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Your skin is a mirror of your health – here’s what yours might be saying

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dan-baumgardt-1451396">Dan Baumgardt</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-bristol-1211">University of Bristol</a></em></p> <p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12095893/">Skin accounts for around 15% of our body mass</a>. It is the largest and most visible organ in the human body.</p> <p>Yet many of the skin’s functions are often overlooked. It’s a sunscreen, a shield from germs, a reservoir of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28994020/">vitamin D</a> and a means of tightly regulating our body temperature.</p> <p>Being the most visible of our organs, the skin also offers us a view into the body tissues that it protects. So don’t think of your skin merely aesthetically – think of it as a reflection of your health. Disorders of the gut, blood, hormones and even the heart might first be seen on the skin in the form of a rash.</p> <p>Here are a few to look out for.</p> <h2>Bullseye</h2> <p>Ticks are pesky creatures that no one will want to return home from a country walk with.</p> <p>But while the vast majority of tick bites <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36116831/">won’t make you ill</a>, there is one rash that should prompt a visit to your doctor if you spot it.</p> <p>Erythema migrans, a rash named for its ability to rapidly expand across the skin, is a hallmark of <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1041.long">Lyme disease</a>, a potentially severe bacterial illness. This rash forms a classic target pattern, like a bullseye on a dartboard.</p> <p>Be vigilant for a few weeks after being bitten to check this rash doesn’t make an appearance – especially if you noticed a red lump that wasn’t there before or if you had to remove a tick from your skin. You should also keep an eye out for other associated symptoms of Lyme disease – such as swinging temperatures, muscle and joint pains and headache.</p> <p>The condition is treated with antibiotics, which can prevent long-term complications, including chronic fatigue symptoms.</p> <h2>Purpura</h2> <p>Some rashes are given a <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1538-7836(22)01880-3">colourful namesake</a> – purpura is one such example. This rash’s name is derived from a mollusc which was used to make purple dye.</p> <p>Purpura refers to a rash of small purple or red dots. The cause is pooling of blood into a deeper layer of the skin (dermis). When pressed with a finger – or even better, the side of a glass – it refuses to blanch away.</p> <p>Purpura signals an issue with either the walls of the tiny blood vessels that feed the skin or the blood within them. This might be from a deficiency in platelets, the tiny cell fragments that allow blood to clot – perhaps from bone marrow failure, or an autoimmune condition where the body turns on itself and attacks its own cells.</p> <p>At worst, purpura may signal the life-threatening condition <a href="https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/full/10.12968/hmed.2017.78.8.468">septicaemia</a>, where an infection has spread into the bloodstream – perhaps from the lungs, kidneys or even from the skin itself.</p> <h2>Skin spiders</h2> <p>Skin rashes can also take on <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32513406/">recognisable shapes</a>.</p> <p>Spider naevi represent an issue within skin arterioles (small arteries which supply the skin with blood). Arterioles open and close to control the loss of heat from the body’s surface. But sometimes they can get stuck open – and a spider-like pattern will appear.</p> <p>The open arteriole is the spider’s body, and the even tinier capillaries fanning out in all directions are the thready legs. Crush the body under a fingertip and the whole thing disappears, as your touch temporarily stops the blood flow.</p> <p>Often, these are benign and not associated with any specific condition – especially if you only have one or two. However, more than three suggest higher circulating levels of the <a href="https://dermnetnz.org/topics/spider-telangiectasis">hormone oestrogen</a>, often due to liver disease or from the hormonal changes seen in pregnancy. Treat the underlying cause, and the spiders often vanish with time – though they may persist or reappear later.</p> <h2>Black velvet</h2> <p>Changes to the folds of your skin (usually around the armpits or neck) – especially if it becomes thickened and velveteen to the touch – may suggest a condition known as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jocd.13544">acanthosis nigricans</a>. This “black velvet” skin appearance is more commonly seen in darker skins.</p> <p>Usually, the condition is associated with <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29241752/">disorders of the metabolism</a> – namely type 2 diabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome. If either of these conditions are successfully treated, the rash may fade. In rare cases, it can also be a sign of <a href="https://www.hkmj.org/abstracts/v29n4/355.htm">stomach cancer</a>, which should be considered in patients with few or none of the key signs of metabolic disease (obesity and high blood pressure).</p> <h2>Butterfly rashes</h2> <p>Even disorders of the heart can be visible on the skin.</p> <p>Cardiac valves have the important role of correctly directing the journey of blood through the heart and preventing backflow. The valve between the chambers on the left side of the heart (the mitral valve – so called because of its resemblance to a bishop’s hat, or mitre) can sometimes become narrowed, causing the heart’s function to deteriorate. The body’s natural response is to preserve core blood volume, shutting off flow towards the skin.</p> <p>The net effect can produce a purple-red rash, high across the cheeks and the bridge of the nose, like the outstretched wings of a butterfly. We call this <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2050313X231200965?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&amp;rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&amp;rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed">mitral facies</a> which, depending on the extent of damage to the heart and great vessels, may persist despite treatment.</p> <p>It’s important to pay heed to your skin. It’s constantly talking to you, and any changes in its texture, colour or if new marks or patterns appear, may indicate something is going on beneath the surface.<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/221937/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dan-baumgardt-1451396">Dan Baumgardt</a>, Senior Lecturer, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-bristol-1211">University of Bristol</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/your-skin-is-a-mirror-of-your-health-heres-what-yours-might-be-saying-221937">original article</a>.</em></p>

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The strange history of these 5 common superstitions

<p><strong>Where superstitions come from</strong></p> <p>You probably engage in many of these superstitions as second nature, but have you ever thought about where they come from?</p> <p><strong>Superstition: Black cats are bad omens</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>The backstory</em></span>: Despite centuries of royal treatment (Egyptians worshipped them; the Norse goddess Freya rode in a chariot pulled by them), cats took a big hit to their reputation in the 1200s, when Pope Gregory IX, waging a culture war on pagan symbols, damned cats as servants of Satan.</p> <p>As a result, cats – especially black ones – were killed across Europe. One unintended consequence, according to some historians: The cat-deprived continent may have allowed disease-carrying rodents to flourish and spread the bubonic plague of 1348.</p> <p>Rumours that the feline’s fangs and fur were venomous persisted, and by the witch-hunting days of the 1600s, many Puritans believed black cats to be “familiars” – supernatural demons that serve witches – and avoided them (to borrow an apt phrase) like the plague.</p> <p><strong>Superstition: Never walk under a ladder</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>The backstory</em></span>: Depending on your background, a ladder leaning against a wall can represent an honest day’s work, a textbook geometry problem, or a symbol of the Holy Trinity that, if breached, will damn your soul. That last bit is what some ancient Christians believed – that any triangle represented the Trinity, and disrupting one could summon the Evil One.</p> <p>These days, our under-ladder phobia is a smidge more practical: Avoid it because you might get beaned by falling tools, debris, or an even less lucky human.</p> <p><strong>Superstition: Break a mirror and see seven years of bad luck</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>The backstory</em></span>: Numerous ancient cultures agree: Your reflection doesn’t just reveal whether you’re having a bad hair day – it also holds a piece of your soul. To break a mirror, then, is to fracture your very essence, leaving you vulnerable to bad luck.</p> <p>So why should the sentence last seven years? Some writers cite the ancient Romans, who are said to have believed that the human body and soul fully regenerate every seven years. Any poor pleb who fractured his or her soul in the looking glass would therefore have to endure the bad karma until the soul renewed again.</p> <p><strong>Superstition: A full moon brings out the crazies</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>The backstory</em></span>: Ever wonder where the word lunatic came from? Look no further than luna, the Latin word for the moon. Many Greeks knew that the moon and its goddess, Luna, held the tides in their thrall, and Aristotle considered the human brain – the “moistest” organ – particularly susceptible to Luna’s pull.</p> <p>Ancient physician Hippocrates agreed, writing, “One who is seized with terror, fright and madness during the night is being visited by the goddess of the moon.” Today, some emergency room workers still believe the full moon means trouble.</p> <p><strong>Superstition: Say “God bless you” after a sneeze or risk something worse than a cold</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>The backstory</em></span>: You’ve probably heard the myth that a sneeze stops the heart (it doesn’t) or separates body from soul (science declines to comment there). But to explain the ritual of post-sneeze “blessing,” we can look to another pope.</p> <p>During the first recorded plague pandemic, in the sixth century, severe sneezing often portended sudden death. As a desperate precaution, Pope Gregory I supposedly asked followers to say “God bless you” every time someone sneezed. Today, it’s just polite.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.co.nz/culture/this-is-the-history-behind-these-5-common-superstitions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>. </em></p>

Caring

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"The wilderness of mirrors": 70 years since the first James Bond book, spy stories are still blurring fact and fiction

<p>"The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning."</p> <p>With these opening words, Ian Fleming (1908-64) introduced us to the gritty, glamorous world of James Bond.</p> <p>Fleming’s first novel, <a href="https://www.ianfleming.com/items/casino-royale/">Casino Royale</a>, was published 70 years ago on April 13 1953. It sold out within weeks. British readers, still living with rationing and shortages after the war, eagerly devoured the first James Bond story. It had expensive liquor and cars, exotic destinations, and high-stakes gambling – luxurious things beyond the reach of most people.</p> <p>The novel’s principal villain is Le Chiffre, the paymaster of a French trade union controlled by the Soviet intelligence agency SMERSH. After losing Soviet money, Le Chiffre takes to high-stakes gambling tables to recover it. Bond’s mission is to play against Le Chiffre and win, bankrupting both the Frenchman and the union. </p> <p>The director of British intelligence, known only by his codename “M”, also assigns Bond a companion – Vesper Lynd, previously one of the agency’s assistants. The two infiltrate the casino, play at the tables, and dodge assassination attempts, while engaging in a dramatic battle with French communists, the Soviets, and each other.</p> <p>Fleming’s Bond – the sophisticated, tuxedo-clad secret agent – is an enduring image of espionage. Since 1953, martinis, gadgets, and a licence to kill have been part of how ordinary people understand spycraft. </p> <p>Some of this was real: Fleming drew on his own work as a spy for his novels. Intelligence work is often less glamorous than he depicted, but in both espionage and novel-writing, the difference between fact and fiction is not always easy to distinguish. </p> <h2>Ian Fleming, Agent 17F</h2> <p>Fleming came from a wealthy, well-connected British family, but he was a mediocre student. He only lasted a year at military college (where he contracted gonorrhoea), then missed out on a job with the Foreign Office. He could write, though. He spent a few years as a journalist, but drifted purposelessly through much of the 1930s. </p> <p>The outbreak of war in 1939 changed everything. The director of British Naval Intelligence, Admiral John Henry Godfrey, recruited Fleming as his assistant. Fleming excelled, under the codename 17F. He didn’t see much of the war firsthand, but was involved in its planning. He was an ideas man, not overly concerned with practicalities or logistics. Fleming came up with the fictions; other people had to turn them into realities. </p> <p>In 1940, for example, he developed “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/entertainment-britain-fleming-bond-finea-idCAL1663266620080416">Operation Ruthless</a>”. To crack the German naval codes, Fleming planned to lure a German rescue boat into a trap and steal its coding machine. They would obtain a German bomber, dress British men in German uniforms, and deliberately crash the plane into the channel. When the German rescue crew arrived, they would shoot them and grab the machine. </p> <p>Preparations began but Fleming’s plan never eventuated. It was too difficult and risky – not least because crashing the plane might simply kill their whole crew.</p> <p>Fleming worked on various operations. When he began writing after the war, these experiences found their way into Bond’s world. Fleming and Godfrey had visited Portugal, a neutral territory teeming with spies, where they went to the casino. Fleming claimed he played against a German agent at the tables, an experience that supposedly inspired Bond’s gambling battles with Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. </p> <p>Godfrey maintained that Fleming only ever played against Portuguese businessmen, but Fleming never let facts get in the way of a good story.</p> <p>Fleming picked up inspiration everywhere. Godfrey became the model for M. Fleming’s secretary, Joan Howe, inspired Moneypenny. The Soviet SMERSH coding device in <a href="https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/From_Russia_with_Love_(novel)">From Russia, With Love</a> (1957) was based on the German Enigma machine. Many of Fleming’s characters were named for real people: one villain shares a name with Hitler’s Chief of Staff, another with one of Fleming’s schoolyard adversaries.</p> <p>It became something of a sport to hypothesise about the inspiration for Bond. Fleming later called him a “compound of all the secret agents and commando types” he met during war. There were elements of Fleming’s older brother, an operative behind the lines in Norway and Greece. Fleming also pointed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Reilly">Sidney Reilly</a>, a Russian-born British agent during the First World War. He had access to reports on Reilly in the Naval Intelligence archive during his own service. </p> <p>Other possible models include <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_O%27Brien-ffrench">Conrad O’Brien-ffrench</a>, a British spy Fleming met while skiing in the 1930s, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Dunderdale">Wilfred “Biffy” Dunderdale</a>, MI6 Station Chief in Paris, who wore handmade suits and was chauffeured in a Rolls Royce. Stories of discovering <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/mr-bond-i-presume-20141017-117xji.html">the real-life James Bond</a> still appear.</p> <p>But there was also much of Fleming himself in Bond. He gave 007 his own love of scrambled eggs and gambling. Their attitude towards women was similar. They used the same brand of toiletries. Bond even has Fleming’s golf handicap. </p> <p>Fleming would play with this idea, teasing that the books were autobiographical or that he was Bond’s biographer. Much like a cover story for an intelligence officer, Bond was Fleming’s alter-ego. He was anchored in Fleming’s realities – with a strong dash of creative licence and a little aspiration.</p> <h2>The changing world of Bond</h2> <p>The success of Casino Royale secured contracts for more Bond novels. In the early 1960s, critics began to denounce the books for their “sex, snobbery, and sadism”. Bond’s attitude toward women, in particular, was clear from the beginning. In Casino Royale, he refers to the “sweet tang of rape” in relation to sex with his MI6 accomplice and paramour Vesper Lynd. </p> <p>But the public appeared to be less concerned. Bond novels still sold well, especially after John F. Kennedy listed one among his top ten books. The first film adaptation, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055928/">Dr. No</a>, appeared in 1962 and Fleming’s success continued apace.</p> <p>Bond’s world was evolving, though. From Casino Royale to For Your Eyes Only (1960), Bond battled SMERSH, a real Soviet counter-espionage organisation. The early Bond novels were Cold War stories. Soviet Russia was the West’s enemy, so it was Bond’s. </p> <p>But East-West relations were thawing in 1959 when Fleming was writing Thunderball (1961). The Cold War could plausibly have ended and he didn’t want any film version to look dated, so Fleming created a fictional villain: SPECTRE. This was an international terrorist organisation without a distinct ideology. It could endure beyond the battles of the Cold War – and did. It features in the 2021 Bond film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2382320/">No Time To Die</a>.</p> <p>Fleming’s more fantastic plots were always anchored in reality by recognisable brands and products. Bond’s watch was a Rolex; his choice of bourbon was Jack Daniels. His cigarettes were Morlands, like Fleming’s. In the novels, Bond drove Bentleys – the Aston Martin was introduced in the 1964 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058150/">Goldfinger</a>. </p> <p>The films have changed Bond’s brands to keep up with the world around them (and secure lucrative product-placement deals): Omega replaced Rolex in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113189/">Goldeneye</a> (1995); the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/apr/17/bond-taste-for-beer-skyfall">martini was swapped for a Heineken</a> in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074638/">Skyfall</a> (2012). Bond now carries a Sony phone.</p> <p>Other changes brought the 1950s spy into the 21st century. Recent films have more diverse casting. Their female characters do more than just spend a night with Bond before their untimely deaths. The novels, too, continue to change – the 70th-anniversary editions have had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/27/james-bond-novels-to-be-reissued-with-racial-references-removed">racial slurs and some characters’ ethnic descriptors removed</a>. </p> <p>Some have criticised this as censorship. But as with <a href="https://theconversation.com/roald-dahl-a-brief-history-of-sensitivity-edits-to-childrens-literature-200500">recent rewritings of Roald Dahl’s books</a>, changes like this are not new. Fleming’s family has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-28/ian-fleming-james-bond-books-changes-to-new-editions/102035958">defended the alterations by citing similar removals</a> in 1955, when Live and Let Die was first published in the United States. </p> <p>There is a risk that this whitewashes Fleming’s attitudes, making them appear more palatable than they really were. But the revised Bond novels will include a disclaimer noting the removals. Casino Royale itself has not been altered (Bond’s rape comment remains intact), so the changes will perhaps be less extensive than the media coverage suggests.</p> <h2>Spies After Bond</h2> <p>Fleming is not the only ex-spy to have successfully turned his hand to spy fiction. John le Carré’s George Smiley is perhaps an anti-Bond: slightly overweight, banal, and essentially a bureaucrat. He relies on a shrewd mind rather than gadgets or guns. </p> <p>Le Carré introduced his readers to a more mundane, morally grey world of espionage. He had worked for MI5 and MI6 in the 1950 and ‘60s. He thought Bond was a gangster rather than a spy. Le Carré’s stories have also shaped how we think about espionage. Words like “mole” and “honeytrap” – the terminology of spycraft – <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2023/02/john-le-carre-spy-came-in-from-cold-book/673227/">entered common usage via his novels</a>.</p> <p>Stella Rimington, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/apr/23/stella-rimington-i-fell-into-intelligence-by-chance">the first female director-general of MI5</a>, began writing fiction after retiring from intelligence in the late 1990s. Her protagonist, 34-year-old Liz Carlyle, hunts terror cells in Britain. Like Smiley, Carlyle appears rather ordinary. She is serious and conscientious. We get glimpses of the everyday sexism she experiences. Carlyle triumphs by remaining level-headed, not by fiery gun battles or explosions.</p> <p>After three decades of agent-running for the CIA, Jason Mathews wrote his <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/series/The-Red-Sparrow-Trilogy">Red Sparrow</a> trilogy to occupy himself in retirement. He called it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/books/shadowing-jason-matthews-the-ex-spy-whose-cover-identity-is-author.html">a form of therapy</a>. </p> <p>There’s a little more Bond in Mathews’ books than in those of le Carré or Rimington. His protagonists Nate Nash and Dominika Egorova are attractive, charismatic and entangled in a personal relationship of stolen moments and high drama. This is counterbalanced by the many hours they spend running surveillance-detection routes before meeting targets. The more tedious and banal aspects of spycraft – brush passes, broken transmitters, and dead drops – accompany the glamour and romance.</p> <h2>The wilderness of mirrors</h2> <p>Spy fiction is never just about entertainment. The real world of espionage is so secret that most of us only ever encounter it on pages or screens. We don’t usually look to Bond films for accurate representations of espionage. But the influence of Fleming’s spy and the general aura of secrecy surrounding intelligence work lend some glamour and excitement to the work of real spies.</p> <p>These fictions also influence our views on real intelligence organisations, their activities, and their legitimacy. This is why the <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-cia-goes-to-hollywood-how-americas-spy-agency-infiltrated-the-big-screen-and-our-minds/">CIA invests time and money into fictionalisations</a> dealing with its work. From stories based on true events, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024648/">Argo</a>(2012) or <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790885/">Zero Dark Thirty</a> (2012), to fictional series like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1796960/">Homeland</a> (2011-20), the agency’s image is shaped via the media we consume.</p> <p>This was true when Fleming was writing, too. Soviet authorities <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Russia-and-the-Cult-of-State-Security-The-Chekist-Tradition-From-Lenin/Fedor/p/book/9780415703475">were preoccupied</a> by Sherlock Holmes’ surging popularity behind the Iron Curtain and fretted over the release of the Bond novels and films. The KGB studied both carefully. It was likely Bond who prompted KGB officers to release classified details about their most successful spy story: the career of <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-name-s-sorge-richard-sorge/">Richard Sorge</a>. </p> <p>Former intelligence officers such as Fleming are often quite good at fiction – perhaps because it is a core part of spycraft. A solid cover story has to be grounded in reality, with just enough fiction to protect the truth or gain a desired outcome. A good operation often requires creativity, to outwit a target or evade detection. And spreading fictions – disinformation – can sometimes be just as useful as gathering information.</p> <p>The world of espionage is sometimes referred to as the “wilderness of mirrors”. Spycraft relies on both reflections and distortions. The line between fact and fiction, between real stories of intelligence work and invented ones, can become blurry – and intelligence agencies often prefer it that way.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Columbia Pictures</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wilderness-of-mirrors-70-years-since-the-first-james-bond-book-spy-stories-are-still-blurring-fact-and-fiction-201373" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

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“I like looking in the mirror”: Justine Bateman on ageing in the public eye

<p> Justine Bateman has gotten candid while discussing the reality of ageing in the public eye, and her experience with negative opinion on her surgery-free complexion. </p> <p>The actress turned director - and sister of actor Jason Bateman - was chatting to <em>60 Minutes</em> when she confessed she didn’t know anyone was that interested in her looks until she happened to be googling herself for her book and encountered a popular autofill suggestion. </p> <p>“I needed to google something, and I googled my name Justine Bateman, and an autocomplete came up which said ‘looks old’,” she explained, before adding that it’d taken her aback. </p> <p>After browsing the pictures that the search provided - those Justine believed the internet considered “evidence” - she couldn’t see what it was that they were talking about. Her face was a natural face, not an ‘old’ one. </p> <p>And Justine had one very clear message for anyone who had any different to say - to her, or to anyone else embracing the ageing process - when she said, “I just don’t give a sh*t. I think I look rad, I think my face represents who I am, and I like it.”</p> <p>That isn’t to say Justine has never considered what cosmetic intervention may do for her, with the 57-year-old admitting that she has wondered how she might look - though she’s never followed up on it, too happy with how she’s evolving to risk losing any part of herself. </p> <p>“You can certainly look in the mirror and you can go ‘oh, well, if I just had like a lower face lift, I would get rid of this skin that catches the light, and then I could have that operation where you go in to the eyelid - or you know - take some of the skin out, and this that’s hanging over now over the eyelid, you can get that removed’. Sure, you can do all of that,” she explained. </p> <p>“But even then I would just be like ‘okay, so now I look like this’, and then I would erase … I feel like I would erase not only all my authority that I have now, but also I like feeling that I’m a different person now, than I was when I was 20.</p> <p>“I like looking in the mirror and seeing that evidence.”</p> <p>Many took the opportunity to thank Justine for her words, and her stance during the interview, with some even opening up about their own experiences while commenting on her social media. </p> <p>“It was a powerful share. Ageing in a culture of anti-aging isn’t particularly easy, but it’s heartening to hear from other women who recognise that our worth is not determined by our appearance,” said one. “We’re objectified in our teens and twenties, only to be discarded by society by the time we reach our forties for the ‘crime’ of ageing. Aka staying alive. It’s patriarchal BS and we deserve better. Thank you for your voice.”</p> <p>“Thank you Justine. I just wish your interview segments were longer,” wrote another. “I appreciate you so much for speaking out about this issue and know you will be helping so many women navigate all of the distractions. So much oppressive ageism [is] wrapped up in teaching women to hate and fix their ageing bodies.”</p> <p>“Those lines, wrinkles and grey hairs are details to a rich and storied existence,” someone else declared, “wear them like badges of honour.”</p> <p>And as Justine herself put it, “forget about your face! That is what I’m saying. Get rid of the fear that your face being wrinkled is going to ruin a bunch of opportunities for you.”</p> <p><em>Images: Instagram, Getty, Vimeo, 60 Minutes</em></p>

Beauty & Style

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"I seriously doubt it was consensual": Creepy find inside luxury estate

<p dir="ltr">A photographer has come across something quite sinister during a photoshoot of a multi-million dollar luxury estate. </p> <p dir="ltr">Taking to Facebook, the photographer shared photos of a two-way mirror in the master bathroom of the home along with some cables and coax.</p> <p dir="ltr">He thought it would have led him to a television as some people like to watch shows while enjoying a bath but it just left him with so many questions. </p> <p dir="ltr">"Technically found in a closet, but a two-way mirror into a bathroom," the photographer wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">"I work in real estate photography and found this in the master bath of an older multi-million-dollar luxury estate for sale. </p> <p dir="ltr">“There is a power strip along with cables and coax.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It was easy to find, leading me to believe it was for a television (that was a thing) or if it were for video, it was consensual between all parties. Still really weird to find!"</p> <p dir="ltr">Social media users were shocked at the finding and doubted that the cables were there for a TV but instead for something possibly worse. </p> <p dir="ltr">"I SERIOUSLY DOUBT it was consensual if someone was filming there. If it was for a TV in a mirror I think I'd have left the TV THERE to prove what it was for!" someone wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">"That was for no TV with a mirror in front of it. And why not just a window if consensual? I don't think this was consensual at all and I find it terrifying!" another commented.</p> <p dir="ltr">"That's a murder house," someone else wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">Later in the post, the photographer explained that these findings were quite common in expensive homes. </p> <p dir="ltr">"Luxury homes had two-way mirror TVs. It was a thing back when box TVs were a thing," he explained.</p> <p dir="ltr">Others agreed, giving examples of when they were in the same situation.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Someone told me they had a TV in the mirror of her hotel bathroom," one wrote. </p> <p dir="ltr">"I stayed in a fancy hotel in Chicago with a TV behind the mirror. It was pretty cool,” another shared. </p> <p dir="ltr">"More than 5 years ago, it was 'in' for homes to have a TV hidden inside a mirror. I actually know a handful of friends that had 'hidden' TVs in their master bath," someone else added.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Facebook</em></p>

Real Estate

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Two nearby, newly discovered exoplanets mirror Earth

<p>Scientists have found two rocky exoplanets – not much larger than Earth – orbiting a star so close to us that they are practically in our solar system’s backyard.</p> <p>The star, HD 260655, is a low-mass M-class star, a type known as a red dwarf, about 33 light years away. The discovery was announced by Rafael Luque of the University of Chicago and the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, Spain, at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society in the US.</p> <p>To put that distance into perspective, 33 light years is so close that if you constructed a scale model of the galaxy, in which the Sun was in Pasadena (site of the meeting) and HD 260655 was in neighbouring Hollywood (18km away), then the centre of our galaxy (the Milky Way) would be somewhere around Nepal.</p> <p>That’s important because it puts the two new planets close enough to us to make them prime targets for the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope.</p> <p>The planets were first observed in late 2021, when NASA’s planet-hunting space telescope <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/tess-transiting-exoplanet-survey-satellite" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)</a> spotted them passing between us and their star, causing its light to dim as they eclipsed a portion of it.</p> <p>That was interesting enough, but when Luque’s team looked back at prior observations of the same star from telescopes on Earth, they found that its motion appeared to wobble as it was tugged alternately toward and away from us – exactly what would happen if it was being affected by the gravity of orbiting planets. That wobble hadn’t been strong enough to alert scientists to the presence of the planets at the time, but combined with the TESS observations, it was a smoking gun.</p> <div class="newsletter-box"> <div id="wpcf7-f6-p195069-o1" class="wpcf7" dir="ltr" lang="en-US" role="form"> </div> </div> <p>Better yet, Luque says, combining the TESS data (which gave the diameter of the two planets by the degree to which they blocked their sun’s light) with the wobble data (which revealed their masses), it was possible to calculate their density. “We found that these planets, despite being slightly larger than the Earth, have a density pretty similar to ours,” he says.</p> <p>This means they aren’t water worlds or gas-dominated worlds like those in our own outer solar system. “Both are consistent with having a composition consistent with rocks,” Luque says.</p> <p>Not that this means they are twins of Earth, let alone suggests that they can support life as we know it. The one nearest to its star might be nearly as hot as Venus, and the other might still have a surface temperature as high as 284°C.</p> <p>But even if they prove to be too hot for complex life, they are important targets for study because they might teach us more about a truly Earthlike world, once we find one at the right distance from its star. “Both are ranked among the ten best targets to look at,” Luque says.</p> <p><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=195069&amp;title=Two+nearby%2C+newly+discovered+exoplanets+mirror+Earth" width="1" height="1" /></p> <div id="contributors"> <p><em><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astrophysics/two-nearby-newly-discovered-exoplanets-mirror-earth/" 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/richard-a-lovett" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Richard A Lovett</a>. Richard A Lovett is a Portland, Oregon-based science writer and science fiction author. He is a frequent contributor to Cosmos.</em></p> <p><em>Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech</em></p> </div>

Technology

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Family finds 1.3m snake wrapped around mirror

<p><em>Image: Brisbane North Snake Catcher/Facebook</em></p> <p>Checking your rear-view mirrors is essential before driving off. However, one Queensland family has discovered another big reason to perform this important safety check.</p> <p>The family had been off enjoying a picnic north of Brisbane on Sunday. Upon returning to the car – much to their shock – have discovered a large snake wrapped around the rear view mirror.</p> <p>According to Brisbane North Snake Catcher director Josh Castle, this was an unusual place to find a snake. “I’ve never seen it,” he told 7News.</p> <p>“I have pulled them out of car bonnets and stuff like that, which is more to be expected because they can into a bonnet from underneath.</p> <p>“The fact it was actually in the car and soaking in the sun through the window on the mirror is quite weird.”</p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7845991/new-project-8.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/44e7a1c59704460f8dd92137545a5f90" /></p> <p>The snake has been identified as a coastal carpet python approximately 1.3.m.</p> <p>“We’ve pretty much found them everywhere now. That pretty much tickets every box on where we’ve found them,” he said.</p> <p>Naturally, the internet absolutely lost its collective mind when photos of the car invader emerged.</p> <p>“Sell the damn car, it belongs to the snake now,” wrote another.</p>

Travel Trouble

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Shadow Catchers review: Fakes, body doubles and mirrors from the analog to the digital lens

<p><em>Review: </em><a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/shadow-catchers/"><em>Shadow Catchers</em></a><em> at Art Gallery of New South Wales.</em></p> <p>Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-28/vladimir-putin-says-he-never-used-body-double/12009780">denied using a body double</a>, saying he’d been offered one before but declined. The rest of us, in our glorious anonymity, might take up the offer. An actual person could shadow us through daily life. They could hold us tight while we attend to the task of living. They could reply to emails, chauffeur children and stand in for us at work while we go to the beach instead.</p> <p>Body doubles come into focus in a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Curated by Isobel Parker Philip, <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/shadow-catchers/">Shadow Catchers</a> includes almost 90 works from the art gallery’s collection: photography, video, sculpture and installations from Australia’s most respected artists, alongside important international works.</p> <p>Common to the works is the use of shadows, body doubles and mirrors, many of which challenge a straight forward understanding of photography and the moving image.</p> <p><strong>The camera can lie</strong></p> <p>Shadow Catchers shows that since the <a href="https://photo-museum.org/niepce-invention-photography/">first photography in 1827</a>, the medium has given us truthful copies of ourselves and the world. However, we also know it is easily exploited. In the era of fake news, we increasingly question the veracity of images.</p> <p>One of the oldest works in the exhibition, Clarence H. White and Alfred Stieglitz’ 1907 work <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/425.1977/">Experiment 27</a> (lady in white with crystal ball), shows images have long performed a dual function of revealing but also manipulating or concealing reality. The exhibition presents us with distortions, mirror images and doppelgangers and brings us truth and fiction in equal measure.</p> <p>Viewing the works of <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/412.2016.1-120/">Patrick Pound</a>, <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=redgate-jacky">Jacky Redgate</a> and <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=phillips-debra">Debra Phillips</a>, I wondered whether I was seeing the moon, the Earth, a UFO, a mirror or a simple ball.</p> <p>I was drawn into the cosy domestic space of what I thought was a lesbian couple. Instead, I was being intimately invited by <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=phillips-emma">Emma Phillips</a> to witness the tenderness of twin attachment.</p> <p>The self-splitting allure of the mirror reveals itself in works by <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/moffatt-tracey/">Tracey Moffatt</a> and <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=morley-lewis">Lewis Morley</a> (famous for his portrait of Christine Keeler). The erotic force of a simple shop mannequin is the signature of French photographer <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=molinier-pierre">Pierre Molinier</a>.</p> <p><a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=bing-ilse">Ilse Bing</a>’s intimate self-portrait from 1931 illustrates the central curatorial premise, duplicating her dark beauty in a staging of two angled mirrors where she looks both at us and away from us.</p> <p>Other highlights include eight imposing photographs by <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=raskopoulos-eugenia">Eugenia Raskopoulos</a>. Activating the illusory properties of the mirror after a hot shower, letters from the Greek alphabet are wiped onto the steamy surface.</p> <p><strong>Grand scale</strong></p> <p><a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=fairskye-merilyn">Merilyn Fairskye</a>’s large scale portraits, printed on a plastic substrate, emit a shadow onto the wall behind them and create a schism that gently ruptures the faces of her subjects.</p> <p>Body double, a work by <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=rrap-julie">Julie Rrap</a>, is the centrepiece of the exhibition. The artist has worked with notions of the double in sculpture, video and photography since the early 1980s. Two silicon rubber casts of the artist’s body lie corpse-like on a stage, one face down and one face up. A ghost-like figure of a man or a woman is projected onto the bodies. The projection of the body rolls across the stage from one figure to the other, appearing to resuscitate the silicon forms.</p> <p>The organisation of the works across four rooms intermingles historical works with the contemporary, reminding us that the present is always informed by the past.</p> <p>The exhibition offers a poetic reflection and critical account of our enduring fascination with technologies of representation.</p> <p>While the exhibition successfully returns us to photography’s past and the defiant contribution of postmodern approaches to “doubling”, it neglects to question our current and future predicament.</p> <p>The world today is saturated, even drowning, in shadows, which we are too slow or too tired to catch. Today we share the world with millions of our body doubles whether we want to or not.</p> <p>Shadows and mirrors follow us through daily life and reflect us in the screens of our digital devices, ultrasound images, x-rays, dentists’ moulds; our experience of ourselves in the world is constantly mediated through the experience of seeing ourselves duplicated. Bitmoji, digital avatars, gaming skins, VR personas, Instagram feeds, CCTV surveilance and passport scans mean we have plenty of body doubles lurking in cyberspace.</p> <p>It is suggested we live in a <a href="https://www.lensculture.com/articles/mois-de-la-photo-montreal-biennale-2015-the-post-photographic-condition">post-photographic</a> time. What this means is that technology is creating images of and with us, for and not for us. These may be better or worse than our mortal bodies and mostly beyond our control.</p> <p><em>Shadow Catchers is showing at Art Gallery of New South Wales until May 17.</em></p> <p><em>Written by Cherine Fahd. Republished with permission of </em><a href="https://theconversation.com/shadow-catchers-review-fakes-body-doubles-and-mirrors-from-the-analog-to-the-digital-lens-132668"><em>The Conversation.</em></a></p> <p><em> </em></p>

Movies

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Blue Acceleration: our dash for ocean resources mirrors what we’ve already done to the land

<p>Humans are leaving a heavy footprint on the Earth, but when did we become the main driver of change in the planet’s ecosystems? Many scientists point to the 1950s, when all kinds of socioeconomic trends began accelerating. Since then, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/the-countries-with-the-biggest-populations-from-1950-to-2060/">the world population has tripled</a>. Fertiliser and water use expanded as <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-the-earth-feed-11-billion-people-four-reasons-to-fear-a-malthusian-future-43347">more food was grown than ever before</a>. The construction of motorways sped up to accommodate rising car ownership while international flights took off to satisfy a growing taste for tourism.</p> <p>The scale of human demands on Earth grew beyond historic proportions. This post-war period became known as the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/anthropocene-began-in-1965-according-to-signs-left-in-the-worlds-loneliest-tree-91993">Great Acceleration</a>”, and many believe it gave birth to the Anthropocene – the geological epoch during which human activity surpassed natural forces as the biggest influence on the functioning of Earth’s living systems.</p> <p>But researchers studying the ocean are currently feeling a sense of déjà vu. Over the past three decades, patterns seen on land 70 years ago have been occurring in the ocean. We’re living through a “<a href="https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(19)30275-1">Blue Acceleration</a>”, and it will have significant consequences for life on the blue planet.</p> <p><strong>Why is the Blue Acceleration happening now?</strong></p> <p>As land-based resources have declined, hopes and expectations have increasingly turned to the ocean as a new engine of human development. Take deep sea mining. The international seabed and its mineral riches have excited commercial interest in recent years due to soaring commodity prices. According to the <a href="https://data.imf.org/commodityprices">International Monetary Fund</a>, the price of gold is up 454% since 2000, silver is up 317% and lead 493%. Around 1.4 million square kilometres of the seabed has been leased since 2001 by the International Seabed Authority for exploratory mining activities.</p> <p>In some industries, technological advances have driven these trends. Virtually all offshore windfarms were installed <a href="https://www.irena.org/Statistics">in the last 20 years</a>. The marine biotechnology sector scarcely existed at the end of the 20th century, and over <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/6/eaar5237">99% of genetic sequences from marine organisms</a> found in patents were registered since 2000.</p> <p>During the 1990s, as the Blue Acceleration got underway, <a href="https://www.infoplease.com/world/population-statistics/total-population-world-decade-1950-2050">the world population reached 6 billion</a>. Today there are around <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/">7.8 billion people</a>. Population growth in water-scarce areas like the Middle East, Australia and South Africa has caused a <a href="https://www.desaldata.com/">three-fold growth in volumes of desalinated seawater</a> generated since 2000. It has also meant a nearly <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IS.SHP.GOOD.TU">four-fold increase</a> in the volume of goods transported around the world by shipping since 2000.</p> <p><strong>Why does the Blue Acceleration matter?</strong></p> <p>The ocean was once thought – even among prominent scientists – to be too vast to be changed by human activity. That view has been replaced by the uncomfortable recognition that not only can humans change the ocean, but also that the current trajectory of human demands on the ocean simply isn’t sustainable.</p> <p>Consider the coast of Norway. The region is home to a multi-million dollar ocean-based oil and gas industry, aquaculture, popular cruises, busy shipping routes and fisheries. All of these interests are vying for the same ocean space, and their demands are growing. A five-fold increase in the number of salmon grown by aquaculture is expected by 2050, while the region’s tourism industry is predicted to welcome a five-fold increase in visitors by 2030. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.offshorewind.biz/2019/06/19/norway-ponders-3-5gw-offshore-wind-move/">vast offshore wind farms</a> have been proposed off the southern tip of Norway.</p> <p>The ocean is vast, but it’s not limitless. This saturation of ocean space is not unique to Norway, and a densely populated ocean space runs the risk of conflict across industries. Escapee salmon from aquaculture have <a href="https://www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/food-fisheries-and-agriculture/fishing-and-aquaculture/1/farmed-salmon/fish-healthsalmon-lice/id607091/">spread sea lice in wild populations</a>, creating tensions with Norwegian fisheries. An industrial accident in the oil and gas industry could cause significant damage to local seafood and tourism as well as the seafood export market.</p> <p>More fundamentally, the burden on ocean ecosystems is growing, and we simply don’t know as much about these ecosystems as we would like. An ecologist once quipped that fisheries management is the same as forestry management. Instead of trees you’re counting fish, except you can’t see the fish, and they move.</p> <p>Exploitation of the ocean has tended to precede exploration. One iconic example is <a href="https://theconversation.com/sea-pangolin-the-first-ever-species-endangered-by-potential-deep-sea-mining-120624">the scaly-foot snail</a>. This deep sea mollusc was discovered in 1999 and was on the IUCN Red List of endangered species by 2019. Why? As far as scientists can tell, the species is only found in three hydrothermal vent systems more than 2,400 metres below the Indian Ocean, covering less than 0.02 square kilometres. Today, two of the three vent systems fall within exploratory mining leases.</p> <p><strong>What next?</strong></p> <p>Billionaires dreaming of space colonies can dream a little closer to home. Even as the Blue Acceleration consumes more of the ocean’s resources, this vast area is every bit as mysterious as outer space. The surfaces of Mars and the Moon have been mapped in <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/mapping-our-planet-one-ocean-time">higher resolution than the seafloor</a>. Life in the ocean has existed for two billion years longer than on land and an estimated <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127">91% of marine species have not been described by science</a>. Their genetic adaptations could help scientists develop the <a href="https://theconversation.com/nature-is-a-rich-source-of-medicine-if-we-can-protect-it-107471">antibiotics and medicines of tomorrow</a>, but they may disappear long before that’s possible.</p> <p>The timing is right for guiding the Blue Acceleration towards more sustainable and equitable trajectories. The <a href="https://en.unesco.org/ocean-decade">UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development</a> is about to begin, a new <a href="https://www.un.org/bbnj/">international treaty on ocean biodiversity</a> is in its final stages of negotiation, and in June 2020, governments, businesses, academics and civil society will assemble for the <a href="https://oceanconference.un.org/">UN Ocean Conference</a> in Lisbon.</p> <p>Yet many simple questions remain. Who is driving the Blue Acceleration? Who is benefiting from it? And who is being left out or forgotten? These are all urgent questions, but perhaps the most important and hardest to answer of all is how to create connections and engagement across all these groups. Otherwise, the drivers of the Blue Acceleration will be like the fish in the ecologist’s analogy: constantly moving, invisible and impossible to manage – before it is too late.</p> <p><em>Written by Robert Blasiak. Republished with permission of </em><a href="https://theconversation.com/blue-acceleration-our-dash-for-ocean-resources-mirrors-what-weve-already-done-to-the-land-130264"><em>The Conversation.</em></a></p>

Cruising

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Body language expert's verdict on The Queen and Donald Trump: "She mirrored his behaviour"

<p>All eyes were on Donald Trump while he carries out his annual visit to the UK and visits the Queen.</p> <p>Queen Elizabeth held a state banquet last night to welcome the US President and his family. She also had spent the day escorting him and the First Lady Melania Trump to sites around the UK, which included Westminster Abbey.</p> <p>As the US President delivered his lengthy speech at the State Banquet, which was held in Buckingham Palace, a body language expert has weighed in on the body language displayed between Trump and the Queen.</p> <p>Judi James, body language expert, told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7100833/Trumps-thinking-election-state-banquet-says-body-language-expert.html" target="_blank"><em>The Daily Mail</em></a> that the pair seem to “genuinely be enjoying each other’s company”.</p> <p>“The Queen and Trump chatting at the banquet shows high signs of rapport. Trump continued what he'd done earlier – bending down to speak to her at her level and leaning forward,” James explained.</p> <p>“I haven't seen him smile like that before, it looked like genuine enjoyment and the Queen mirrored his behaviour. They looked as though they were chuckling about something together.”</p> <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/ByQ5vjjnuuY/" data-instgrm-version="12"> <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> <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><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/ByQ5vjjnuuY/" target="_blank">‘Tonight we celebrate an alliance that has helped to ensure the safety and prosperity of both our peoples for decades, and which I believe will endure for many years to come.’ This evening, a State Banquet was held in the Ballroom at Buckingham Palace in honour of the State Visit of the President and Mrs Trump. In her speech at the banquet, The Queen spoke of the mutual aims and beliefs of both countries, saying, ‘Mr President, as we look to the future, I am confident that our common values and shared interests will continue to unite us.’ The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, The Duke of York and The Earl and Countess of Wessex also attended the banquet. 📸 Press Association</a></p> <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/theroyalfamily/" target="_blank"> The Royal Family</a> (@theroyalfamily) on Jun 3, 2019 at 3:18pm PDT</p> </div> </blockquote> <p>James also pointed out that we are seeing a different side to Trump.</p> <p>“We saw a different Trump when he stood to make his speech. He was aware of the worldwide audience and the impact it may have on his elections in the US.</p> <p>“The showboating Trump was gone, he normally has a very exaggerated speaking style but this time we got a soft voice, raised chin and raised eyebrows. He was very sombre with serious emphasis on his words. Clearly overall, he was going for a look of dignity.”</p> <p>There was even a moment when Trump made the Queen laugh.</p> <p>“He made the Queen laugh once but I think it was unintentional, when he spoke about the beautiful weather,” said James.</p> <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/ByP3zD9nfRT/" data-instgrm-version="12"> <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> <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><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/ByP3zD9nfRT/" target="_blank">Today marks the start of the #USStateVisit. President Trump and Mrs. Melania Trump were met by The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall on the lawn before being welcomed by The Queen on the West Terrace of Buckingham Palace. Upon arrival a Royal Salute was fired by The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery from Green Park (41 guns) and at the Tower of London by The Honourable Artillery Company (62 guns). The Guard of Honour, found by Nijmegen Company, Grenadier Guards, gave a Royal Salute before the US National Anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, was played by the Band of the Regiment. The President @realdonaldtrump accompanied by The Prince of Wales, inspected the Guard of Honour watched by The Queen, the First Lady and The Duchess of Cornwall.</a></p> <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/theroyalfamily/" target="_blank"> The Royal Family</a> (@theroyalfamily) on Jun 3, 2019 at 5:42am PDT</p> </div> </blockquote> <p>However, things quickly turned sour.</p> <p>“She [The Queen] looked less amused when he called her a great, great woman. She did the modest British thing of sitting poker face.”</p> <p>Trump’s speech addressed over 170 dignitaries and spoke about the bombing of Buckingham Palace. He also offered a toast to the “eternal friendship of our people”.</p> <p>“On behalf of all Americans, I offer a toast to the eternal friendship of our people, the vitality of our nations and to the long cherished and truly remarkable reign of Her Majesty, the Queen,” Trump toasted.</p>

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Does the mirror reflect how you feel? This photo series captures older people as they once were

<p>Photographer Tom Hussey has created a series of images to take people on a journey through the lives of individuals living in aged care facilities. The gorgeous photographs serve as a poignant reminder that older generations had their own rich lives that led them to where they are now.</p> <p><img width="500" height="334" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7120/reflections2_500x334.jpg" alt="Reflections2"/></p> <p><img width="500" height="334" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7121/reflections3_500x334.jpg" alt="Reflections3"/></p> <p><img width="500" height="334" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7122/reflections4_500x334.jpg" alt="Reflections4"/></p> <p><img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7123/reflections5_500x333.jpg" alt="Reflections5"/></p> <p><img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7124/reflections6_500x333.jpg" alt="Reflections6"/></p> <p><img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7125/reflections7_500x333.jpg" alt="Reflections7"/></p> <p><img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7126/reflections8_500x333.jpg" alt="Reflections8"/></p> <p><em><a href="http://www.tomhussey.com/SERIES/Reflections/thumbs" target="_blank">You can browse the entire collection at Tom Hussey’s website.</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credit: Tom Hussey</em></p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/news/news/2015/07/rhino-finds-home-after-poaching/">This orphaned rhino finds a home</a></strong></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/news/news/2015/07/what-happens-to-your-body/">Here's what happens to your body over the course of a single day</a></strong></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/news/news/2015/07/pack-size-causing-resistance-to-antibiotics/"><strong>Larger pack sizes could be causing a resistance to antibiotics</strong></a></em></span></p>

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Do pets know what they look like?

<p><em><strong>Bondi Vet’s much loved veterinarian, Dr Chris Brown, answers the question every pet owner has wondered – do our furry friends know what they look like?</strong></em></p> <p>Ever wondered whether your pet knows what they look like? There's a simple test you can try at home. And the result might say more than you think...</p> <p>For years, scientists have argued over whether our pets have 'self-awareness' and a simple mirror is considered the best possible way of working it out. Here's how you do it. First of all, position your furry family member in front of a mirror so they're looking at their reflection. Then, very quietly produce a clean toy (like a ball) from your pocket and hold it just above their left ear. If they know they're looking at themselves, they should turn their head that way to get the toy. If they don't recognise themselves, they shouldn't react. </p> <p>Seeing yourself in a mirror seems like such a simple skill but not even humans are born knowing how to do it. We only acquire an awareness of our own appearance at between 18-24 months of age. In fact, the only animals that are proven to recognise themselves in a mirror are dolphins, elephants, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. So while science says your pets won't see themselves and will only see another dog or cat, failing the mirror test isn't all bad. After all, our pets already get embarrassed enough after a trip to the groomers as it is...</p> <p><em>For more tips on your pets, follow Dr Chris Brown on <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/dcbpets/?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook here.</a></strong></span></em></p>

Family & Pets

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3-year-old girl gives herself the cutest pep talk in front of the mirror

<p>A video of three-year-old Audrey giving herself a pep talk in the mirror has gone viral – and it could teach us all a thing or two about self-acceptance.</p> <p>Jamie Rabaut, of Michigan in the US, filmed her adorable daughter Audrey confidently complimenting herself on a variety of attributes, including her smartness, her cuteness, and of course, her absolute perfection.</p> <p>In the video, Audrey says, "I'm cute, I'm cute... I'm cute!" while twirling, jumping and grinning in front of the mirror. When her mum points out on top of being “cute and beautiful” she is also intelligent, Audrey immediately exclaims, "I'm cute and beautiful and smart!"</p> <p>Mum Jamie says that Audrey is such a positive little girl, radiating love wherever she goes.</p> <p>"She compliments people everywhere she goes," Jamie writes. "It's always, 'Excuse me, I like your dress,' 'Your bracelet is SO pretty,' 'Excuse me, ma'am, your hair is beautiful.' She radiates love and positivity and I love that that also reflects upon how she feels about herself."</p> <p>What a beautiful toddler! What’s the cutest thing your grandchild has ever done? Share with us in the comments below. </p> <p><strong>Related links: </strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/08/is-it-ever-okay-for-children-to-lie/"><em>Is it ever okay for children to lie?</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/08/how-to-encourage-kids-to-love-cooking/"><em>5 reasons why it’s important to let kids loose in the kitchen</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/2016/08/expert-advice-for-coping-with-estranged-adult-children/"><em>Expert advice for coping with estranged adult children</em></a></strong></span></p>

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700 mirrors create reflective pool in historic cathedral

<p>Historic, solemn and stately, St John’s Church in North Lincolnshire is generally well worth a visit in and of itself if you are ever exploring the United Kingdom.</p> <p>But, as you can probably imagine just by scrolling through the spectacular images in the gallery above, there’s never been a better time to visit this site.</p> <p>Liz West, an artist from the UK, has used the 125-year-old cathedral floor to create a spectacular art installation that has visitors to the church enraptured.</p> <p>Over 700 circular mirrors were arranged to fill the space with light and colour, creating an ever-evolving artwork that changes with light and perspective.</p> <p>Speaking of her work, West said, “The work changes constantly, depending on what time of day it is. As darkness comes, the gallery spotlights reflect off the coloured mirrors and send vivid dots of colour up into the interior of the former church building, illuminating the neo-Gothic architecture.”</p> <p>Visitors to St Johns are now encouraged to find their own reflection in the sea of colours, refracting the image and making themselves part of the creative process.</p> <p>To see all the images of the piece, scroll through the gallery above.</p> <p>Isn’t it quite an incredible piece of art? Have you ever been to that corner of the world, and if so, what was your favourite part of the United Kingdom?</p> <p>Share your thoughts in the comments.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Twitter / LizWest_Art</em></p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><a href="/travel/international-travel/2016/06/10-best-rated-tourist-landmarks-in-europe-tripadvisor/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>10 best-rated tourist landmarks in Europe revealed</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="/travel/international-travel/2016/06/10-lesser-known-new-zealand-holiday-spots/"><strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">10 lesser-known New Zealand holiday spots</span></em></strong></a></p> <p><a href="/travel/international-travel/2016/06/tips-for-travelling-in-europe/"><strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">5 quick tips for travelling in Europe</span></em></strong></a></p>

International Travel

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Study finds mirrors make junk food less appealing

<p>Ever wished there was a way you could stop snacking on unhealthy food? Well, the mirror, mirror on the wall might be the key.</p> <p>A new study by the University of Central Florida has found a bizarre but real solution to binging. Researchers asked 185 students to choose between a chocolate cake or fruit salad, then eat it in a room with a mirror. Those who ate the cake in front of a mirror reported the cake was less tasty, and in turn ate less compared to those who ate it in a room without mirrors.</p> <p>While it might seem like a strange result, researchers believe it could offer a solution to manage binge eating. Lead researcher Ata Jami explains mirrors force us to analyse ourselves and our activities.</p> <p>“A glance in the mirror tells people more than just about their physical appearance. It enables them to view themselves objectively and helps them to judge themselves and their behaviours in a same way that they judge others,” he said in a statement.</p> <p>He believes mirrors cause us to compare ourselves against social standards. When we do something that is perceived as shameful or embarrassing, we shy away from mirrors. Therefore, overeating in a room with a mirror makes the snacker more aware of their discomfort, and effects the perceived tastiness, or reward of the food.</p> <p>Researchers believe their findings can easily be applied to everyday life. They suggest placing a mirror in eating areas, like a dining room or kitchen.</p> <p>It may well be the simple solution you need to curb your unhealthy snack habits.</p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/health/body/2015/12/7-common-lies-about-fat/">7 common lies about fat</a></strong></span></em></p> <p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/health/body/2015/12/bloating-food/">The best and worst foods for bloating</a></strong></span></em></p> <p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="/health/body/2015/11/what-your-food-cravings-mean/">What your body’s cravings really mean</a></strong></span></em></p>

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