>. Even <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20190002705/downloads/20190002705.pdf">small satellite missions</a> to Earth’s orbit don’t have a perfect track record, with a success rate somewhere between 40% and 70%. We could compare uncrewed with crewed missions: around <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230518-what-are-the-odds-of-a-successful-space-launch">98% of the latter are successful</a>, because people are more invested in people. Ground staff working to support a crewed mission will be more focused, management will invest more resources, and delays will be accepted to prioritise the safety of the crew. We could talk about the details of why so many uncrewed missions fail. We could talk about technological difficulties, lack of experience, and even the political landscapes of individual countries. But perhaps it’s better to step back from the details of individual missions and look at averages, to see the overall picture more clearly. <h2>The big picture</h2> Rocket launches and space launches are not very common in the scheme of things. There are <a href="https://www.pd.com.au/blogs/how-many-cars-in-the-world/">around 1.5 billion cars</a> in the world, and perhaps <a href="https://www.travelweek.ca/news/exactly-many-planes-world-today/">40,000 aeroplanes</a>. By contrast, there have been fewer than <a href="https://planet4589.org/space/gcat/data/derived/launchlog.html">20,000 space launches</a> in all of history. Plenty of things still go wrong with cars, and problems occur even in the better-regulated world of planes, from loose rivets to computers overriding pilot inputs. And we have more than a century of experience with these vehicles, in every country on the planet. So perhaps it’s unrealistic to expect spaceflight – whether it’s the launch stage of rockets, or the even rarer stage of trying to land on an alien world – to have ironed out all its problems. We are still very much in the early, pioneering days of space exploration. <h2>Monumental challenges remain</h2> If humanity is ever to create a fully fledged space-faring civilisation, we must <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/02/space-is-cold-vast-and-deadly-humans-will-explore-it-anyway/">overcome monumental challenges</a>. To make long-duration, long-distance space travel possible, there are a huge number of problems to be solved. Some of them seem within the realm of the possible, such as better radiation shielding, self-sustaining ecosystems, autonomous robots, extracting air and water from raw resources, and zero-gravity manufacturing. Others are still speculative hopes, such as faster-than-light travel, instantaneous communication, and artificial gravity. Progress will be little by little, small step by slightly larger step. Engineers and space enthusiasts will keep putting their brainpower, time and energy into space missions, and they will gradually become more reliable. And maybe one day we’ll see a time when going for a ride in your spacecraft is as safe as getting in your car. <hr /> Correction: a typing error in the original version of this article put the Surveyor 1 mission in 1996, rather than its actual year of 1966.<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/211914/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gail-iles-761554">Gail Iles</a>, Senior Lecturer in Physics, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063">RMIT University</a> Image credits: Shutterstock 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/almost-half-of-moon-missions-fail-why-is-space-still-so-hard-211914">original article</a>.

International Travel

Bizarre reason mum with one-year-old “failed” rental inspection

A frustrated NSW mother has slammed her real estate agent after she “failed” her home rental inspection. Samantha Smith said the agent was inspecting her Newcastle property at the time. “I failed because I need to tidy up, I need to tidy up the toys,” she said in a TikTok, showing viewers her son’s toys which were stored on shelves and the floor. “Sorry, I need to tidy up the toys? I’ve got a one-year-old. “Are they allowed to say that?” The agent said the mattress in the living room made it difficult to access other parts of the house. Smith walked around the mattress into another room in an attempt to show that it wasn’t a cause for concern. “My partner sleeps there because, you know, I have a one-year-old, and he gets up at 4:30 (in the morning) and I don’t want him to wake us up,” she explained. The mum also mentioned that a cleaner comes every week to clean the entire house and said that “everything” is cleaned frequently. Aside from the toys and mattress, Smith revealed the agent also told her to tidy up the linen press cupboard and clean the ceiling fans. “This is the only cupboard where I can store our linen press stuff and our food because the whole house has no other cupboards,” she said. “Is that a joke? Like how is what’s in my cupboard any of her business?” She then shared the agent told her to wash the outside of her house. “That’s mould, mate, that’s black mould, I’m not washing that, like that’s not my business,” Smith said, panning the camera to the outside walls and overall exterior of her property. “Why is she judging me (for) the way I live? “What peeves me is that there is so much that needs to be repaired.” She then walked around the property and pointed out damages showing an unstable wooden corner of the room, lifting floorboards on the outside deck, a rotten handrailing and a damaged gate that wouldn’t close. The frustrated mother said she had been living on the property for seven years and paid $550 for rent per week. She also mentioned the lack of storage in her home, adding that the contract prevented her family from storing items in the garage, so they had to rent out a storage unit for $150 per week. “I’m pretty pissed off, like the fact that, you know, there’s stuff that needs to be fixed that is severe, like we could fall through the deck, the corner could fall off and split our head open, like our blinds are actually yellow on the other side so they’re all brittle, she wants me to fix them. Like I didn’t do the damage, the sun did,” Smith explained. Smith’s video went viral on TikTok, attracting more than 43,000 views and hundreds of comments. Many people sympathised with the mother, expressing their own shock at the agent’s requests, saying inspections should be focused on inspecting damage to the property alone. “Rental inspections used to check for any damage, structural damage and to ensure the house is being kept in a hygienic manner. These days they expect the house to be presented better than when you moved in. Toys, belongings in cupboards etc is not to be penalised,” one person explained. “They can only look at the general wear and tear of the house. They cannot tell you to tidy your house or to pick up toys. Take them to tribunal,” another added. “A house inspection should be more worried about damage to the house than a mess of kids’ toys. A man was told to make his bed in an inspection,” a third said. Other TikTok users shared their own similar experiences. “My property manager told me I had too many ‘knick knacks’ on my shelves,” one said. “Don’t worry I got told that I can’t have a table in my garage because it’s only for cars and that my baby toys needed to be hidden away,” another commented. “37 weeks pregnant, husband doing overtime before baby comes and they wanted me to have the house in the same condition they rented it to us,” another user shared. Image credit: TikTok

Real Estate

15 fails we’re all guilty of when travelling

Travelling doesn’t always go to plan. These might not happen every time you travel, but if you spend enough of your life on the road you will recognise all of them. They might not be fun at the time but, with enough distance, anything can become a funny story. Trust us. 1. You will spend more than you plan to. Always. Even if you make a very comprehensive budget some unexpected expense will come up, either an emergency or that one of a kind souvenir you just had to buy. If you’re one of the very (very) few who never spends too much, please tell us your secret. 2. You will pack too much. Pack your suitcase. Close the lid. Now open it again and take out half the things inside. Those extra pairs of shoes are not worth the pain of lugging a desperately heavy bag with you. Shops overseas sell shoes too. 3. You will lose something. Be it a raincoat, your sunglasses or a very expensive camera, it’s going to happen to you at some point. This writer has a particular knack of donating phone chargers to hotel rooms. Always check the plugs. 4. You won’t be able to do everything. And you don’t need to. Trying to cram every sight into your stay doesn’t make for a fun holiday. Pick the things you really want to do and then leave plenty of spare time for unplanned explorations. Often you discover the most rewarding things when you aren’t looking for them. 5. You will have to wait. At immigration, at the boarding gate, at the bus stop, at the buffet, at the museum. It might be a few minutes, or several agonising hours. Breathe, smile and pull out your book. 6. You won’t be able to find the light switch. Why do hotels feel the need to hide that one pesky light switch? After searching every wall, in every cupboard and behind every window, that final light is still shining merrily. Call the front desk and get it over with. 7. You will get lost. Even in the day of Google maps and a GPS in every phone, you’re still going to look up at some point and have no idea where you are. As long as you don’t seem to be in danger (and you’re not going to miss your plane/bus/ship) just go with it. See point 8. You will encounter some rude people. Whether they are locals or other travellers, at some point you’re going to run into someone who rubs you the wrong way. There are rude people all over the world, so there’s really no way to escape them. Let it go. You’re on holiday. 9. Your travel partner will bug you. No matter how carefully you choose your travel buddy, there will be a point in the trip when you would happily ship them home in the cargo hold. Petty disputes will flair up over the itinerary, where to eat or who’s making you late. We can see the appeal of the solo trip… 10. You will need earplugs. They are a little, squishy gift from God. A noisy plane, a snoring roommate or a late night party down the hall – earplugs can fix them all. 11. You will get sick. This could range from a few sniffles in a cold London winter to an I-think-I’m-going-to-die stomach bug in India. Take your vitamins, stock the travelling medicine chest and be careful where you drink the water. 12. You will do something really stupid. We have a theory that your brain cells also take a bit of a holiday when you travel, so you can be pretty confident that you’ll slip up at some point. You might lose your room key, get in the back of a dodgy taxi or get talked into a ridiculously expensive ‘genuine’ Turkish carpet. Laugh it off. 13. You don’t need all that fancy gear. Specially designed, sweat wicking, zip off at the knees, multi-pocket, trekking pants? Unless you’re actually trekking in the Himalayas, then no. Even if you are they are probably a waste of money. 14. You will always find sand in your suitcase. Even if you don’t go somewhere sandy. We don’t know why either. 15. You will never regret it. Fact. No matter how many annoying, unfortunate or downright terrible things that happen to you on the road, you will never regret time spent travelling. It’s one of life’s truly great experiences and should be undertaken at every opportunity. Image credits: Getty Images

Travel Tips

“Our country have failed a 12-year– old”: Archie’s parents concede defeat

After their <a href="https://o60.me/bvX9fj" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fight to keep their 12-year-old son alive</a> failed in the British courts, UK couple Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee have lost their appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to prevent his life-support treatment from ending. After Archie Battersbee was found unconscious at home with a ligature over his head in early April, his parents have been fighting to prevent the Royal London Hospital from turning off his ventilator and stopping other interventions that are keeping him alive. Doctors believe Archie Battersbee is brain-stem dead and say it isn’t in his best interest to continue life-support treatment. Dance said the family’s lawyer submitted an application to the Strasbourg, the European human rights court based in France, hours before doctors planned to begin withdrawing Archie’s life-support on Wednesday. However, the court said it would not “interfere with the decisions of the national courts to allow the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment from [Archie] to proceed”. Speaking to reporters outside the hospital, Dance appeared to concede that the fight to keep their son alive was over. "It's the end, it was the last thing, wasn't it, and again our country have failed a 12-year-old child,” Dance said of their latest legal defeat. Now, she wants to move Archie into a hospice to ensure he has a “dignified passing”. "We've now got a fight to see whether we can get him out of here to have a dignified passing at a hospice. It's just unfair,” she said. Earlier, she said the family “will not give up on Archie until the end”, and that they were considering offers from Japan and Italy to continue his treatment. "There's other countries that want to treat him and I think that he should be allowed to go," Dance said. Their case is the latest where the judgement of doctors has been pitted against the wishes of families, and is one of several that have been backed by religious pressure group, Christian Concern. Under UK law, courts can intervene when parents and doctors disagree on a child’s treatment, with the rights of the child taking priority over the parents’ right to decide. On Tuesday, the UK Supreme Court said Archie had “no prospect of any meaningful recovery”, and that he would still die from organ and heart failure in the next few weeks if treatment continued. The judges agreed with a lower court ruling that treatment “serves only to protract his death”. Alistair Chesser, the chief medical officer for Barts Health NHS Trust, which operates the hospital treating Archie, said his life-support treatment would continue for now. "As directed by the courts, we will work with the family to prepare for the withdrawal of treatment, but we will make no changes to Archie's care until the outstanding legal issues are resolved,” Chesser said. Image: Getty Images

Caring

Surprise twist in traveller who failed to declare sandwich ingredients

The Aussie<a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/travel/travel-trouble/traveller-slapped-2-664-fine-for-sandwich" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> traveller who was fined $2,664</a> for bringing in a Subway sandwich and not declaring two ingredients has been given an amazing surprise. Jessica Lee was heading back from Singapore to Perth and purchased a footlong sandwich but only ate half and decided to keep the other for the flight. While on the way back to Australia, Jessica did not eat the sandwich and failed to declare chicken and lettuce when she arrived back in Australia. The 19-year-old was slapped with a hefty $2,664 fine and shared the news on TikTok urging others not to make the same mistake she did. In an update, Jessica announced that she was gifted a $2,664 Subway gift card from the restaurant as well as a box of merchandise. “Subway makes my fine worth every single cent,” Jessica said in the new TikTok video. “Looking at positives over negatives always pays off.” She then proceeded to read the letter the restaurant sent her, thanking her for eating from them. “To say thank you for eating fresh, we’ve uploaded a sub card with $2,664 just for you,” the letter read. “We hope this covers all your chicken and lettuce needs. “Love your Subway fans.” Images: TikTok

Travel Trouble

Aus-NZ refugee deal is a bandage on a failed policy

Australia has finally accepted New Zealand’s offer to settle some of the refugees from the <a href="https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/sites/kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/files/factsheet_offshore_processing_overview.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offshore processing</a> regime – about nine years after it was first made in 2013. The NZ deal will provide certainty for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/24/australia-agrees-450-refugees-can-be-resettled-in-new-zealand-nine-years-after-deal-first-offered" target="_blank" rel="noopener">450 people</a> who have been in limbo, many for more than a decade. But in the March 24 <a href="https://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/KarenAndrews/Pages/australia-new-zealand-resettlement-arrangement.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement</a>, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews made clear the deal does not change Australia’s <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/australia-and-new-zealand-reach-refugee-resettlement-agreement/20vyv2d8w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hard-line approach</a>. This makes the deal a bandage on a <a href="https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/sites/kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/files/Policy_Brief_11_Offshore_Processing.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failed policy</a> that continues to haemorrhage cash, destroy lives and erode the international system for refugee protection. Who is – and isn’t – included in the NZ deal? The original offer, made by the then NZ Prime Minister John Key in 2013, was refused by the Australian government until now. The Coalition government claimed the deal could be a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/01/decision-to-bring-children-from-nauru-an-admission-of-failure-by-government" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pull factor</a>” for asylum seekers coming by boat to Australia. Under the agreement, NZ will settle up to 150 of Australia’s “offshore processing” refugees per year for three years. These refugees arrived in Australia by sea between 2012 and 2014 and were sent to Nauru or Manus Island “offshore processing” detention centres. The deal can include the <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us-subsite/files/population-and-number-of-people-resettled.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">112 people</a> who are in Nauru or those temporarily in Australia under offshore processing arrangements. Some <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/news/press/2022/3/623a66584/unhcr-news-comment-on-the-australia-new-zealand-refugee-deal.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1,100</a> people have been returned temporarily to Australia, mostly for medical treatment. They mostly live in the community with <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.au/potential-return-of-refugees-and-people-seeking-asylum-to-nauru-and-png-proof-of-policy-failure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">no support and insecure visa status</a> but some remain in detention. Those already being considered for settlement to another country, such as the United States or Canada, aren’t eligible for the NZ program. More than 100 men who remain in Papua New Guinea aren’t included in this deal. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> The always wise, always insightful <a href="https://twitter.com/BehrouzBoochani?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BehrouzBoochani</a> on Australia, the NZ refugee resettlement offer, and why it took nine years...<a href="https://t.co/IdxPBGpAz0">https://t.co/IdxPBGpAz0</a> — Ben Doherty (@BenDohertyCorro) <a href="https://twitter.com/BenDohertyCorro/status/1508944829509926915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2022</a></blockquote> Under current known arrangements, people remaining in PNG could be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/25/australia-new-zealand-refugee-deal-everything-we-know" target="_blank" rel="noopener">referred</a> by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to NZ through its regular refugee programme. Even after the NZ and US options are exhausted, it’s estimated at least <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/australians-welcome-nzs-generosity-to-refugees-in-offshore-processing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">500 refugees will be without a solution</a>. And they’re not the only ones. There are some <a href="https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/sites/kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/files/Factsheet_Legacy%20Caseload_final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">30,000 people</a> in what’s called the “legacy caseload” who arrived by sea between 2012 and 2014 and weren’t transferred to Nauru and PNG. They remain in Australia subject to harmful measures. They’re stuck in limbo on temporary visas, unable to reunify with family members, and receive <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/urgent-call-government-protect-asylum-seekers-and-refugees" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inadequate support</a> to secure housing or health care. Australia distorts the global refugee system <a href="https://www.refworld.org/docid/51af82794.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Australia has primary responsibility</a> for refugees who seek its protection. The Australian government has repeatedly tried and failed to find countries willing to settle refugees it refuses to protect. It reportedly offered multiple countries, from the Philippines to Kyrgyzstan, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/08/australias-refugee-deal-a-farce-after-us-rejects-all-iranian-and-somali-asylum-seekers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">millions of dollars</a> to settle refugees from Australia’s offshore camps – without success. Resettlement to a third country is an important solution, available to less than 1% of refugees globally whose lives, liberty, safety, health or other fundamental rights are at risk <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/46f7c0ee2.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in the country where they have sought refuge</a>. This isn’t the case for refugees seeking asylum in Australia, where there’s a well-established asylum system. It’s difficult to think of the NZ solution as “resettlement” in its true meaning. Resettlement places are important to <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/news/press/2021/6/60d32ba44/un-refugee-agency-releases-2022-resettlement-needs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">relieve pressure on developing countries</a> that host almost 90% of the world’s refugees. Conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Myanmar, South Sudan, Afghanistan, plus now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have created a need for resettlement in a third country for almost <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/news/press/2021/6/60d32ba44/un-refugee-agency-releases-2022-resettlement-needs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1.5 million</a> refugees worldwide. Resettlement has been disrupted over the last two years due to COVID, leaving even more people in urgent need. Under these extraordinary “refugee deals” with the US and NZ, the Australian government is trying to solve a political problem of its own making at the expense of people in desperate need. Like Australia, the US and NZ offer only a limited number of resettlement spots each year. When these spots go to Australia’s refugees, who are Australia’s responsibility, someone else misses out. Continuing damage This is Australia’s second go at offshore processing. Its first iteration, the “Pacific Solution”, lasted from 2001 until 2008. The second commenced in 2012 and continues. Offshore processing remains costly. Australian taxpayers have spent, on average, around <a href="https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/sites/kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/files/Policy_Brief_11_Offshore_Processing.pdf#page=14&zoom=auto,-135,786" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A$1 billion per year</a> to maintain offshore processing since 2014. This is despite a dramatic drop in the number of people held in Nauru and PNG. At the peak in April 2014, Australia detained a total of 2,450 people. By December 2021, there were <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/operation-sovereign-borders-offshore-detention-statistics/2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">219 people remaining offshore in Nauru and PNG</a>. People transferred to Manus Island and Nauru suffered mandatory and indefinite detention in harsh conditions. Their treatment has been called out by the United Nations repeatedly as <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/united-nations-observations.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cruel and inhuman</a> and described by Amnesty International as <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018835563/amnesty-international-celebrates-deal-for-nz-to-take-refugees" target="_blank" rel="noopener">torture</a>. The abuse of men, women and children in offshore processing centres has been thoroughly documented in a <a href="https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/b743d9_e4413cb72e1646d8bd3e8a8c9a466950.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">communiqué</a> to the International Criminal Court, <a href="https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/43063/documents/791#page=27&zoom=auto,-134,1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">parliamentary inquiries</a> and domestic legal challenges. Australia’s offshore processing sets a bad regional precedent for <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/20160913_Pathways_to_Protection.pdf#page=20&zoom=page-fit,-625,841" target="_blank" rel="noopener">refugee protection in Southeast Asia</a> and beyond. The policy objective of using cruelty as a deterrent to “stop the boats” and “save lives at sea” didn’t work. If boats didn’t arrive, this was due to Australia’s <a href="https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/sites/kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/files/Policy_Brief_11_Offshore_Processing.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interception and turnback of boats at sea</a>. What needs to change? Refugee policy can be <a href="https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/principles-australian-refugee-policy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">principled</a> and driven by compassion while protecting borders and respecting international law. Australia should formally end offshore processing. The small number of people still held offshore in Nauru and PNG should be transferred back to Australia. Everyone who has been subject to the policy since 2012 who doesn’t have a permanent solution could be offered settlement in Australia. This <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/about_parliament/parliamentary_departments/parliamentary_library/pubs/bn/2012-2013/pacificsolution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">occurred</a> in the first iteration of offshore processing and could happen again. Money and lives can be saved.<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/180241/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/natasha-yacoub-1259499" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Natasha Yacoub</a>, International refugee lawyer and scholar, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/unsw-sydney-1414" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UNSW Sydney</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/aus-nz-refugee-deal-is-a-bandage-on-a-failed-policy-its-time-to-end-offshore-processing-180241" target="_blank" rel="noopener">original article</a>. Image: Getty Images

Legal

"Bedtime fail": Jacinda Arden interrupted during live address

Images: Facebook & Getty Jacinda Ardern thought she would make the most of some quiet time after her daughter Neve went to bed earlier this week. However, as every parent will understand, just because a child has been put to bed, it doesn’t mean they’ll stay there. The PM was in the middle of a Facebook Live broadcast to the nation about COVID-19 lockdowns, when her three-year-old, Neve chose that exact moment to interrupt. "You're meant to be in bed darling," Ms Ardern says to the little girl. "It's bedtime darling, pop back to bed, I'll come and see you in a second. I'll come and see you in a minute, OK? Nanny will take you down to bed." As Ms Ardern's mother took Neve back to bed, the PM apologised for the 'bedtime fail'. "Sorry, everyone, I thought 'Here's a moment, I'll do a Facebook Live, we're nice and safe," she said. "Does anyone else have kids that escape three or four times after bedtime?" As if to prove her mother's point, it wasn't long before Neve was back asking the PM how much longer she would be. "I'm sorry darling, it is taking so long, OK," Ms Ardern said, before wrapping up the broadcast with promises to do an "extended, uninterrupted" version later in the week. Auckland has been in lockdown for nearly three months with restrictions expected to lift within the next few weeks.

Family & Pets

Fashion fail: Mum drives back to store to get help removing new jumpsuit

A woman’s hilarious shopping fail has gone viral after she became trapped in a new outfit and returned to the shop to ask for help. Posting the moment on TikTok, Isabel Robins explained that her mother had purchased a jumpsuit from Zara, and struggled to take it off when trying it on at home. When Isabel’s mother realised the zipper on the garment was faulty, she knew she had no choice but to return to the Zara store in London to get help from a sales assistant in removing the outfit. In the video, Isabel’s mum is making funny faces at the camera and laughing at the situation with her daughter behind the camera. Once the pair entered the store, she appeared in good spirits as she desperately searched the store for a sales assistant to help her. As an employee releases the busted zip, Isabel's mother takes a sigh of relief for the camera. The clip ends with her walking around the store in a change of clothes, with ther Zara employee following behind with the faulty jumpsuit in their hand. <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="698" height="573" scrolling="no" id="molvideoplayer" title="MailOnline Embed Player" src="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/2509527.html"></iframe> Video credit: Daily Mail The video has racked up over 5,000 likes, with many commenting how hilarious the fashion fail was. Many people labeled Isabel’s mum as “iconic”, with one commenter saying, “What a shame, it looked awesome on her!” Image credits: TikTok @isabelrobins

Beauty & Style

A dog groomer’s autocorrect fail has owner reeling

A dog groomer’s morbid blunder has left one client reeling in an awkward autocorrect fail. Sharing a screenshot of the text exchange on Reddit, another employee at the grooming salon called the messages “a startingly matter of fact message from the groomer”. After the owner dropped their dog - a beagle named Dexter - off at the salon, the groomer alerted the owner that the appointment was over with the message: “Dexter is dead.” Realising their mistake, the groomer clarified what they meant a minute later, “Hi Dexter is ready now!! Sorry stupid auto correct.” The groomer also shared a photo of the dog to prove he was very much alive and freshly-sheared. “He’s had a great time,” they confirmed. <img style="width: 331.10367892976586px; height:500px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7842547/https___prodstatic9net-5.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/15f33eeaa4444b52b192e0f540cfaee7" /> Though the owner’s response was not included in the screenshot, Reddit users were quick to reply with their own interpretations of the odd situation. “Your dog is dead….. Tired after the wonderful day he’s had!” one user wrote. “I’m in stitches. Something about the blunt message, and the picture proving that the dog is not in fact dead has set me off. Brilliant,” another commented. “Just needed [the dog groomer] to hold up today’s paper in the shot,” a third added. Image: Reddit

Family & Pets

"I don't want this": School photo fail brings unlikely joy

<div class="post_body_wrapper"> <div class="post_body"> <div class="body_text redactor-styles redactor-in"> One mum left the internet in stitches after she shared her 'mum fail' on the internet, summarising 2020 in one sentence: "I DON'T WANT THIS". Brittany Kinley was excited when she learned her son Mason, whose in kindergarten, was able to physically attend school to get a school photo. After Brittany filled out the online form for the photo, the form gave her an option to have her son's name underneath the photo. She decided against this, and wrote 'I do not want this' in the section where his name was as it wouldn't let her leave that section blank on the form. Brittany got the surprise of her life when she received her son's photos back, with "I DON'T WANT THIS" in capital letters underneath a sweet snap of her son. <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fbrittkinley%2Fposts%2F10124125803358564&show_text=true&width=552&height=685&appId" width="552" height="685" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe> She shared the incident on Facebook, where it quickly racked up more than 15,000 likes and 5,600 comments. "I’m sure everyone needs a good laugh these days so thanks to my latest mom fail...you’re welcome in advance haha," she wrote. "Mason got his kindergarten pictures and I didn’t want his name on the bottom so I typed in “I don’t want this” and they freaking printed this..." She's glad people were able to sympathise with it. "I've gotten so many messages from people saying they haven't laughed this hard all year and that it made their day," she told TODAY parents "I never thought it would have that effect but I'm so glad we can spread laughter in a crazy time like this." </div> </div> </div>

Family & Pets

Hugh Jackman reveals hilarious baking fail

<div class="post_body_wrapper"> <div class="post_body"> <div class="body_text redactor-styles redactor-in"> He’s an acclaimed actor, singer and producer best known for playing Wolverine in the X-men movie franchise. But Hugh Jackman has proven he’s just like the rest of us when he took to Instagram to share a video of his epic bread baking fail. The 52-year-old Aussie born star couldn’t help but laugh as he panned the camera over a freshly baked loaf of lumpy and flat gluten-free bread. <blockquote 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);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CHVKnrADivG/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="13"> <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> <a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CHVKnrADivG/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">Bread baking FAIL. #celebratethefail #glutenfreebaking</a> <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 post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/thehughjackman/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> Hugh Jackman</a> (@thehughjackman) on Nov 8, 2020 at 5:03am PST </div> </blockquote> “People say all the time that we only show the perfect parts of our lives,” Hugh was heard saying in the clip, in between laughs. “So I thought let's celebrate the failures,” he continued, angling the camera to capture a good view of the lacklustre loaf. Hugh joked how gluten-free flour “apparently does not work the same way” as regular flour, while wife Deborra-Lee Furness wondered if it tasted “as bad as it looks”. Fans praised the celeb in the comments section saying he was genuine and down to earth. The Greatest Showman star is now based in New York with Deborra-Lee and their two adopted children, Oscar, 20, and Ava, 15. </div> </div> </div>

Food & Wine

The Chase star splits from second cousin after failed open marriage

The Chase star Mark Labbett affectionately referred to as "The Beast" has shocked fans as he announced his split from his second cousin and wife. Mark and Katie have confirmed they’ve separated after seven years of marriage, blaming the split on their 27-year-age gap, according to <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/12534450/the-chase-mark-labbett-split-wife-katie/" target="_blank" class="_e75a791d-denali-editor-page-rtflink">The Sun</a>. Mark, 55, said: “There was never any deceit on Katie’s part but it’s got to the point now where I realise it is better for us to go our separate ways and remain friendly.” Katie, 28, has been dating a man named Scott Bate, 30, for 18 months. She said: “I just want everyone to know what’s what and that we are all happy.” In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Mark and Katie, who have a three-year-old son, opened up about their unusual arrangement. Mark said: “When Katie first came clean to me about her boyfriend, I’d had an inkling. But right from the start, my attitude was quite pragmatic – this was spilt milk, what could we do about the situation to make it OK? “We had a family. We couldn’t just throw that away lightly. There were other considerations. “But COVID-19 provided the perfect storm. My mental health suffered and the differences in our ages became magnified. “With Katie seeing Scott after lockdown, it’s got to the point where I realise it’s better for us to go our separate ways and remain friendly, without the stress factor of living together.” However, Mark admits his wife’s ongoing relationship with Scott had taken its toll despite the couple’s initial attempts to have an open marriage. Mark said: “Our son has mentioned Scott’s name quite a few times. Each time he does it, Katie looks a bit sheepish. “My only concern is that Scott’s good with him, which he appears to be. We’ve started speaking and are beginning to chat more and more. “We’ve spoken about some of the bigger things, and Katie knows what my red lines are, and I know hers. So this way, nobody is shocked or surprised.” He added: “Jealousy is so negative. Nearly every other emotion has some benefit but jealousy just sort of makes you stop functioning. “I don’t want to get to the stage when someone mentions Scott’s name and my shoulders tense. “All that matters is what is best for our son. “I will never ever slag off Katie in public. One day, when our son is grown up, he will be reading this and I don’t ever want him to read anything bad about his mother.” The pair have had marital troubles previously, as Katie cheated on Mark while he was away filming US and Australian episodes of The Chase. “I was so unhappy. Mark and I hadn’t been great and he was away working all the time while I looked after our son. I felt so alone," Katie shared. “My friend came over one night and took me out, introducing me to all these new people who became my social group. “Because of our ages, they’re not the sort of people Mark could or would want to hang around with. “I didn’t go out with the purpose of meeting someone. It just ended up that I met someone I clicked with. It went from there.” The pair initially met in 2010 on Facebook and were married 12 months later. Mark has confirmed that the pair haven't discussed divorce yet. “Katie and I haven’t discussed divorce yet. That will only happen if one of us decides we want to remarry. “At the moment, I’m more than happy to be on my own. I find it easy. “You can’t speak for the future, but I am conscious I don’t put a target on my back.

Why one man's bulk buying hand sanitiser scheme failed

<div class="post_body_wrapper"> <div class="post_body"> <div class="body_text "> A man in America, Noah Colvin, bought 17,700 bottles of hand sanitiser with the intention of reselling them on Amazon for a profit, but the tech giant has put a stop to that immediately. Amazon has cracked down on pandemic price gouging, which resulted in the company suspending Colvin’s account. He drove over 2,000 kilometres across Tennessee, stocking up on hand sanitiser and sanitary wipes but is now unable to get rid of the excess of goods. He’s not the first account to be suspended, with Amazon removing hundreds of thousands of listing of people trying to price gouge items others are looking for, including respiratory masks. Colvin said to <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/technology/matt-colvin-hand-sanitizer-donation.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> that the whole experience has been a “huge amount of whiplash”, as he was able to sell 300 bottles at a markup before the company suspended his account. However, Colvin has since donated all of the supplies on Sunday just as the Tennessee attorney general’s office began investigating him for price gouging. He helped volunteers from a local church load two-thirds of the stockpile of hand sanitiser and antibacterial wipes into a box truck that will distribute the goods across the state to those who need them. “I’ve been buying and selling things for 10 years now. There’s been hot product after hot product. But the thing is, there’s always another one on the shelf,” he said. “When we did this trip, I had no idea that these stores wouldn’t be able to get replenished.” After receiving hate mail and death threats after <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/technology/coronavirus-purell-wipes-amazon-sellers.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> published an article about him, Colvin has since expressed remorse for his actions. “It was never my intention to keep necessary medical supplies out of the hands of people who needed them,” he said, crying. “That’s not who I am as a person. And all I’ve been told for the last 48 hours is how much of that person I am.” Tennessee’s price gouging laws are strict and prohibit charging “grossly excessive” prices for a range of items, including medical supplies. People can be fined up to $1,000 per violation, and the attorney general’s office sent Colvin a cease-and-desist letter as well as opening up an investigation. “We will not tolerate price gouging in this time of exceptional need, and we will take aggressive action to stop it,” Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III of Tennessee said in a news release. </div> </div> </div>

Money & Banking

Why your New Year's resolution to go to the gym will fail

Come January, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/01/01/the-science-of-keeping-your-new-years-resolution/">40% of Americans will make New Years resolutions</a>, and <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/378105/new-years-resolution/">nearly half of them will aim</a> to lose weight or get in shape. But <a href="https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/articles/2015-12-29/why-80-percent-of-new-years-resolutions-fail">80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by February</a>, and gyms will experience a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/best-time-sign-gym-membership/story?id=21373583">decrease in traffic after the first and second months</a> of the year as those who made New Year’s resolutions to get in shape lose steam. As a lecturer at Binghamton and <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/1737/binghamton-health-and-wellness-lecturer-earns-guinness-world-record/">former Olympic weightlifter, world champion powerlifter and strength coach</a>, much of my life has been spent in training halls and gyms around the country. People often ask me, “How do I stay motivated to work out?” <iframe id="WFV9s" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/WFV9s/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none;" frameborder="0"></iframe> Motivation and short-term objectives Years back, when I was at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, one of the sports psychologists told me that motivation is a lie. It took me years of experience and research to figure out why, but I believe she was right. Personally, I have no issues getting up on a cold and dark morning to train when a competition is drawing near. But when there is no immediate objective or goal in site, getting up that early is much harder. Motivation is driven by emotion and that can be positive, as long as it <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-4388(96)80077-8">is used for a short-term objective</a>. For some, a New Year’s resolution can serve as a motivator. But since <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-fundamental-four/201205/emotions-and-motivations">motivation is based on emotion</a>, it can’t last long. Think of it this way: No one can laugh or cry indefinitely, and that is exactly how we know that motivation will fail. <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/affective-neuroscience-9780195178050?cc=us&lang=en&">Emotion is a chemical release</a> yielding a physiological response. If someone attempting to get in shape is reliant upon this reaction to propel them towards working out, they are almost sure to burn out, just like with a resolution. When people buy gym memberships, they have the best of intentions in mind, but the commitments are made in a charged emotional state. Motivation helps with short-term objectives, but is virtually useless for objectives that require a greater length of time to accomplish. In other words, don’t totally discount the value of motivation, but don’t count on it to last long either because it won’t. Discipline yields results If motivation won’t help you reach your goals, what will? The answer is discipline. Discipline, as I define it, is the ability to do what is necessary for success when it is hardest to do so. Another way to think of it is having the ability, not necessarily the desire, to do what you need to when you least want to. Failure to get up when the alarm rings, the inability to walk away from a late night of partying before game day or eating a doughnut when you have committed to no processed sugar are all failures of discipline - not motivation. The keys to discipline are practice and consistency. Discipline means repetitive – and sometimes boring – action. There are no shortcuts. You can thank motivation for the first three weeks or so of your successful gym attendance, but after that you need to credit discipline. There is another clear line defining the difference between motivation and discipline. Motivation in and of itself typically fails to build other qualities necessary for advancement, but discipline does. Discipline <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hy9mDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT11&dq=Discipline+builds+confidence&ots=ga0Vo8UNjY&sig=wsZ-N4x6NhasmmAnbGb610pbt3Y#v=onepage&q=Discipline%20builds%20confidence&f=false">develops confidence</a> and patience. Discipline builds consistency and consistency yields habits. It is those habits that, in the end, will ultimately define success. <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/william-clark-887069">William Clark</a>, Adjunct Lecturer of Health and Wellness Studies, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/binghamton-university-state-university-of-new-york-2252">Binghamton University, State University of New York</a> This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-your-new-years-resolution-to-go-to-the-gym-will-fail-127090">original article</a>.

Body

China's failed gene edited baby experiment proves we're not ready for human embryo modification

More than a year ago, the world was shocked by Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui’s attempt to use CRISPR technology to modify human embryos and make them resistant to HIV, which led to the birth of twins Lulu and Nana. Now, crucial details have been revealed in a recent <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614764/chinas-crispr-babies-read-exclusive-excerpts-he-jiankui-paper/">release of excerpts</a> from the study, which have triggered a series of concerns about how Lulu and Nana’s genome was modified. How CRISPR works CRISPR is a technique that allows scientists to make precise edits to any DNA by altering its sequence. When using CRISPR, you may be trying to “knock out” a gene by rendering it inactive, or trying to achieve specific modifications, such as introducing or removing a desired piece of DNA. Gene editing with the CRISPR system relies on an association of two molecules. One is a protein, called Cas9, that is responsible for “cutting” the DNA. The other molecule is a short RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecule which works as a “guide” that brings Cas9 to the position where it is supposed to cut. The system also needs help from the cells being edited. DNA damage is frequent, so cells regularly have to repair the DNA lesions. The associated repair mechanisms are what introduce the deletions, insertions or modifications when performing gene editing. How the genomes of Lulu and Nana were modified He Jiankui and his colleagues were targeting a gene called CCR5, which is necessary for the HIV virus to enter into white blood cells (<a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320987.php">lymphocytes</a>) and infect our body. One variant of CCR5, called CCR5 Δ32, is missing a particular string of 32 “letters” of DNA code. This variant naturally occurs in the human population, and results in a high level of resistance to the most common type of HIV virus. The team wanted to recreate this mutation using CRISPR on human embryos, in a bid to render them resistant to HIV infection. But this did not go as planned, and there are several ways they may have failed. First, despite claiming in the abstract of their unpublished article that they reproduced the human CCR5 mutation, in reality the team tried to modify CCR5 close to the Δ32 mutation. As a result, they generated different mutations, of which the effects are unknown. It may or may not confer HIV resistance, and may or may not have other consequences. Worryingly, they did not test any of this, and went ahead with implanting the embryos. This is unjustifiable. The mosaic effect A second source of errors could have been that the editing was not perfectly efficient. This means that not all cells in the embryos were necessarily edited. When an organism has a mixture of edited and unedited cells, it is called a “mosaic”. While the available data are still limited, it seems that both Lulu and Nana are mosaic. This makes it even less likely that the gene-edited babies would be resistant to HIV infection. The risk of mosaicism should have been another reason not to implant the embryos. Moreover, editing can have unintended impacts elsewhere in the genome. When designing a CRISPR experiment, you choose the “guide” RNA so that its sequence is unique to the gene you are targeting. However, “off-target” cuts can still happen elsewhere in the genome, at places that have a similar sequence. He Jiankui and his team tested cells from the edited embryos, and reported only one off-target modification. However, that testing required sampling the cells, which were therefore no longer part of the embryos - which continued developing. Thus, the remaining cells in the embryos had not been tested, and may have had different off-target modifications. This is not the team’s fault, as there will always be limitations in detecting off-target and mosaicism, and we can only get a partial picture. However, that partial picture should have made them pause. A bad idea to begin Above, we have described several risks associated with the modifications made on the embryos, which could be passed on to future generations. Embryo editing is only ethically justifiable in cases where the benefits clearly outweigh the risks. Technical issues aside, the researchers did not even address an unmet medical need. While the twins’ father was HIV-positive, there is already a well-established way to prevent an HIV-positive father from infecting embryos. This “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4779710/">sperm washing</a>” method was actually used by the team. The only benefit of the attempted gene modification, if proven, would have been a reduced risk of HIV infection for the twins later in life. But there are safer existing ways to control the risk of infection, such as condoms and mandatory testing of blood donations. Implications for gene editing as a field Gene editing has endless applications. It can be used to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02770-7">make plants such as the Cavendish banana more resistant to devastating diseases</a>. It can play an important role in the adaptation to climate change. In health, we are already seeing <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/11/19/780510277/gene-edited-supercells-make-progress-in-fight-against-sickle-cell-disease">promising results</a> with the editing of somatic cells (that is, non-heritable modifications of the patient’s own cells) in beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease. However, we are just not ready for human embryo editing. Our techniques are not mature enough, and no case has been made for a widespread need that other techniques, such as preimplantation genetic testing, could not address. There is also much work still needed on governance. There have been individual calls for a moratorium on embryo editing, and expert panels from the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00942-z">World Health Organisation</a> to <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-panel-experts-calls-ban-editing-human-dna-avoid-unethical-tampering-hereditary-traits">UNESCO</a>. Yet, no consensus has emerged. It is important these discussions move <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03525-0">in unison</a> to a second phase, where other stakeholders, such as patient groups, are more broadly consulted (and informed). Engagement with the public is also crucial. Correction: this article originally described RNA (ribonucleic acid) as a protein, rather than a molecule.<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/128454/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dimitri-perrin-392467">Dimitri Perrin</a>, Senior Lecturer, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/queensland-university-of-technology-847">Queensland University of Technology</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gaetan-burgio-202386">Gaetan Burgio</a>, Geneticist and Group Leader, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-national-university-877">Australian National University</a> This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-failed-gene-edited-baby-experiment-proves-were-not-ready-for-human-embryo-modification-128454">original article</a>.

Technology

The world's shortest IQ test that's only 3 questions long – and 4 out 5 people fail

<div> <div class="replay"> <div class="reply_body body linkify"> <div class="reply_body"> <div class="body_text "> Fewer than one in five people can answer all three questions in the world’s shortest IQ test. This test is dubbed the “Cognitive Reflection Test” and comes from a <a rel="noopener" href="https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/089533005775196732" target="_blank">2005 paper</a> by MIT professor Shane Frederick. He sought to demonstrate the difference between fast thought processes that are done with little conscious deliberation and those that are slower and more reflective. The test is made up of only three questions that are harder than they first appear. “The three items on the CRT are ‘easy’ in the sense that their solution is easily understood when explained, yet reaching the correct answer often requires the suppression of an erroneous answer that springs ‘impulsively’ to mind,” Professor Frederick wrote. The questions 1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? 2. If it takes five machines five minutes to make five widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets? 3. In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake? Do you have your answers? Here’s what most people guess 1. 10 cents 2. 100 minutes 3. 24 days Professor Frederick noted that the intuitive answer to the first question is 10 cents, but this “impulsive answer” is wrong. “Anyone who reflects upon it for even a moment would recognise that the difference between $1 and 10 cents is only 90 cents, not $1 as the problem stipulates,” he wrote. “In this case, catching that error is tantamount to solving the problem, since nearly everyone who does not respond ‘10 cents’ does, in fact, give the correct response.” The correct answers 1. 5 cents 2. 5 minutes 3. 47 days Presh Talwalker, who is the author of The Joy of Game Theory: An Introduction to Strategic Thinking, explained the answers on his blog, <a rel="noopener" href="https://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2013/06/24/can-you-correctly-answer-the-cognitive-reflection-test-83-percent-of-people-miss-at-least-1-question/" target="_blank">Mind Your Decisions. </a> 1. “Say the ball costs X. Then the bat costs $1 more, so it is X + 1. So we have bat + ball = X + (X + 1) = 1.1 because together they cost $1.10. This means 2X + 1 = 1.1, then 2X = 0.1, so X = 0.05. This means the ball costs five cents and the bat costs $1.05.” 2. “If it takes five machines five minutes to make five widgets, then it takes one machine five minutes to make one widget (each machine is making a widget in five minutes). If we have 100 machines working together, then each can make a widget in five minutes. So there will be 100 widgets in five minutes.” 3. “Every day FORWARD the patch doubles in size. So every day BACKWARDS means the patch halves in size. So on day 47 the lake is half full.” The answers between men and women also varied. “Even if one focuses only on respondents who gave the wrong answers, men and women differ. Women’s mistakes tend to be of the intuitive variety, whereas men make a wider variety of errors,” Prof. Frederick wrote. “For every CRT item the ratio of ‘intuitive’ mistakes to ‘other’ mistakes is higher for women than for men. Thus, the data suggest that men are more likely to reflect on their answers and less inclined to go with their intuitive responses.” </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Mind

Google Maps fail leads nearly 100 drivers to an empty field

Nearly 100 Colorado drivers were misled by Google Maps last week as a car crash on the road leading to Denver International Airport caused the app to provide people with a detour. In a rush to get to the airport on time for their flights, many went via a narrow dirt road suggested by the app. According to <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/26/us/google-maps-detour-colorado-trnd/index.html">CNN</a>, cars began sliding down the dirt road, which turned into a muddy mess. Some cars got stuck, which caused a traffic jam. “There were a bunch of other cars going down (the dirt road) too, so I said, ‘I guess it’s OK.’ It was not OK,” one driver, Connie Monsees, told CNN. Once you were on the dirt road, there was nowhere to make a U-turn. “The question is, why did Google send us out there to begin with? There was no turning back once you were out there,” Connie said. She ended up with a semi-damaged vehicle and two extra passengers, as she kindly offered two others a lift to the airport. Google Maps addressed the situation in a statement to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/google-maps-shortcut-colorado-turns-muddy-mess-hundred/story?id=63946068">ABC News</a>: “We take many factors into account when determining driving routes, including the size of the road and the directness of the route. “While we always work to provide the best directions, issues can arise due to unforeseen circumstances such as weather. We encourage all drivers to follow local laws, stay attentive, and use their best judgment while driving.”

Travel Trouble

Royal fail! $110 dolls of Duchess Kate and royal children go viral for all the wrong reasons

<div> <div class="replay"> <div class="reply_body body linkify"> <div class="reply_body"> <div class="body_text "> An expensive set of dolls of a few members of the Cambridge family has gone viral after one disturbed shopper called them the “stuff of nightmares". Amelia Perrin took to Twitter to share the 15cm figurines at the UK retail chain TK Maxx after spotting the terrifying royal “lookalikes". The dolls were made to replicate the Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George and Princess Charlotte from their 2015 official Christmas card – although they notably decided to leave Prince William out. Prince Louis is also a noticeably missing from the strange figurine pack, however, the one-year-old had not been welcomed to the world yet at the time of production. Ms Perrin shared freakishly horrifying images of what is supposed to be the royal family, noting the hefty AU$110 price tag. “Sometimes TK Maxx out-TK Maxxes itself. £60. Arguably the worst thing I’ve ever laid eyes upon,” she wrote. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> sometimes TK Maxx out-TK Maxxes itself. £60. arguably the worst thing i’ve ever laid eyes upon <a href="https://t.co/5yjoyp4sWJ">pic.twitter.com/5yjoyp4sWJ</a> — Cardi BTEC (@amelia_perrin) <a href="https://twitter.com/amelia_perrin/status/1141013304434810881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 18, 2019</a></blockquote> The piece that has shocked many was created by a tableware and collectables brand, Royal Doulton – which surprisingly enough, is selling for AU$435 on its website. “Crafted in exquisite fine bone china, Royal Doulton figurines are beautifully handmade and hand-decorated by skilled ceramic artists,” the website <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.royaldoulton.com/young-royals-hn-5883" target="_blank">description</a> read. “The fun-loving spirit and happy personalities of the royal family is portrayed in the figure, Young Royals. “Sculptor Neil Welch has created this limited edition of 1000, inspired by a photograph of HRH the Duchess of Cambridge, playing in the garden with her children, their Royal Highnesses Prince George of Cambridge and Princess Charlotte of Cambridge. “This moment in time taken at their family home at Kensington Palace, reflecting the informality of precious family time the three share.” However, horrified Twitter users reacted to the figurines, one writing: “Their faces are in reverse order of age!” Others joked about the expensive collectable, with one user commenting: “This is a relatively flattering statuette of you with some random children, would I pay £60 for this of me, the answer is yes I would.” Picture: Reuters/Chris JelfSource:Reuters </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div></div>

Art

Why does it feel good to see someone fail?

In the Pixar animated film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096673/">Inside Out</a>, most of the plot plays out inside protagonist Riley’s head, where five emotions – Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger – direct her behavior. The film was released to glowing reviews. But director Pete Docter later <a href="http://nerdist.com/check-out-the-inside-out-emotions-that-didnt-end-up-in-the-movie/">admitted</a> that he always regretted that one emotion didn’t make the cut: Schadenfreude. Schadenfreude, which literally means “<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/schadenfreude">harm joy</a>” in German, is the peculiar pleasure people derive from others’ misfortune. You might feel it when the career of a <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kim-kardashian-age-schadenfreude-936783">high-profile celebrity</a> craters, when a particularly noxious criminal is <a href="http://theconversation.com/no-shortage-of-media-schadenfreude-as-fake-sheikh-is-sent-to-prison-67200">locked up</a> or when <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/06/germany-europe-world-cup/564014/">a rival sporting team</a> gets vanquished. Psychologists have long struggled with how to best understand, explain and study the emotion: It arises in such a wide range of situations that it can seem almost impossible to come up with some sort of unifying framework. Yet that’s exactly what my colleagues and I have attempted to do. Schadenfreude’s many faces One challenge continues to plague those who research schadenfreude: There’s no agreed-upon definition. Some think it’s best to study the emotion in the context of social comparison, so they’ll tend to focus on the way <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167296222005">envy</a> or <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/014616720202800708">resentment</a> interacts with schadenfreude. Others view the emotion through the lens of justice and fairness, and whether <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-15718-002">the sufferer deserved his or her misfortune</a>. Finally, the last group thinks that schadenfreude emerges out of <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0022-3514.84.5.932">intergroup dynamics</a> – members of a group deriving joy out of the suffering of those outside of the group. In our view, the different definitions point to multiple sides of schadenfreude, each of which might have distinct developmental origins. The blossoming of schadenfreude Perhaps the writers of Inside Out, when deciding to jettison “Schadenfreude,” thought that it would prove too difficult for children to grasp. There’s evidence, however, that children begin to experience schadenfreude early in life. For example, at four years old, children found someone else’s misfortune – like tripping and falling into a muddy puddle – funnier if that person <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjdp.12013">had previously done something to hurt other children</a>, such as breaking their toys. Researchers have also found that two-year-old kids primed to be jealous of a peer <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0100233">experience glee when that peer suffers a mishap</a>. By the age of seven, children feel more pleased after winning a game <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002209651200224X?via%3Dihub">if a rival lost than when both won the game</a>. Finally, in a 2013 study, researchers had nine-month-old infants observe puppets interacting with one another. Some puppets “enjoyed” the same types of food that the infants enjoyed, while others had a different set of tastes. When some puppets “harmed” the other puppets, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797612457785?journalCode=pssa">the researchers discovered</a> that the infants would rather see the puppets who didn’t share their tastes be hurt over the ones who did share their tastes. Bringing it all together Together, these studies show that schadenfreude is a complex emotion that seems to be deeply ingrained in the human condition. Psychologists <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=McDqyssAAAAJ&hl=en">Scott Lilienfeld</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GfAXgJcAAAAJ&hl=en">Philippe Rochat</a> and <a href="http://www.psychology.emory.edu/cognition/rochat/lab/Wang.html">I</a> wondered if there could be a way to unite the multiple facets of schadenfreude under the same umbrella. Eventually, we settled on seeing schadenfreude as a form of <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115045">dehumanization</a> – the act of depicting and viewing another person as less than human. When most people hear the term “dehumanization,” they probably go to the worst-case scenario: a complete denial of someone’s humanity, a phenomenon relegated to torture chambers, battlefields and racist propaganda. But this is a misconception. Psychologists have shown that people often view their own group in more human terms, and – <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1207/s15327957pspr1003_4">in subtle ways</a> – can deny the full humanity of those outside of their group. In our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0732118X18301430">review</a>, we hypothesized that <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0037679">the more empathy</a> someone feels toward another person, the less likely they are to experience schadenfreude when that person suffers. So in order for someone to feel schadenfreude toward another person – whether it’s a rival, someone in an outgroup or someone who’s committed a crime – they’ll need to subtly dehumanize them. Only then does the sufferer’s misfortune become rewarding. This theory hasn’t been tested yet, so at the end of our review, we suggest ways schadenfreude’s early origins and individual differences can be placed under scientific scrutiny to study this novel hypothesis. Linking schadenfreude with dehumanization might sound dark, especially because schadenfreude is such a universal emotion. But dehumanization occurs more often than most would like to think – and we believe it’s behind the pang of pleasure you feel when you see someone fail.<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/107349/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> Written by Shensheng Wang, Ph.D. Candidate in Psychology, Emory University. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-it-feel-good-to-see-someone-fail-107349">The Conversation</a>.

Relationships

4 lifestyle secrets Olivia Newton-John follows without fail

She’s a singer, an actress and a survivor of cancer, and Olivia Newton-John has revealed her secret on how she manages to look and feel good at the age of 70. Speaking to body and soul, the triple threat spoke about the lifestyle changes she made to ensure her health remains in the best condition. 1. Going toxin-free The Grease star is conscious about what goes into her body, as she chooses to opt for organic fruit and vegetables – keeping things as fuss-free as possible. But not only does she take caution when it comes to food, but also her beauty routine. “Nowadays, I like to keep it pure, clean and simple. I look for products with toxin-free ingredients, I favour whole, fresh vegetables, and I’m passionate about all-natural skincare products that really work, like the Retreatment Botanics range I created with Gaia Retreat & Spa in Byron Bay. The range is organic, palm-oil-free and made in Australia, and I love that I can trust the ingredients,” she told body and soul. 2. Taking part in activities she enjoys Many of us can end up in the rut of daily routine. Plenty of times you may feel the need to slow down, or come up for air, and Olivia understands exactly how you feel. The star has fallen victim to crazy work schedules, so making time for the people she loves is one thing she prioritises more than anything. “Throughout my career there have been times when my schedule was really demanding and all-consuming, which is why I now make family and friends a priority; spending time with them is what matters most. Laughter is one of my greatest joys, so I like to surround myself with people who are positive and funny,” she said. “One of the other big blessings in my life is singing and I find that it connects straight to my heart’s centre where my creative energy flows. No matter what’s happening in my life, what excitement or struggles might be going on, singing always brings me a sense of peace.” 3. Being one with nature Smartphones, iPads and social media are all part of everyone’s regular routine but taking a breath of fresh air in the great outdoors is an underrated lifestyle exercise that we as people tend to skip out on. The 70-year-old revealed that she takes part in regular outdoor activities to give her a break from all of the screens she’s faced with. “In a world full of electronics and screens, I feel it’s vital to make connecting with nature a regular practice – it helps melt away any tension I may be feeling. The first thing I do when I get home after touring is to walk barefoot with my feet on the earth to re-energise,” she shared. “I love to go on walks with my husband, John, and my dog, Raven, and just spend time in the garden with my chooks and mini horses, Harry and Winston.” 4. Making self-care a non-negotiable It’s important to put yourself first, and despite having to take care of family and friends from time to time, forgetting ourselves in the process can cause serious health issues later on in life. Whether it’s a few minutes of meditation, or a relaxing bath, giving yourself an hour of your time, each day can help you life a happier and healthier life. “Creating daily rituals to nurture myself has become a non-negotiable health habit. When I don’t start the day with some movement, breathing and meditation, I feel out of whack,” said Olivia. “Mindfully loving my body while I apply my skincare and essential oils is how I show self-love on a daily basis. I never skip these steps as I’ve realised how profoundly healing, they are for my mind, body, heart and spirit.”

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Almost half of Moon missions fail. Why is space still so hard?

Bizarre reason mum with one-year-old “failed” rental inspection

15 fails we’re all guilty of when travelling

“Our country have failed a 12-year– old”: Archie’s parents concede defeat

Surprise twist in traveller who failed to declare sandwich ingredients

Aus-NZ refugee deal is a bandage on a failed policy

"Bedtime fail": Jacinda Arden interrupted during live address

Fashion fail: Mum drives back to store to get help removing new jumpsuit

A dog groomer’s autocorrect fail has owner reeling

"I don't want this": School photo fail brings unlikely joy

Hugh Jackman reveals hilarious baking fail

The Chase star splits from second cousin after failed open marriage

Why one man's bulk buying hand sanitiser scheme failed

Why your New Year's resolution to go to the gym will fail

China's failed gene edited baby experiment proves we're not ready for human embryo modification

The world's shortest IQ test that's only 3 questions long – and 4 out 5 people fail

Google Maps fail leads nearly 100 drivers to an empty field

Royal fail! $110 dolls of Duchess Kate and royal children go viral for all the wrong reasons

Why does it feel good to see someone fail?

4 lifestyle secrets Olivia Newton-John follows without fail

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Catalogues

Travel

Health

Lifestyle

Finance

Entertainment

Property

Information

Keep up to date

Search

Almost half of Moon missions fail. Why is space still so hard?

Bizarre reason mum with one-year-old “failed” rental inspection

15 fails we’re all guilty of when travelling

“Our country have failed a 12-year– old”: Archie’s parents concede defeat

Surprise twist in traveller who failed to declare sandwich ingredients

Aus-NZ refugee deal is a bandage on a failed policy

"Bedtime fail": Jacinda Arden interrupted during live address

Fashion fail: Mum drives back to store to get help removing new jumpsuit

A dog groomer’s autocorrect fail has owner reeling

"I don't want this": School photo fail brings unlikely joy

Hugh Jackman reveals hilarious baking fail

The Chase star splits from second cousin after failed open marriage

Why one man's bulk buying hand sanitiser scheme failed

Why your New Year's resolution to go to the gym will fail

China's failed gene edited baby experiment proves we're not ready for human embryo modification

The world's shortest IQ test that's only 3 questions long – and 4 out 5 people fail

Google Maps fail leads nearly 100 drivers to an empty field

Royal fail! $110 dolls of Duchess Kate and royal children go viral for all the wrong reasons

Why does it feel good to see someone fail?

4 lifestyle secrets Olivia Newton-John follows without fail

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