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Category: Analysis

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump accused of ‘malignant narcissism’ – but how accurately can you diagnose someone you’ve never met?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ava Green, Lecturer in Forensic Psychology, City St George’s, University of London

    Jonah Elkowitz/Shutterstock

    Self-absorbed. Arrogant. Boastful. It does not take a mental health professional to recognise these features as narcissistic. Most of us, regardless of our educational background, are confident to label someone we’ve never met as narcissistic.

    Other behavioural features associated with narcissism can be similarly obvious, including a grandiose sense of self, an excessive need for attention and admiration, a lack of empathy and lashing out when criticised.

    Public figures have often been subject to speculations as to whether their behaviour meets a mental health diagnosis. Ahead of the US presidential elections, Donald Trump’s mental fitness has, once again, been called into question. This time, 200 mental health professionals have signed an open letter warning the public of Trump’s “malignant narcissism”.

    The letter, organised by an anti-Trump political group, argues that Trump poses “an existential threat to democracy” in the US. Citing the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the mental health professionals argue that Trump meets the diagnostic criteria for narcissistic, antisocial and paranoid personality disorder. These are “all made worse by his intense sadism, which is a symptom of malignant narcissism,” they claim.

    Malignant narcissism is considered a combination of the above personality disorders, in addition to the sadistic urge to inflict pain towards others while gaining pleasure from doing so. For instance, the letter states: “According to first-hand accounts, Trump watched the violence he unleashed on January 6 for three hours on TV with ‘glee’, watching his favorite parts ‘over and over’ on ‘rewind’.”

    Even though Trump has not been formally assessed by a psychologist as having any of the diagnoses put forward in the letter, it argues that it is “easy to see that Trump meets the behavioral criteria for antisocial personality disorder”.

    The signatories argue that thousands of hours of media coverage of Trump’s behaviour have demonstrated a lifetime pattern of “failure to conform to social norms and laws, repeated lying, reckless disregard for the safety of others, irritability, impulsivity, irresponsibility and lack of remorse”. Other psychologists have come to similar conclusions.

    The Goldwater rule

    A rule set forth by the American Psychiatric Association, known as the Goldwater rule, considers it unethical to diagnose people a psychiatrist has not personally assessed.

    The rule is named after Barry Goldwater, a former US senator and 1964 Republican presidential candidate who was labelled “psychotic” and “schizophrenic” by psychiatrists who responded to a survey from Fact magazine. Goldwater successfully sued the magazine for libel and won a $75,000 punitive settlement (£57,779).

    The 200 signatures on the open letter about Trump believe they can justify overriding this ethical duty on the grounds that the public should be warned about Trump’s behaviour.

    However, it can be argued that clinicians do not need to render a diagnosis to warn us that a public figure poses a risk to our safety. Media coverage about Trump’s danger is abound and people can draw their own conclusions without the need to put a label on it.

    This is because speculative diagnoses can do more harm than good. The casual use of mental health terminology can quickly become pejorative, as the press has demonstrated in relation to Trump but also other celebrities.

    Speculative diagnoses about Trump’s mental illness on social media have ranged from obsessive–compulsive disorder to delusional disorder, with little consideration that these conditions are merely conjecture. And more importantly, they shame and belittle people who are, in fact, diagnosed with these conditions.

    Accuracy

    But how accurately can a mental health professional diagnose someone who isn’t their patient? Would you trust a diagnosis from a doctor you had never met? Probably not.

    That said, there are some benefits to external perspectives when it comes to psychiatric evaluations. Studies show that other people (spouses, close friends, neighbours) often provide a more reliable assessment of someone’s personality than self-assessments, especially in relation to narcissistic features.

    Research using self-report measures show that narcissistic people tend to distort their responses to enhance themselves. For studies of personality, self-reported answers along with a psychologist’s evaluation and assessments by friends and family would give the best insight.

    You can learn a lot from someone’s social media posts.
    Nicoleta Ionescu/Shutterstock

    Social media offers yet another layer. A study in 2015 showed that a computer model could more accurately assess someone’s personality based on their Facebook posts than their closest friends – or even a spouse. And for Trump, there are thousands of social media posts to draw on.

    But regardless of how accurate these observations may be, making public speculations about someone’s mental health and labelling them with a personality disorder diagnosis at a distance is unethical and, at worst, may have legal implications.

    Ava Green does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Trump accused of ‘malignant narcissism’ – but how accurately can you diagnose someone you’ve never met? – https://theconversation.com/trump-accused-of-malignant-narcissism-but-how-accurately-can-you-diagnose-someone-youve-never-met-242277

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Plans to cool the Earth by blocking sunlight are gaining momentum but critical voices risk being excluded

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Albert Van Wijngaarden, Phd Candidate, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge

    Muratart / shutterstock

    Solar geoengineering research is advancing fast, after a recent flurry of funding announcements. Yet these technologies are still speculative and have many critics, and we worry their concerns won’t be heard. If geoengineering is essentially allowed to self-regulate, with no effective global governance, future research could easily take us down a dangerous path.

    Solar geoengineering refers to proposals to reduce global warming by reflecting a portion of sunlight back into space before it reaches the Earth’s surface. In its best-known form, this means using high-flying aircraft to inject tiny reflective particles into the upper atmosphere.

    This so-called “stratospheric aerosol injection” hasn’t actually happened yet, beyond a few very small experiments with balloons. Yet for a long time, such ideas remained fringe and too controversial to even consider – and for some academics they still are.

    The academic discussion was highly polarised from the start. Opponents, mainly governance scholars and social scientists, stood firmly entrenched against assumed proponents, mainly natural scientists and engineers. Both sides had their champions, arguments, assumptions, key publications and meetings, generally working on the topic without proper engagement with the other side.

    This polarisation is still visible in publishing today. Take, for example, articles on The Conversation. Critics focus on potential negatives such as altered rainfall patterns, the infringement of human rights, or even a catastrophic “termination shock”. Advocates highlight potential benefits such as reducing extreme heat and preserving ice caps, while others suggest we may soon be forced to try it.

    The authors of these articles are all academic experts. Yet they come from different disciplines and use different arguments.

    A public and private funding boom

    Though the two camps have not resolved their arguments, geoengineering research funding is suddenly booming. There are major philanthropic pledges of US$50 million (£38 million) and US$30 million from the Simons and Quadrature Climate foundations, which are vying for the title of biggest donor with the £10.5 million and £56.8 million of the UK government’s UKRI and Advanced Research and Innovation Agency programs.

    The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines blocked so much sunlight the world temporarily cooled by a few tenths of a degree. Solar geoengineering works on a similar principle.
    Dave Harlow / USGS

    Other key organisations speaking about the need for more research include the European Commission, the US government and the World Climate Research Programme. This comes on top of the shock of controversial private enterprises pushing for solar geoengineering, most notoriously the US-based start-up Make Sunsets.

    Support is certainly not unanimous. Many prominent scholars have signed up to a call for a moratorium, for instance. And at a recent UN Environment Assembly session in Kenya many climate-vulnerable nations mobilised against calls for further research into what they see as a highly risky technology that would enable big emitters to carry on emitting.

    However, many powerful interests are seemingly in favour of more research, while the 1.5°C global warming target is moving ever further out of sight. In the near future, we can therefore expect further research, perhaps including including small-scale outdoor experiments.

    As PhD students working on geoengineering, situated somewhere between both camps, we have found this polarisation deeply unproductive and difficult to deal with. Our own research sometimes feels like wandering through a minefield of opinions and perspectives. Yet we can also see the valuable concerns and hopes of both sides.

    That’s why we believe that upcoming research projects must factor in the concerns of opponents, and not represent only supporters of geoengineering or those who have not been explicitly against it. Excluding critical voices would directly impact the scientific process, for one thing.

    But this exclusion is especially worrying as there are currently no governance structures for solar geoengineering. If efforts to develop such governance only involve supportive researchers, they could lack the critical capacity to prevent risks or undesired effects. Disasters in the financial sector and the chemical industry warn us of the perils of self-regulation without critical voices.

    Learn from the critics

    There are other critiques that ought to be factored into any major research project. They include concerns that simply researching the technology will create a slippery slope towards it being deployed, or worries that geoengineering ignores the social and political dynamics behind climate change and addresses only its outcomes. There are also major governance concerns over issues such as the role of the military (could geoengineering be deployed for security reasons in contested regions like the Arctic?), or the concentration of research at influential institutions in the US and Europe.

    Over time, geoengineering researchers have become more aware of such arguments and some are explicitly trying to include them in their work. The American Geophysical Union has recently published an ethical framework for geoengineering, which should provide valuable guidance for any research project. But without active dialogue with critical scholars, their arguments will likely only echo faintly in the pro-research space.

    In practice, more engagement between the two camps would come with many difficulties. For advocates, it can be tempting to avoid such debates and exclude those who disagree with the very foundations on which their research is built. On the flip side, some scholars who have already explicitly argued against the continuation of solar geoengineering research would nevertheless have to participate in it.

    The practical implications will therefore need to be carefully worked out. However, a more productive dialogue might still shape a future that can be acceptable to all sides.

    Albert Van Wijngaarden receives PhD funding from Gates Cambridge. He is involved in UArctic’s Frozen Arctic Conservation project, and was an advisory board member of Ocean Vision’s Sea Ice Roadmap.

    Adrian Hindes is also an analyst for Civilization Research Institute which does work pertaining to global catastrophic risks, including those related to emerging technologies such as solar geoengineering.

    Chloe Colomer receives PhD funding from the UK Research Institute (UKRI) Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) with the grants EP/R513143/1 and EP/T517793/1.

    – ref. Plans to cool the Earth by blocking sunlight are gaining momentum but critical voices risk being excluded – https://theconversation.com/plans-to-cool-the-earth-by-blocking-sunlight-are-gaining-momentum-but-critical-voices-risk-being-excluded-236882

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Norman coin hoard becomes England’s most valuable treasure – it could have been worth a lot more

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Chloe Duckworth, Reader in Archaeological Science & Public Engagement, Newcastle University

    There is clearly giddy excitement in the shaky footage showing hands scrabbling in the soil in the Chew Valley in south-west England. A close-up shot captures someone pulling silver coin after silver coin from the churned earth as a woman laughs “there’s pennies everywhere.” The video accompanied news reports in 2019 of the monumental find by seven detectorists of a hoard of silver coins dating from the time of the Norman conquest in the 11th century.

    The hoard has just been purchased for a whopping £4.3 million by the South West Heritage Trust. While this might be the largest amount ever paid for such a discovery, as an archaeological scientist I can tell you that much of its historical value was lost the moment it was pulled from the ground.

    Such stories of amateur finds are easy to get behind. Detectorists are the underdogs – amateurs who are driven by their passion for the past to spend their free time diligently searching for hidden treasures.

    The nation’s love of such stories was seized upon in Mackenzie Crook’s gently hilarious television show, Detectorists (2014). As reflected in the series, however, metal detecting has a fraught relationship with archaeology.

    The videos showing the detectorists scrambling excitedly in the dirt.

    While both involve digging up remains of the past, the two groups have different opinions on what is most important when it comes to such finds. For archaeologists, the finds themselves are often less important than the context in which they were discovered – the opposite is true for detectorists.

    The detectorists in the Chew Valley were acting within the law. They first sought permission from the landowner, and ensured the find was reported to the authorities. However, as the video of the discovery shows, the coins were dug out haphazardly.

    Archaeologists would have gone about this in a different way, following a scientific process of excavation and recording. This is because once excavated the contextual information is destroyed forever.

    For instance, when speaking about the Chew Valley Hoard on Radio 4’s PM programme, Professor Michael Lewis, head of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (a voluntary government-run programme that records small finds of archaeological interest by members of the public), struggled to answer any specific questions about the circumstances in which the hoard had originally been interred. This is because of the way it had been dug up.

    To dig or not to dig?

    Archaeology today employs a unique system of excavation, a sort of reverse engineering of the sequence of past events. This comes complete with intensive recording, sampling of soils and other processes designed to minimise the loss of information.

    In the case of hoards – deliberately buried caches of valuables from a time before banks and safes – this method of recovery can preserve information about the date of burial and whether the items were deposited in a single episode or over time. It can also help ascertain what organic materials were originally present and even provide insights into the meaning of the objects for those who deposited them.

    We saw this sort of process able to take place in 2014 after detectorists found the Galloway Hoard – more than 100 gold, silver, glass, crystal, stone and earthen objects from the Viking age. These amateurs contacted the relevant authorities before digging it up, which meant it was possible, through expert recovery, to reconstruct the precious textiles and other containers in which the objects were originally buried.

    Many countries, including Greece, strictly outlaw the use of metal detectors for treasure hunting, although many people continue to do so in secret. In the UK, the hope is that by legalising reporting and offering purchase of treasure, the finds can at least be preserved for research and for public viewing.

    However, there isn’t anything in this approach to stop the unscientific method of recovery, which will continue to rob us of much more that we might have known. This leaves the question of whether such finds should even be dug up at all.

    Archaeology is a relatively young discipline, but the surviving remains of the distant past are a finite resource. Land development, climate change, mechanised agriculture, population growth, war, looting and desecration are threats facing archaeological sites the world over.

    In recent years professional archaeologists have responded by excavating the bare minimum. We might dig ahead of construction works and large infrastructure projects such as HS2. Sometimes we excavate because a site is threatened by coastal erosion or other environmental changes. When we dig purely for the sake of research, or as part of a community project, we focus on partial recovery, prioritising survey, geophysics and “test-pitting” (a sort of archaeological keyhole surgery).

    In all cases we must also ensure that there is enough money to cover the conservation and protection of the things we dig up, and, crucially, publish the reports of their excavation, with all its insight into the context of the finds.


    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    Chloe Duckworth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Norman coin hoard becomes England’s most valuable treasure – it could have been worth a lot more – https://theconversation.com/norman-coin-hoard-becomes-englands-most-valuable-treasure-it-could-have-been-worth-a-lot-more-242359

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Medieval Women: In Their Own Words at the British Library is unmissable

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Diane Watt, Professor of English, University of Surrey

    The British Library’s breathtaking new exhibition, Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, brings to life the experiences, stories and voices of women from the distant past.

    The show covers the period from 1100 to 1500, and a range of mainly western countries and cultures. Many of the women featured are from the elite ranks of society: queens, princesses, noblewomen and nuns.

    On first entering the gallery, visitors encounter a striking late 13th-century carved stone figure of Eleanor of Castile, who was queen of England from 1274 until her death in 1290. It’s one of a series of 12 memorials commissioned by her bereft husband, Edward I, to mark the sites where her body was temporarily set down on its funeral procession from Lincolnshire to Westminster.

    Also on display near the entrance are examples of the work of Hildegard of Bingen and Christine de Pizan. Hildegard was a German abbess, mystic, composer and scholar, and de Pizan was the first professional woman writer in France.

    Both were exceptional, highly educated and privileged women, but the exhibition doesn’t limit itself only to the most famous medieval women.

    These lovely illuminated manuscripts contrast with the next item, a much more mundane – if touching – missive from a woman named Alice Crane. Crane is only known to historians because she corresponded with her friend Margaret Paston during the 15th century. Paston was a Norfolk gentry woman and prolific letter writer. This is one of the few letters we have from the time that testifies to friendship between women. Alice writes: “Thanking you for the great cheer that I had of you when I was last with you with all my heart.”

    This first part of the exhibition is titled “Private Lives” and explores topics such as cosmetics and perfume and women’s medicines and healthcare. Visitors are introduced to women medical practitioners and wet-nurses and find out about education and domestic piety.

    There are displays about pregnancy and pregnancy loss, love and marriage, adultery and divorce and property ownership and inheritance. Margery Brews’s Valentine letter (believed to be the oldest example of a Valentine’s day note) and Gwerful Mechain’s poem in praise of the “cunt” are both displayed – and recited.

    One of the most striking items on display is a birthing girdle – a parchment covered in prayers and illustrations that was believed to have talismanic properties. Birthing girdles were intended to protect both mother and baby during labour.

    The public lives of medieval women

    Powerful women visually dominate the second part, “Public Lives”. It includes an arresting portrait of Henry VIII’s grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, founder of two Cambridge University colleges, and the skull of a lion thought to have been owned by the Margaret of Anjou, leader of the Lancastrians in the Wars of the Roses.



    Read more:
    How Henry VIII’s grandmother used a palace in Northamptonshire to build the mighty Tudor dynasty

    Military conflict is an important theme – there is a book chronicling the history of Shajar al-Durr, Sultana of Egypt, who defeated a crusader army. Nevertheless, several documents provide insight into lives less known.

    There’s the chancery bill of Maria Moriana, whose name suggests she was a woman of colour. A record of a debt owed to the Jewish businesswoman Licoricia of Winchester who was subsequently murdered in what was very likely a hate crime is displayed. As is a Venetian contract for the sale of an enslaved Russian called Marta. And the record of the interrogation of Eleanor Rykener – a sex worker we would likely recognise today as a trans woman.

    Books produced or sold by women scribes, notaries, printers and booksellers lead the visitor into the main display of manuscripts of works by women writers, from Marie de France, a secular poet in the court of Henry II, to Juliana Berners, the probable author of a treatise on hunting, fishing and heraldry.

    “Spiritual Lives” introduces nuns, mystics and heretics. There are records relating to Joan of Arc, the peasant French military leader of the hundred years war, who was captured and executed by the English. A letter bearing Joan’s signature is exhibited for the first time outside her mother country (in the land of her persecutors, to boot).

    Here visitors also encounter the manuscripts of The Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich and The Book of Margery Kempe. These are two of the earliest works by women to have been written in English and have been brought to life by the artist Tasha Marks in an arresting scent installation. Julian’s satanic torments are conjured up by the stink of sulphur. Kempe’s scent of angels is evoked by notes of honey, strawberry and caramel.

    The curators have done an extraordinary job in making this material accessible to a wide audience. Information panels provide context and correctives. They reveal that the gender pay gap was around 25% at the end of the 15th century, and that only around 1% of women became nuns.

    There are interactive displays that can tell you if you would have grounds for medieval divorce, or if you’d have been vulnerable to witchcraft charges (warning: don’t keep a box of stolen penises).

    The exhibition draws attention to the sheer diversity of the lives and experiences of medieval women in England and beyond, from the quotidian to the sublime. Providing abundant evidence of their learning and scholarship, skills and ingenuity and creativity and artistry, it is, quite simply, unmissable.

    Medieval Women: In Their Own Words is at the British Museum from October 25 2024 to March 5 2025.


    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    Diane Watt has received funding from the AHRC, British Academy and Leverhulme Trust.

    – ref. Medieval Women: In Their Own Words at the British Library is unmissable – https://theconversation.com/medieval-women-in-their-own-words-at-the-british-library-is-unmissable-242258

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Dahomey: timely repatriation documentary gives a literal voice to Benin’s stolen objects

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Njabulo Chipangura, Anthropologist and Curator of Living Cultures at Manchester Museum, University of Manchester

    Dahomey, a new documentary film from the award-winning French director Mati Diop, follows the unconditional restitution process of 26 cultural heritage objects in 2021. The items were looted by French troops during an invasion and subsequent colonial occupation of the kingdom of Dahomey, now the present-day Republic of Benin, in November 1892.

    Prior to its return, the collection was kept in the basement at Quai Branly Museum in Paris. Stored under lock and key, they existed as static and lifeless anthropological objects, that only served as war “trophies” and representations of the cultures of the vanquished and colonised. They had once been exhibited under the classification of “devil, idol, fetish, kaffir, charm, evil spirit and amulet” objects.

    Dahomey is timely. It comes as debates rage on the urgent necessity of repatriating the African cultural heritage objects that were appropriated by French, British, Germans, Portuguese, Spanish and Belgian forces during 18th and 19th century colonial conquest and expansion projects.

    In her film, Diop has managed to restore the agency of the objects at the heart of the Dahomey restitution case by transforming them into living cultures. She gives a literal voice, for example, to object number 26 – a human-sized wooden statue that is an allegorical portrait of King Ghezo, depicting him as half bird, half man. The real King Ghezo ruled Dahomey from 1818 until 1958. In the documentary, the statue recounts his “loss of life” when he was dislocated from his place of birth by French troops in 1892.



    Read more:
    Why stolen objects being returned to Africa don’t belong just in museums – podcast

    The trailer for Dahomey.

    Just as King Ghezo was depicted as his symbol – half man, half-bird – two other royal statues that feature prominently in the documentary are also kings of Dahomey sculpted as their symbols: King Béhanzin who ruled from 1890 to 1894 is a shark-man and King Glele who ruled from 1858 until 1889 is a lion-man. Each of these kings reigned over Dahomey and resided at Abomey, which was the kingdom’s capital.

    I see the choice to give voice to these objects as a call for museums to rehumanise collections that were acquired as a result of colonial violence. This would mean taking a proactive approach to acknowledge how both objects and ancestors from the colonised country were dehumanised by different colonial collecting practices, from looting to grave robbing.

    King Ghezo’s journey

    Dahmoey follows the statue of King Ghezo as he journeys back home from France’s Jacques Chirac Museum of Branly Quay to the Republic of Benin. He wonders what his new life will be like in the country he was ripped from 129 years ago.

    Upon the collection’s arrival in Benin, there was pomp and jubilation in the modern capital city of Cotonou, but the critical question remained – who now owns this heritage? Is it the state, the community or direct descendants of King Ghezo?

    The staging of the return was well-choreographed, and its politicisation clearly visible. The 26 objects lay in state, heavily guarded and protected as national heroes. However, in Diop’s film, King Ghezo reflects that he felt like a foreigner, far removed and detached from the country he imagined when he was still an ethnographic museum object in Paris.

    This crisis of belonging and identity can be interpreted as a consequence of how African museums were established during the colonial period. Their history mirrored the colonial practices of ordering, categorisation and classification of objects of the western museums where King Ghezo was imprisoned for more than a century. African museums are by products of colonisation and are, in many ways, still exclusionary and elitist.

    Therefore, placing King Ghezo in a museum in Benin can end up reinforcing ideals similar to colonial classifications. Instead, King Ghezo needs to have his life restored by giving agency to community ways of doing and knowing, and to the heritage management systems established in Benin long before colonisation.

    Repatriation debates

    The film also shows students at the University of Abomey-Calavi in the south of Benin debating the repatriation. Many express dissatisfaction in view of the fact that only 26 objects were returned out of the 7,000 which were looted by the French at Abomey in 1892.

    Many students dismiss the return as a non-event, without any historical significance. They see it, instead, as a charade for political mileage by the president of the Republic of Benin, Patrice Talon. Listening to the students made me reflect on the political nature of restitution, and how most European museums still hold power and authority in setting the conditions for or against returning.

    These 26 objects were returned to Benin unconditionally, meaning France no longer has any claims to ownership. In conditional repatriation, however, European museums decide which objects should be given back to their countries of origin, and in most cases within the premises of short to long-term loans

    For example, in June 2024, the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology conditionally returned 39 objects to Uganda on three-year negotiated loan deal. Ownership of these objects is still in the hands of Cambridge University. On the contrary Manchester Museum, where I work, unconditionally returned 174 objects to the Anindilyakwa people of Groote Eylandt in northern Australia in September 2023.

    As a practical decolonial strategy, unconditional repatriation means that museums must not prescribe conditions of caring for cultural heritage objects to communities of origin upon their return. This is part of the process of giving communities agency to use their own heritage objects in ways that they deem necessary.

    The 26 objects at the heart of Dahomey were not made to be imprisoned in museum storage. They still have potency and can be viewed by communities as living beings which they can use, touch, smell and taste. Although these “objects” may appear stagnant within ethnographic classifications in museums, they have individual biographies and carry with them important meanings connected to their ritual and cultural functions located in societies of origin.

    One student succinctly captures this sentiment in the film by recounting how she cried for 15 minutes on seeing the returned sculpture of King Ghezo, who she considered her ancestor. In the end, the restitution of cultural heritage objects by European museums back to Africa must not regarded as loss but rather as a means towards building practical relationships of care with their communities of origin.


    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    Njabulo Chipangura does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Dahomey: timely repatriation documentary gives a literal voice to Benin’s stolen objects – https://theconversation.com/dahomey-timely-repatriation-documentary-gives-a-literal-voice-to-benins-stolen-objects-242324

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What the Menendez brothers’ case tells us about the moral paradox of true crime

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Michael Arntfield, Associate Professor of Criminology & English Literature, Western University

    Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has recommended that a judge resentence Lyle and Erik Menendez almost three decades after the brothers were sentenced to life without parole for murdering their parents.

    The brothers were convicted in 1996 of first-degree murder for the 1989 killings of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. If a judge approves the recommendation, it would make them eligible for immediate parole. Gascón said he believed the brothers have “paid their debt to society.” If a parole board agrees, they could soon be released from prison.

    These extraordinary developments come in the wake of two true crime productions on Netflix: the scripted limited series, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and the documentary, The Menendez Brothers. Both revivify the defence strategy used in the brothers’ 1994 and 1996 trials that they murdered their parents as a form of self-defence following years of alleged sexual abuse by their father.

    In these two productions, we see the moral conundrum of so-called “true crime” on full display. That is, whose definition of “true” should viewers rely on when assessing the veracity of a narrative?

    More often than not, there are two kinds of truth. There’s what really happened, and the narrative of what happened. This is a reality that I’ve noted as a criminologist and forensic historian and a police detective before that.

    As a form of historical revisionism, true crime has shown both the willingness and ability to change official narratives, for better or worse.

    In a press conference, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón outlined the reasons he is recommending the Menendez brothers be resentenced.

    True crime and the Menendez case

    The true crime genre has taken off in recent decades, with countless podcasts, documentaries and TV series produced recounting gruesome and often unsolved murders. The genre has garnered criticism for focusing on, and sometimes, exploiting the real suffering of victims and their families.

    The 2022 season of the Netflix Monster series, which told the story of Milwaukee serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, was widely derided as being exploitative and mired in controversy.



    Read more:
    ‘They’re making money off tragedy’ – Netflix’s Dahmer series shows the dangers of fictionalising real horrors

    However, the second instalment, focusing on the Menendez brothers, has become an overnight cause celebre and a bandwagon clarion call to have the evidence in the case reviewed and the brothers’ life sentence reconsidered, if not jettisoned altogether.

    The productions have renewed interest in this infamous case for those old enough to remember while, at the same time, introducing a new generation to the sordid details of the proceedings.

    These details include, most notably, the controversial and ultimately failed defence strategy of depicting the murders as a form of self-defence following years of alleged sexual abuse the boys endured at the hands of their father, patriarchal record mogul Jose Menendez.

    Following mistrials for both brothers in 1994, Lyle and Erik were convicted of the murders in 1996 and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

    A trailer for the Netflix true crime documentary ‘The Menendez Brothers.’

    But now, in the wake of these same series and Gascón’s announcement, the case has been re-opened. “Significant new evidence” has been cited in the form of a potential additional victim of abuse by Jose Menendez. In addition, a letter from Erik to a cousin about the alleged sexual abuse of his father has been disclosed lending credence to the original defence position.

    We might wonder if this evidence would have merited such attention, and the district attorney’s intervention, were it not for the cultural influence of the Netflix productions.

    What we can say for certain is that this is not the first instance of true crime directly influencing the criminal justice system. HBO’s Paradise Lost trilogy of documentaries, along with the 2012 film West of Memphis, are generally credited with enabling the release of the wrongfully convicted West Memphis Three.

    The first season of the Serial podcast in 2014 also led to the 2022 release of Adnan Syed after serving 20 years in prison for the 1999 murder of his girlfriend Hae Min Lee. That same conviction was reinstated in 2023 as part of an ongoing saga driven by intense public interest.

    That interest is what differentiates the current iteration of true crime from its antecedents: it aims to transcend passive viewers and listeners to promote direct action, advocacy and public participation.

    The four waves of true crime

    While the term “true crime” may be comparatively new, as a cultural phenomenon it certainly is not. The Mystery Writers of America has issued awards for Best Fact Crime books since 1948. True crime in one form or another has arguably existed since the 1850s and was pioneered by Charles Dickens.

    Yet it is still unclear what societal forces drive this trendy, cyclical interest in semi-true retellings or thinly fictionalized treatments of criminality. However, in my book, How to Solve a Cold Case…And Everything Else You Wanted to Know About Catching Killers, I argue that, true crime as we now know it can be delineated into four distinct eras, or waves:

    The First Wave, circa 1850-1890, was purely literary. Key works included the likes of On Duty With Inspector Field by Charles Dickens and the Illustrated Police News.

    The Second Wave, between 1965-1975, was also primarily literary. Its most notable works included Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted serial killer Charles Manson.

    In the third wave in the 1980s, true crime stories started to become multimedia, with Ann Rule’s book The Stranger Beside Me about serial killer Ted Bundy, and the semi-interactive NBC docuseries Unsolved Mysteries.

    A trailer for the Netflix show ‘MONSTERS: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.’

    The fourth and current wave began in 2010. The hallmarks of this wave are unfolding before us in the Menendez case. The current wave is immersive, participatory and accessible. Amateur sleuths, advocates, pundits and activists proliferate with each new feature. Podcasts beget further podcasts.

    Viewers and listeners are also keenly self-aware and facetiously self-deprecating. True crime is consistently discussed in the context of — and perhaps even designed to promote — what can only be characterized immoderate consumption. Some true crime fans are, for instance, self-described “junkies” and “addicts” who “binge” content. And yet, depending on the case, these same “junkies” are newly empowered and qualified to demand action.

    The legal and ethical questions that arise are what cases make their way into this ecosystem and whose story are they to tell? How is a series on Dahmer a bridge too far when, two years later, another same series created by the same producers can alter the course of California legal history?

    These are, of course, unanswerable questions. In the meantime, however, the Menendez brothers’ saga is a cautionary tale about how the invisible hand of the true crime market will select certain crimes over others — and prioritize certain victims and offenders alike over other — based on criteria we still don’t fully understand.

    Michael Arntfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. What the Menendez brothers’ case tells us about the moral paradox of true crime – https://theconversation.com/what-the-menendez-brothers-case-tells-us-about-the-moral-paradox-of-true-crime-242199

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Freddy Krueger at 40 – the ultimate horror movie monster (and Halloween costume)

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Daniel, Associate Lecturer in Communications, Western Sydney University

    IMDB/New Line Cinema

    Movie monsters have captivated audiences since the days of early cinema. They evoke fascination and terror, allowing audiences to confront their fears from the safety of the movie theatre or living room.

    Arguably one of the most enduring and captivating of these monsters is Freddy Krueger, the villain of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series who celebrates his 40th screen birthday this November.

    Memorably played by Robert Englund, Freddy quickly became a cultural icon of the 1980s and 1990s. Beyond his burned face and iconic bladed glove, Freddy’s dark humour and acidic personality set him apart from other silent, faceless killers of the era, such as Michael Myers in Halloween or Jason Vorhees in Friday the 13th.

    Written and directed by horror maven Wes Craven, 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street garnered positive reviews for its innovative concept: Freddy stalked and attacked his victims in their dreams, making him inescapable and allowing him to tap into their deepest fears. The series (seven films plus a 2010 remake and Freddy vs. Jason spin offs) blended supernatural horror and surrealism with a dark and twisted sense of humour.

    Scary … but funny

    Humour was key to Freddy’s “popularity”. Both sinister and strangely charismatic, Freddy’s psychological torture of his adolescent victims often oscillated between terrifying and amusing.

    A famous kill scene from 1987’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors demonstrates this paradox.

    Aspiring actress Jennifer drifts off to sleep while watching a talk show on TV. In her dream, the host of the talk show suddenly transforms into Freddy, who attacks his guest before the TV blinks out. When Jennifer timidly approaches the TV set, Freddy’s head and clawed hands emerge from the device, snatching her while delivering an iconic one-liner: “This is it, Jennifer – your big break in TV!”

    Freddy turns his victims’ fears or aspirations – their dreams – against them.

    ‘Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep.’

    Creating a monster

    Craven has shared how the character of Krueger came to life in Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, an oral history of the series.

    He described a childhood experience of seeing a strange mumbling man walking past his childhood home. The man stopped, he said, and looked directly at him “with a sick sense of malice”. This deeply unsettling experience helped shape Freddy’s menacing presence.

    The character’s creation also emerged from the filmmaker’s interest in numerous reports of Southeast Asian refugees dying in their sleep after experiencing vivid nightmares.

    In the film, Krueger’s origin story reveals him as a child murderer who was apprehended but released due to a technicality in his arrest. Seeking justice, the parents of his victims take matters into their own hands, and form a vigilante mob. They corner him in his boiler room and burn him alive. But Freddy’s spirit survives to haunt and kill the children of his executioners.



    Read more:
    Halloween films: the good, the bad and the truly scary

    Cultural repression, expressed on film

    Film critic and essayist Robin Wood argued horror films often bring to the surface elements society has repressed. These fears, desires, or cultural taboos are not openly acknowledged.

    But movie monsters act as manifestations of what society suppresses, such as sexuality, violence or deviant behaviour. American academic Gary Heba argues Freddy is:

    an example of America’s political unconscious violently unleashed upon itself, manifesting everything that is unspeakable and repressed in the master narrative (perversion, child abuse and murder, vigilantism, the breakdown of rationality, order, and the family, among others), but still always present in the collective unconscious of the dominant culture.

    Actor Robert Englund calls Freddy Krueger ‘the gift that keeps on giving’.

    The monster decades

    The 1970s and 1980s marked a golden era for the creation of horror film nasties like Krueger, Myers, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface and killer doll Chucky.

    Since then, the landscape of horror has shifted, with fewer singular monsters emerging. The diversification of horror sub-genres (zombie virus horror, anyone?), the rise of psychological horror (Hereditary), and an emphasis on human-driven terror (Wolf Creek) or supernatural forces all contribute to this shift.

    While modern horror continues to thrive, few characters have achieved the same iconic status as Freddy – although some would argue Art the Clown from the recent Terrifier franchise and the reinvigorated Pennywise from IT could join this exclusive group.

    ‘Five, six, grab your crucifix.’ A 2010 Nightmare on Elm St reboot failed to fire.

    Happy Halloween!

    Despite a failed reboot in 2010, the legacy of A Nightmare on Elm Street is strong, having influenced numerous filmmakers with its skilful mix of surrealism and slasher horror.

    However, it’s the orchestrator of the titular nightmares whose legacy is perhaps the strongest.

    With each Halloween, new fans choose Freddy for their costume. All it takes is a tattered striped sweater, a brown fedora hat, and a glove with sharp, finger-lengthening blades. Don’t forget makeup to re-create Krueger’s grisly facial burns. Sweet dreams!

    Adam Daniel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Freddy Krueger at 40 – the ultimate horror movie monster (and Halloween costume) – https://theconversation.com/freddy-krueger-at-40-the-ultimate-horror-movie-monster-and-halloween-costume-240905

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What is necro-branding? And what’s it got to do with Elvis, Princess Diana and Taylor Swift?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Baumann, Professor in Business, Macquarie University

    bissig/Shutterstock

    Do you own any memorabilia depicting Elvis, Princess Diana, David Bowie, Prince or Michael Jackson? Perhaps a beloved t-shirt, a favourite mug, a special keyring or a novelty plate? You might not know it, but you are participating in something known as “necro-branding”.

    Necro-branding is where the image of a celebrity is sold to the public, perhaps by their estate or by their fans, long after the celebrity has died.

    These necro-branded items act almost like talismans, helping us preserve the past and remind us of an era long gone.

    Necro-branding is also shaping up to be a multibillion-dollar industry. Even the stars of today – such as Taylor Swift – will inevitably one day become the necro-brands of tomorrow.

    And with the astonishingly rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), we can expect celebrities’ images to be “reincarnated” even more in the future, and their legacies extended far beyond death.

    Necro-branding is everywhere

    As colleagues and I argued in our recent paper in the journal Celebrity Studies, the quintessential necro-branded celebrity is Elvis Presley.

    From Elvis impersonators to countless items of Elvis memorabilia, the Elvis brand has only increased after the star’s death. Elvis-themed postage stamps issued by the US Postal Service reportedly became the top-selling commemorative postage stamps of all time. He’s also appeared on stamps issued by countries all around the world, such as the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi.

    As we explain in our recent paper:

    At the time of his death, Elvis was worth an estimated US$5 million dollars ($40  million in today’s terms), but by 2022, it was estimated that Elvis Presley Enterprises has a net worth of between $400 million and $500 million. The use of his image on merchandise and memorabilia contributes to the continuation of his legacy.

    And it’s not just necro-branding marketed to older fans; younger generations are also a target with Elvis marketing.

    Think, for example, of the stratospherically successful early-2000s dance track version of A Little Less Conversation, by Dutch musician Junkie XL. Or, for instance, of the way Elvis tracks are woven throughout the Disney animated movie Lilo and Stitch.

    Of course, Elvis is not the only necro-branded celebrity. David Bowie, Prince, Michael Jackson, John Lennon and Johnny Cash are other obvious examples, with countless pieces of merchandise bearing their images. Their brand value has increased once the star has passed away.

    Deceased royals – such as Princess Diana and, more recently, Queen Elizabeth – are another obvious example, especially because living royals already enjoy such massive brand values.

    Necro-branding works because of the deep connection fans feel with celebrities. One study of fans of NBA basketballer Kobe Bryant found that as fans’ grief and shock waned, other stronger emotional responses, such as love, actually increased.

    Another 2024 study analysing fans of Johnny Cash and John Lennon suggested that fans acted “religiously” in honouring the memories of these beloved musicians.

    Marilyn Monroe is another heavily necro-branded celebrity. As we argue in our recent paper

    Her brand has shown strong durability in terms of earnings and is now licensed to the same management group that owns the bulk of the Elvis brand, Authentic Brands Group (ABG). Monroe often made the top ten list of earners in the Dead Celebrities List from 2001 to 2008.

    Necro-branding and AI

    AI already plays a pivotal role in branding of celebrities, alive and dead, and will no doubt be used more in future to extend the marketability of today’s celebrities.

    Think, for instance, of the way some of the recordings from the past are imperfect. Elvis footage from the 1970s often has good sound quality, but the actual video footage reflects the technology of the time.

    While this can be partially rectified with remastering, future AI-powered technology will allow entire reproductions of shows, with all imperfections removed.

    Perhaps, many decades from now, an AI-generated version of Taylor Swift will be performing for fans of that era. Whole personas can be altered to meet the demands of different generations of fans, maintaining their legacy indefinitely.

    Brand new songs can be performed by a necro-celebrity who never actually sang them, or songs from other entertainers (dead or alive) can be performed by the avatar of a dead singer.

    AI has already been used to create a version of the song Barbie Girl sung in the “voice” of Johnny Cash, alongside a medley of other pop hits.

    A whole new frontier

    Even if you’re new to the term, you’re already part of the necro-branding market. And there is more to come once AI advances and consumers can no longer distinguish between fake and real.

    The lines will become blurry, as the branding of necro-celebrities become a whole new frontier for marketing and AI develops ever faster and better.

    Joanne Soviner, a year 12 student at North Sydney Girls High School, contributed to this article.

    Chris Baumann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. What is necro-branding? And what’s it got to do with Elvis, Princess Diana and Taylor Swift? – https://theconversation.com/what-is-necro-branding-and-whats-it-got-to-do-with-elvis-princess-diana-and-taylor-swift-240989

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Why is my kid using a baby voice? How can I manage it?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Westrupp, Associate Professor in Psychology, Deakin University

    MIA Studio/ Shutterstock

    Pweeeeese! I want cwacker!

    If you’ve ever found yourself cringing when your child suddenly starts talking in a high-pitched, baby-like voice, you’re not alone.

    Many parents and caregivers find this behaviour jarring — and yes, a little bit annoying.

    Why do older children sometimes revert to baby talk? And what can you do to manage it?

    Why do kids use a baby voice?

    Children may revert to speaking like a baby when they are seeking comfort, affection and reassurance.

    For children, being a baby reminds them of a time when they were safe, and all their needs were taken care of. When they revert to using a baby voice, they are signalling to us they’re feeling vulnerable, tired, stressed, uncertain or overwhelmed, and are wanting more connection and practical help from us.

    Most regressions are normal, and very common. In fact, healthy learning and development is never perfectly linear. This is reflected in nature, where there are cycles of rapid growth followed by periods of rest and dormancy. After a burst of development, children can be tired, or miss having the same level of support from us.

    Children are also more likely to use a baby voice when they’re managing a change or stressful life event. For example, the birth of a new baby in the family, starting school, moving house, or parents separating, are common times when children need more support.

    Using baby talk could be a sign your child is feeling stressed or vulnerable.
    Fizkes/Shutterstock

    Help! Why is a baby voice so annoying?

    As parents and carers, it can be confusing and grating when our older, capable child seems to be moving backwards in development, and using a voice they used many years ago.

    Parents might associate a baby voice with neediness, or immaturity, and feel anxious about what this means for their child’s development.

    In the past, this behaviour was viewed as a problem.

    So the advice was to ignore it and only respond when children use their normal voice. However, this can can create shame in our child and make them afraid to express their feelings and needs.

    If your child is using a baby voice, they may need more comforting and attention.
    Media_Photos/ Shutterstock

    Tips for managing baby voice

    Developmentally, there’s no problem with children occasionally using a baby voice, so we don’t need to try to stop this behaviour.

    Instead, we can be curious. What might be happening for our child?

    1. Acknowledge their feelings: we can empathise with, validate and accept our child’s underlying emotions. And then try to meet their need for safety and connection. We might say:

    Oh my love, sounds like you’re finding everything hard today, and can’t manage putting your shoes on? Are you feeling tired?

    2. Meet their needs: if they’re wanting extra help or connection, we should give it. We can think of this as a “refuelling” pit stop – they might need a little extra care as they manage their current stage of development, or cope with a change. We can say:

    I’d love to help you put your shoes on, let’s do it together. How about you do the socks, and I’ll tie your laces?

    Remember, providing extra help doesn’t mean you’ll always have to do so. Children have a natural drive towards skill development and independence. When they have the energy, they’ll want to keep practising their skills.

    3. Be kind to yourself: if your child’s baby voice is getting on your nerves, it’s understandable, and normal. Providing extra care can be taxing, and sometimes it’s hard to find that extra energy. We can remind our child that we all need rest.

    I hear you’re so tired today and want my help. The problem is I’m feeling so tired too! I wonder if we can help each other? Can we start with a big cuddle?

    4. If in doubt, seek help: if your child shows other signs of developmental regression for more than two weeks, talk to your GP.

    Depending on age, this might include lost skills related to language and communication, walking and balance, self-care (such as dressing, toileting), sleeping, or becoming more clingy, having meltdowns and losing interest in interacting or playing with others.

    Elizabeth Westrupp receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. She is affiliated with the Parenting and Family Research Alliance, and is a registered clinical psychologist.

    – ref. Why is my kid using a baby voice? How can I manage it? – https://theconversation.com/why-is-my-kid-using-a-baby-voice-how-can-i-manage-it-240436

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: You can keep your ghosts and ghouls – the ‘Cordyceps’ fungus creates real-life zombies

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, The University of Melbourne

    annguyen87, Shutterstock

    I have never really been interested in ghosts, mummies or zombies, not even at Halloween. But as October 31 approaches each year I am reminded of a biological tale involving all three. It’s the real-life horror story of a flesh-eating, brain-warping fungus from the genus Cordyceps, which inspired the zombie-apocalypse video game and TV series The Last of Us.

    Worldwide, there are hundreds of species of Cordyceps. Most of them prey on insects. They’re famous for hijacking the brains of some ants. Once the fungus takes over, it directs the ant to climb to a high point on a plant and then bite down on the stem or twig in a macabre death grip. The reproductive structures of this parasitic fungus will soon burst out of the ant’s head, spreading its spores to infect another unsuspecting host.

    But the species with which I am most familiar (Cordyceps gunnii) doesn’t attack ants – it parasitises insects such as rather large “ghost” caterpillars. This species doesn’t force its victims to climb, but takes control when they are buried in the soil.

    You might spot a grotesque-looking dead caterpillar pushing up through the earth as if rising from the grave, with a large fungal growth emerging from its head. Some are about the size of an adult finger, but cream and dark brown in colour. It is truly a thing that could trigger nightmares.

    ‘Zombie’ Parasite Cordyceps Fungus Takes Over Insects Through Mind Control | National Geographic.

    Consuming the ghostly host

    Unsuspecting insects become infected with Cordyceps when they eat them by mistake, or when spores attach to their bodies.

    The caterpillar of the Australian ghost moth (Abantiades labrynthicus) tends to burrow straight down into the soil to graze on roots of gum trees and some other species related to eucalypts. So it probably picks up the fungus as it burrows into the earth. The fungus then penetrates the exoskeleton or digestive tract of the insect with a thin, needle-like tube.

    Once inside the caterpillar, the fungus starts to grow rapidly. It produces very fine threads (hyphae) that spread through the body of the insect, replacing its structure. The fungus expands to fill the available space, assuming ultimate control. Exactly how the fungus takes control of the insect brain is not fully understood, but we know the fungus produces a range of chemicals that influence the brain in a way that meets the environmental and reproductive needs of the fungus.

    The caterpillar is doomed as soon as the fungus starts to grow inside it. After being taken over by another life form, the zombie caterpillar dies. All of this happens out of sight, under the soil surface.

    But Cordyceps is not done with the caterpillar just yet. It consumes all the resources the insect can offer, then pushes antler-like reproductive structures out through the caterpillar’s head. These spore-producing structures can be more than 10cm long. They’re clearly visible above ground, but can be hard to spot as they look a bit like a twig. Wind carries the spores to infect more unwary caterpillars.

    These fungus-filled caterpillars are now fully mummified. Nothing remains of the caterpillar but a brittle exoskeleton.

    As the reproductive structures dry and wither, they gently tug on the mummy to which they are still attached. If the soil is dry, the now empty exoskeleton of the caterpillar emerges from its hole. As it does so, the fungal reproductive structures are often lost and all you see remaining is the empty husk.

    The Last of Us: Could it happen? Infectious disease doctor explains cordyceps (UC Davis Health).

    Half animal, half vegetable

    Members of the genus Cordyceps boast the unusual common name of vegetable caterpillars. This strange name comes from a belief, which persisted until the 1800s, that the caterpillars had somehow transformed from insects to fungi, or from animal to plant.

    This was a much debated and widely written about example of transmutation, a theory that was not uncommon in pre-Darwinian times. It was not until the early 1900s that the true, full and gruesome nature of the relationship between Cordyceps and its insect victims was revealed.

    On the lookout for Cordyceps

    Cordyceps gunnii is the most commonly seen species of vegetable caterpillar in southeastern Australia, found in several states.

    Another less conspicuous species, the fawn vegetable caterpillar, Cordyceps hawkesii, occurs along Autralia’s east coast, often under wattles, but is even harder to see. Naturalists hunting for this vegetable caterpillar often find they have already inadvertently trampled over it before they spot it.

    Yet another species, Cordyceps taylori, can also be regularly seen emerging from large ghost moth caterpillars in Victoria. When the husks of these dead, mummified caterpillars appear to emerge from their holes in the ground, they look particularly striking.

    The classification of these vegetable caterpillar fungi is still being debated by experts. It is likely not all are closely related. Some are now placed in a new genus, Ophiocordyceps, but regardless of the name, they are all capable of making zombies and mummies of their victims.

    You can join in the process of hunting for and mapping these elusive species through citizen science projects such as he Great Aussie Fungi Hunt or iNaturalist Australia.

    Traditional medicines and the vegetable caterpillar

    As Halloween approaches, you may be wondering whether humans need worry about being zombified and mummified by Cordyceps fungi. Could the naturalists hunting the vegetable caterpillars become the hunted? The answer is a resounding no. In fact, the opposite is true – these macabre creatures have a long history in traditional medicine.

    Cordyceps sinensis, a Chinese vegetable caterpillar very similar to C. gunnii, has been used in traditional medicine for centuries. Modern research shows there may be benefits from its use (or extracts from it) in treatments associated with autoimmune responses. While the fungus has been cultivated for about 40 years, naturally growing, wild fungi can be very expensive as they are still relatively rare and difficult to find. A kilogram can retail for A$30,000, driving a fungal gold rush across the Himalayas.

    Members of the genus Coryceps, or more correctly the Ophiocordyceps genus, have been around for more than 45 million years. Despite their depiction in The Last of Us, humans have nothing to worry about. The fungi are quite particular about their victims. But if you are a certain species of ant or ghost moth, then Halloween may take on a whole new meaning.

    Gregory Moore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. You can keep your ghosts and ghouls – the ‘Cordyceps’ fungus creates real-life zombies – https://theconversation.com/you-can-keep-your-ghosts-and-ghouls-the-cordyceps-fungus-creates-real-life-zombies-241901

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Gender is playing a crucial role in this US election – and it’s not just about Kamala Harris

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol Johnson, Emerita Professor, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Adelaide

    Having a female presidential candidate has made gender obvious in this US presidential election, even to many who normally neglect its role. The specific contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, along with the prominence of issues such as abortion, has resulted in a particularly large gender voting gap. Far more women have consistently indicated support for Harris and far more men for Trump.

    However, gender has always been crucial in US presidential elections, not just because of gender voting patterns but because competing performances of masculinity have always played a major role.

    Role of masculinity in 2020 election

    The last presidential election saw Joe Biden’s form of kind and caring protective masculinity being explicitly contrasted with Trump’s divisive, hyper-masculine one.

    Furthermore, strong male leaders are meant to protect the people from physical, social and economic harm. I have argued that one factor that contributed to Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat was a protective masculinity failure, especially in regard to COVID.

    For example, former President Barack Obama argued that, unlike Biden, Trump could not be counted on to protect Americans:

    Eight months into this pandemic, new cases are breaking records. Donald Trump isn’t going to suddenly protect all of us. He can’t even take the basic steps to protect himself […]. Joe understands […] that the first job of a president is to keep us safe from all threats: domestic, foreign, and microscopic.

    Trump’s re-energised protective masculinity

    However, since his 2020 electoral defeat, Trump has resurrected himself as a strong masculine protector. He claims that “our enemies” are trying to use legal charges to take away his freedom and silence him because he “will always stand” in the way of their attempt to silence the American people and take away their freedom.

    He will also be a vengeful protector, declaring:

    I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution. I will totally obliterate the deep state.

    Trump has long appealed to men who feel that traditional masculinity, and its related entitlements, are under threat.

    He is currently courting white males, the youth manosphere, “techno bros”, “crypto bros”, conservative male unionists threatened by globalisation and offshoring, and conservative black and Latino men.

    He has been explicitly mobilising misogyny, including by making lewd references to Harris. JD Vance has assisted Trump’s efforts.

    Nonetheless, Trump claims that he will be a strong male protector of women, protecting them from illegal immigrants, crime, foreign threats and other anxieties:

    You will be protected and I will be your protector. Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free.

    Trump has even promised that, as a result, women “will no longer be thinking about abortion.” This is all despite his own alleged history of sexual assault.

    Harris, gender and the women’s vote

    By 2024, Biden’s apparent physical and cognitive decline meant that he was no longer a convincing masculine protector (or viable ongoing presidential candidate).

    The choice of Harris as his replacement candidate had advantages, but it was also a gamble given the combined roles of gender and race. After all, despite the long history of US racism, it still proved easier to elect a black man (Obama) to the presidency than a white woman (Hillary Clinton).

    However, the women’s vote is particularly important this election. As well as Harris’ appeal to younger and black women, Democrats have emphasised the importance of her appeal to white women, including some who previously voted Republican. Anti-Trump Republicans such as Liz Cheney are assisting Harris in appealing to the latter.

    Issues such as abortion are crucial. The overturning of Roe v Wade abortion rights, enabled by Trump stacking the Supreme Court, also puts IVF at risk by not clarifying when life begins (with implications for frozen embryos). Senate Republicans have twice blocked a vote on a Democrat-led bill designed to protect IVF. Harris has pledged to sign a law protecting abortion rights (if Congress passes it).

    Trump claims he supports IVF, won’t bring in a national ban on abortion and believes in abortion “exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother”.

    However, Trump Republicans are courting, and influenced by, the American religious right on abortion. There aren’t such exceptions in several Republican states, as Harris’s heartrending accounts of the impact on women and their health reveals. Furthermore, Missouri, Kansas and Idaho are also trying to drastically reduce legal access to the abortion drug mifepristone.

    Harris also emphasises other issues of particular significance for women, such as affordable childcare and better pay for care workers.

    Harris and “tonic” masculinity

    Given the role of competing masculinities in US presidential elections, Harris’ campaign has intentionally appealed to a very different form of protective masculinity from Trump’s.

    Vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz’s, “America’s dad” image (of being a warm, caring but sports loving coach, national guard serving, gun owning, hunter) is used to contrast his “tonic masculinity” with Trump’s “toxic” masculinity. Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, is depicted as a supportive “wife-guy” who has “reshaped the perception of masculinity” (while strongly denying allegations he once slapped a woman).

    Despite conservative claims of men being economically left behind, the Biden/Harris administration argues it has revitalised manufacturing and male jobs along with it and Harris will continue to do so. Meanwhile, Obama has urged black men to get behind Harris and the Harris campaign has highlighted its policies benefiting black men.

    Can Harris mobilise protective femininity?

    Given the major role of gender in US presidential elections, a key issue is whether Harris can successfully evoke a caring, motherly, protective femininity that promises security and economic benefits to voters and helps to counter Trump’s protective masculinity.

    Other women politicians have been able to (for example, Germany’s Angela Merkel). Women leaders particularly mobilised protective femininity during the COVID health crisis (for example, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern). However, it always seemed likely masculinist leadership stereotypes would re-emerge once the economy needed rebuilding after the pandemic.

    Harris has pledged she will “create an opportunity economy” and “protect our fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do”. She promises to be the kind of president “who cares about you and is not putting themselves first”. Whether such electoral pitches are successful remains to be seen.

    Why the outcome of this election is crucial for gender equality.

    A woman US president is long overdue after 46 male ones. A Trump victory would have major implications for abortion, IVF and women’s rights generally, including progress on the Biden/Harris National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality. Immigrant and black women will be particularly vulnerable. A Trump victory would also have major implications for which models of masculinity are publicly endorsed.

    A Trump victory would embolden conservative so-called anti-gender ideology campaigns. The Trump campaign has recently spent US $21 million (A$31.9 million) on ads associating Harris with LGBTIQ+ equality, especially transgender rights.

    The Trump campaign asserts that “Kamala’s for they/them. President Trump is for you.” While Trump has also pledged that “we will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our schools.”

    A Trump victory will influence the future US economy, including risking increasing gender inequality in an Elon Musk-style unregulated technopoly.

    Finally, academic commentators have drawn attention to the way in which socially conservative views on gender have been mobilised to support new forms of authoritarian regimes in Europe and elsewhere.

    In short, this presidential election is a crucial one for the American people generally, but for the female half of the population in particular.

    Carol Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Gender is playing a crucial role in this US election – and it’s not just about Kamala Harris – https://theconversation.com/gender-is-playing-a-crucial-role-in-this-us-election-and-its-not-just-about-kamala-harris-242113

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Vanuatu AG condemns Trump’s Paris climate treaty exit as ‘troubling precedent’

    By Harry Pearl of BenarNews

    Vanuatu’s top lawyer has called out the United States for “bad behavior” after newly inaugurated President Donald Trump withdrew the world’s biggest historic emitter of greenhouse gasses from the Paris Agreement for a second time.

    The Pacific nation’s Attorney-General Arnold Loughman, who led Vanuatu’s landmark International Court of Justice climate case at The Hague last month, said the withdrawal represented an “undeniable setback” for international action on global warming.

    “The Paris Agreement remains key to the world’s efforts to combat climate change and respond to its effects, and the participation of major economies like the US is crucial,” he told BenarNews in a statement.

    The withdrawal could also set a “troubling precedent” regarding the accountability of rich nations that are disproportionately responsible for global warming, said Loughman.

    “At the same time, the US’ bad behavior could inspire resolve on behalf of developed countries to act more responsibly to try and safeguard the international rule of law,” he said.

    “Ultimately, the whole world stands to lose if the international legal framework is allowed to erode.”

    Vanuatu’s Attorney-General Arnold Loughman at the International Court of Justice last month . . . “The whole world stands to lose if the international legal framework is allowed to erode.” Image: ICJ-CIJ

    Trump’s announcement on Monday came less than two weeks after scientists confirmed that 2024 was the hottest year on record and the first in which average temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

    Agreed to ‘pursue efforts’
    Under the Paris Agreement adopted in 2015, leaders agreed to “pursue efforts” to limit warming under the 1.5°C threshold or, failing that, keep rises “well below” 2°C  by the end of the century.

    Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said on Wednesday in a brief comment that Trump’s action would “force us to rethink our position” but the US president must do “what is in the best interest of the United States of America”.

    Other Pacific leaders and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) regional intergovernmental body have not responded to BenarNews requests for comment.

    The forum — comprising 18 Pacific states and territories — in its 2018 Boe Declaration said: “Climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific and [we reaffirm] our commitment to progress the implementation of the Paris Agreement.”

    Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka speaks at the opening of the new Nabouwalu Water Treatment Plant this week . . . Trump’s action would “force us to rethink our position”. Image: Fiji govt

    Trump’s executive order sparked dismay and criticism in the Pacific, where the impacts of a warming planet are already being felt in the form of more intense storms and rising seas.

    Jacynta Fa’amau, regional Pacific campaigner with environmental group 350 Pacific, said the withdrawal would be a diplomatic setback for the US.

    “The climate crisis has for a long time now been our greatest security threat, especially to the Pacific,” she told BenarNews.

    A clear signal
    “This withdrawal from the agreement is a clear signal about how much the US values the survival of Pacific nations and all communities on the front lines.”

    New Zealand’s former Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio, said that if the US withdrew from its traditional leadership roles in multilateral organisations China would fill the gap.

    “Some people may not like how China plays its role,” wrote the former Labour MP on Facebook. “But when the great USA withdraws from these global organisations . . . it just means China can now go about providing global leadership.”

    Analysts and former White House advisers told BenarNews last year that climate change could be a potential “flashpoint” between Pacific nations and a second Trump administration at a time of heightened geopolitical competition with China.

    Trump’s announcement was not unexpected. During his first term he withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, only for former President Joe Biden to promptly rejoin in 2021.

    The latest withdrawal puts the US, the world’s largest historic emitter of greenhouse gases, alongside only Iran, Libya and Yemen outside the climate pact.

    In his executive order, Trump said the US would immediately begin withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and from any other commitments made under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

    US also ending climate finance
    The US would also end its international climate finance programme to developing countries — a blow to small Pacific island states that already struggle to obtain funding for resilience and mitigation.

    Press releases by the Biden administration were removed from the White House website immediately after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Image: White House website/Screen capture on Monday

    A fact sheet published by the Biden administration on November 17, which has now been removed from the White House website, said that US international climate finance reached more than US$11 billion in 2024.

    Loughman said the cessation of climate finance payments was particularly concerning for the Pacific region.

    “These funds are essential for building resilience and supporting adaptation strategies,” he said. “Losing this support could severely hinder ongoing and future projects aimed at protecting our vulnerable ecosystems and communities.”

    George Carter, deputy head of the Department of Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University and member of the COP29 Scientific Council, said at the centre of the Biden administration’s re-engagement with the South Pacific was a regional programme on climate adaptation.

    “While the majority of climate finance that flows through the Pacific comes from Australia, Japan, European Union, New Zealand — then the United States — the climate networks and knowledge production from the US to the Pacific are substantial,” he said.

    Sala George Carter (third from right) hosted a panel discussion at COP29 highlighting key challenges Indigenous communities face from climate change last November. Image: Sera Sefeti/BenarNews

    Climate actions plans
    Pacific island states, like all other signatories to the Paris Agreement, will this year be submitting Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, outlining their climate action plans for the next five years.

    “All climate actions, policies and activities are conditional on international climate finance,” Carter said.

    Pacific island nations are being disproportionately affected by climate change despite contributing just 0.02 percent of global emissions, according to a UN report released last year.

    Low-lying islands are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather events like cyclones, floods and marine heatwaves, which are projected to occur more frequently this century as a result of higher average global temperatures.

    On January 10, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) confirmed that last year for the first time the global mean temperature tipped over 1.5°C above the 1850-1900 average.

    WMO experts emphasised that a single year of more than 1.5°C does not mean that the world has failed to meet long-term temperature goals, which are measured over decades, but added that “leaders must act — now” to avert negative impacts.

    Harry Pearl is a BenarNews journalist. This article was first published by BenarNews and is republished at Asia Pacific Report with permission.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Wenda praises PNG’s Marape over ‘brave ambush’ over West Papua

    Asia Pacific Report

    An exiled West Papuan leader has praised Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape for his “brave ambush” in questioning new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto over West Papua.

    Prabowo offered an “amnesty” for West Papuan pro-independence activists during Marape’s revent meeting with Prabowo on the fringes of the inauguration, the PNG leader revealed.

    The offer was reported by Asia Pacific Report last week.

    Wenda, a London-based officer of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), said in a statement that he wanted to thank Marape on behalf of the people of West Papua for directly raising the issue of West Papua in his meeting with President Prabowo.

    “This was a brave move on behalf of his brothers and sisters in West Papua,” Wenda said.

    “The offer of amnesty for West Papuans by Prabowo is a direct result of him being ambushed by PM Marape on West Papua.

    “But what does amnesty mean? All West Papuans support Merdeka, independence; all West Papuans want to raise the [banned flag] Morning Star; all West Papuans want to be free from colonial rule.”

    Wenda said pro-independence actions of any kind were illegal in West Papua.

    ‘Beaten, arrested or jailed’
    “If we raise our flag or call for self-determination, we are beaten, arrested or jailed. If the offer of amnesty is real, it must involve releasing all West Papuan political prisoners.

    “It must involve allowing us to peacefully struggle for our freedom without the threat of imprisonment.” 

    Wenda said that in the history of the occupation, it was very rare for Melanesian leaders to openly confront the Indonesian President about West Papua.

    “Marape can become like Moses for West Papua, going to Pharoah and demanding ‘let my people go!’.

    “West Papua and Papua New Guinea are the same people, divided only by an arbitrary colonial line. One day the border between us will fall like the Berlin Wall and we will finally be able celebrate the full liberation of New Guinea together, from Sorong to Samarai.

    “By raising West Papua at Prabowo’s inauguration, Marape is inhabiting the spirit of Melanesian brotherhood and solidarity,” Wenda said.

    Vanuatu Prime Minister and the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) chair Charlot Salwai and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele were also there as a Melanesian delegation.

    “To Prabowo, I say this: A true amnesty means giving West Papua our land back by withdrawing your military, and allowing the self-determination referendum we have been denied since the 1960s.”

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Inquiry warns distrustful public wouldn’t accept COVID measures in future pandemic

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

    The government-appointed inquiry into Australia’s COVID response has warned public trust won’t be so high in a future pandemic and people would be unlikely to accept again many of the measures taken.

    “That means there is a job to be done to rebuild trust, and we must plan a response based on the Australia we are today, not the Australia we were before the pandemic,” the report released on Tuesday said.

    The inquiry was conducted by former NSW public servant Robyn Kirk, epidemiologist Catherine Bennett, and economist Angela Jackson. It examined the health and economic responses; while it did not directly delve into the state responses, it did cover the federal-state interface.

    The overall takeout from the inquiry is that “Australia did well relative to other nations, that experienced larger losses in human life, health system collapse and more severe economic downturns”.

    But “the pandemic response was not as effective as it could have been” for an event for which there was “no playbook for pivotal actions.”

    The inquiry said “with the benefit of hindsight, there was excessive fiscal and monetary policy stimulus provided throughout 2021 and 2022, especially in the construction sector. Combined with supply side disruptions, this contributed to inflationary pressures coming out of the pandemic.”

    The inquiry criticised the Homebuilder program’s contribution to inflation, as well as Jobkeeper’s targeting, and said blanket access to superannuation should not be repeated.

    The government – which might have originally expected the inquiry to have been more critical of the Morrison government – quickly seized on the report’s economic criticisms.

    The panel has made a set of recommendations to ensure better preparation for a future pandemic.

    It highlighted the “tail” the pandemic has left, especially its effect on children, who suffered school closures.

    “Children faced lower health risks from COVID-19; however, broader impacts on the social and emotional development of children are ongoing. These include impacts on mental health, school attendance and academic outcomes for some groups of children.”

    The report noted that the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee had never recommended widespread school closures.

    A lack of clear communication about risks had created the environment for states to decide to go to remote learning.

    The impacts on children should be considered in future pandemic preparations, the inquiry said.

    It strongly backed making permanent the interim Australian Centre for Disease Control. The government will legislate next year for the CDC, to start on January 1 2026, as an independent statutory agency.

    The CDC would be important in rebuilding trust, the report said, as well as “strengthening resilience and preparedness”. It would provide “national coordination to gather evidence necessary to undertake the assessments that can guide the proportionality of public health responses in future crises”.

    The report said trust in government was essential for a successful response to a pandemic.

    At COVID’s outset, the public largely did what was asked of them, complying with restrictive public health orders.

    But the initial strengthening of trust in government did not continue through the pandemic. By the second year, restrictions on personal freedom were less accepted.

    Reasons for the decrease in trust included a lack of transparency in decision making, poor communication, the stringency and duration of restrictions, implementation of mandated measures, access to vaccines and inconsistencies in responses across jurisdictions.

    Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Inquiry warns distrustful public wouldn’t accept COVID measures in future pandemic – https://theconversation.com/inquiry-warns-distrustful-public-wouldnt-accept-covid-measures-in-future-pandemic-242383

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Australia’s COVID inquiry shows why a permanent ‘centre for disease control’ is more urgent than ever

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jocelyne Basseal, Associate Director, Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute (Sydney ID), Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney

    Christie Cooper/Shutterstock

    The long-awaited independent inquiry into Australia’s COVID response was released today, with lessons on how the nation could better prepare for future pandemics.

    The 868-page report outlined nine guiding recommendations and 26 actions, including 19 set for implementation over the next 12 to 18 months. These form the foundation for future pandemic preparedness.

    With initial strong national solidarity, Australia acted quickly to close national borders, the inquiry found. This bought crucial time, but Australia was not adequately prepared for a crisis of the scale of the COVID pandemic.

    Australia’s response lacked strong central co-ordination and leadership. Communication about public health advice was often conflicting or not appropriately communicated with the most vulnerable groups. Public trust was further undermined by a lack of transparency in decision-making, such as disease modelling, which underpinned important public health responses.

    In hindsight, the inquiry concluded a fully fledged Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) could have made a huge difference. In response, the federal government today committed A$251 milion to establish such a centre in Canberra.

    What did the inquiry find?

    1. Early rapid response and consensus helped keep us safe. As an inland nation, Australia was able to close its borders while preparing for the ultimate inevitable population-wide spread of SARS CoV-2. But it was unprepared for pandemic-related quarantines.

    2. Initially, the communication was clear and consistent. This didn’t last. Huge uncertainties, rapidly changing circumstances, differing opinions among experts and the politicisation of the response undermined communication strategies. Communication with diverse ethnic groups and vulnerable populations groups were often sub-optimal. In future, misinformation and disinformation needs to be addressed through improving health literacy and proactive communication.

    3. Our health-care infrastructure was lacking and couldn’t cope with emergency surge capacity, the inquiry found, although health-care workers “pulled together” remarkably. Aged care facilities were particularly vulnerable and had poor infection-control practices. More broadly, there were supply chain issues and inadequate stockpiles of essential infection prevention and control equipment, such as masks and gloves. Australia was unable to manufacture these and was left at the mercy of foreign providers.

    4. Analysing the genetic material of the virus and widespread testing were critical to tracking viral evolution and spread. Pathogen genomics in New South Wales and Victoria, for instance, allowed accurate tracking of virus variants and local transmission. But there was poor exchange of data between jurisdictions and limited national coordination to optimise data interpretation and response.

    5. Transparent, evidence-based decision-making was lacking. Disease models that informed key decisions were opaque and not open to scrutiny or peer review.

    6. Vulnerable populations, including children, suffered disproportionately. COVID-related school closures were particularly harmful as they affected learning, socialising and development, and disproportionately affected children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Strict social isolation also increased the risk of family violence, along with anxiety and other mental health impacts. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experienced higher risks due to the inequity of service provision and the social determinants of health.

    7. Research is important and should be rapidly scalable. Good surveillance systems for emerging infectious diseases and future pandemic threats should be in place. Patient specimens need to be stored so we can rapidly explore the mechanisms of disease and develop essential diagnostic tests. The inquiry recognised the need for Australia to develop its own vaccines and for access to mRNA technology was recognised as an important health security measure, given challenges in vaccine access.

    8. Global solidarity and co-operation create a safer word for all.
    The stark inequities in COVID vaccine access, opened major fault lines in international relationships and still complicate the drafting of a global pandemic treaty.

    9. Emerging diseases with a One Health focus should be recognised as a ‘standing threat’. In our modern interconnected world, with highly concentrated human and animal populations combined with stressed ecosystems, new diseases with pandemic potential will continue to emerge at an unprecedented rate. This requires a gobal focus.

    How could a CDC make a difference?

    One of the inquiry’s key take-home messages is that the lack of strong, independent, central co-ordination hampered our pandemic response.

    The inadequate flow of data between jurisdictions were major shortcomings that limited the ability to target responses. This is needed to understand:

    • transmission dynamics
    • the vulnerabilities in those with severe disease
    • the circulating viral variants.

    The inquiry also emphasised the need to analyse data in near real time.

    Good data drive evidence-informed and transparent policy. This is a crucial area for a future Australian CDC to address. The CDC will function as a “data hub”, with Canberra offering the ideal location supporting a multi-jurisdictional “hub-and-spoke” model.

    Australia’s new CDC is expected to be launched by January 2026, pending legislation approval. The ongoing challenge will be to ensure it delivers optimal long-term health benefits for all Australians.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Australia’s COVID inquiry shows why a permanent ‘centre for disease control’ is more urgent than ever – https://theconversation.com/australias-covid-inquiry-shows-why-a-permanent-centre-for-disease-control-is-more-urgent-than-ever-239498

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: View from The Hill: ‘identity politics’ has challenged the Labor Party to define its identity

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

    Saturday’s Queensland result provides the latest evidence of the dual tugs on the modern Labor Party, coming from its different constituencies.

    The smallest swing against the Miles government was in inner Brisbane; the swing became bigger in the outer suburbs, and larger again in the regions. The broad state figures were: south-east Queensland 6.3%; rural/regional Queensland 9.2%. The awings in the city were: inner Brisbane 5.0%; outer Brisbane 7.7%.

    This sort of divide reflects a challenge, first recognised decades ago, that’s highlighted by former Labor senator and minister Kim Carr, in his just-published A Long March. In a scathing critique of Labor’s problems, Carr calls this a “cultural crisis.”

    “The Labor ship has struck the rock of identity politics,” Carr writes, “with too many of its spokespeople adopting a censorious tone to those who fail to embrace their particular social policy agendas”.

    From the left, old school and former factional heavyweight, Carr argues Labor has sought to build a new constituency without paying sufficient attention to its traditional support base.

    Over decades, the once-working class party has taken up causes that appeal to the wealthier, better-educated middle- class voters, and these people have moved their support to it. The cost has been an erosion of outer suburban votes, the people now being aggressively targeted by opposition leader Peter Dutton.

    Meanwhile, in inner urban areas Labor has come under increasing pressure from the Greens. The danger for the ALP, Carr believes, is by trying to compete with the Greens on identity politics it will inevitably be outmanoeuvred.

    “The profound challenge for the Labor Party in the 2020s is to find a way to bind together its more affluent and educated support base in the inner and middle suburbs of the big cities with its less well-off and less formally educated supporters in the outer suburbs and regional cities,” Carr says.

    Political historian Paul Strangio, however, warns that while obviously Labor has to straddle constituencies, “there is no returning to an imagined ‘heartland’. The outer suburbs Carr seems to want Labor to focus upon are themselves radically changing. They are not a repository of old-fashioned working class values and priorities, and nor on their own are they sufficient to provide a basis for the party to hold government.”

    Carr says the issue is how to build Labor’s primary vote in its heartland communities.

    On what we’ve seen in recent politics, this appears a formidable, if not insurmountable, hope for any time soon.

    Voters don’t trust parties, let alone join them. The popularity of “community candidates” has seen a record-sized crossbench in the House of Representatives, with an expanded Greens presence and disillusionment with the Liberals making a strong contribution to the number in 2022. Next year’s election will test whether this trend is entrenched.

    Carr points out that Labor has a party membership that’s wealthier and older than the general community. Its membership is “thin” in the outer suburbs and the regions compared with the inner areas.

    Among the consequences is that the messages coming up through the party may not gell with the preoccupations of the broader community, he says.

    Over the years the ALP rank and file has not just shrunk numerically but been deprived of most of the not-inconsiderable power it once had within the party.

    In terms of clout, Labor’s national conference, which sets the platform, is a diminished beast, though massively swollen numerically. The party membership’s power over preselections has been greatly reduced, thanks to factional deal-making and frequent intervention by the party’s national executive. In just one significant way has the rank and file gained power: it now has a 50% voice in electing the party’s leader, so far exercised once, in 2013, when Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese faced off.

    Given the shrinkage and balkanisation of the party, there is currently not the interest in internal party reform that erupted periodically and often heatedly in earlier years.

    Labor veteran Race Mathews’ career, documented by his wife Iola in Race Mathews: A Life in Politics, has an extraordinarily broad political CV: a staffer for federal and state leaders, MP for the federal seat of Casey (elected on the 1972 Whitlam wave and defeated in the 1975 post-dismissal rout), and a Victorian state minister. An enduring preoccupation for Mathews, who was part of an influx of young, well-educated middle-class activists attracted to Labor in the 1960s and early 1970s, was fighting to make the Labor Party fit for purpose and more internally democratic.

    Serving on Gough Whitlam’s staff in the late 1960s, Mathews was in the thick of the then-opposition leader’s tumultuous battle with the troglodytes of the Victorian party, who preferred political impotence to the power of government. Whitlam knew that unless the ALP organisation was reformed, Labor’s road to office would be obstructed.

    Way back when, the party’s organisation, in which the left flexed a lot of muscle, liked to signal that the MPs were under its thumb. In 1963, then-opposition leader Arthur Calwell and Whitlam, his deputy, were embarrassed when photographed outside a Canberra hotel waiting for the party’s special national conference (to which they were not delegates) to decide Labor’s attitude to the North West Cape joint facility. The ultimate decision was not the problem – the line it was made by “36 faceless men” was.

    Mathews later highlighted the significance of the 1970 federal intervention in Victoria, saying it had led to important reforms in that state and elsewhere. “Good people were brought into parliament and membership was a rewarding experience.” But then factionalism “ossified” the party and “if you weren’t part of the factions, you were marginalised”.

    In his 70s Mathews (who is now aged 89 and suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease) was still fighting for democratisation of Labor’s organisation, which he described as “archaic and decrepit”. While party leaders and others were supportive in principle, the quest for a new wave of change ultimately brought only limited outcomes.

    Iola Mathews quotes her husband’s Facebook answer to those who wondered why he, at 80, he was still in these trenches.

    He wrote: “The fact is that nobody ever changed the party other than from inside it, or ever will. And shaping it closer to our heart’s desire is the only game in town.”

    The truth is, however, it’s a game those who run the Labor Party these days have no serious interest in pursuing. As Strangio observes, “the age of the mass party has passed”.

    Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. View from The Hill: ‘identity politics’ has challenged the Labor Party to define its identity – https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-identity-politics-has-challenged-the-labor-party-to-define-its-identity-242215

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Echoes of a Lost Gaza – Al Jazeera documentary on a brutal war

    Pacific Media Watch

    Mariam Shahin has been making films about Gaza for more than 30 years.

    She has also made many documentaries and short films for Al Jazeera English since it launched in 2006.

    When she moved to Gaza in 2005, she felt a powerful sense of optimism following the Israeli withdrawal.

    Mariam Shahin . . . revisiting the Gaza people and lives the film maker has met over the years. Image: MS

    But by 2009, war had badly damaged its infrastructure, neighbourhoods, businesses and communities — and that optimism had evaporated.

    Now, in the wake of the even more destructive war that began on 7 October 2023, Shahin seeks out the people she has met in Gaza over the years.

    She reflects on the wasted potential and devastated lives after 16 years of blockade and a year of one of the most destructive wars in Middle East history.


    Echoes of a Lost Gaza: 2005-2024.     Video: Al Jazeera

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Somaliland elections: what’s at stake for independence, stability and shifting power dynamics in the Horn of Africa

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Brendon J. Cannon, Associate Professor, Khalifa University

    Somaliland is due to hold a presidential election on 13 November 2024.

    The results of the election will be important for two main reasons. First, what the leadership outcome will mean for Somaliland’s democratic credentials. Second, it will have implications for Somaliland’s push for recognition as an independent state.

    Thirty-three years ago, Somaliland declared its unilateral withdrawal from the Somali Union. It is an independent state in reality but unrecognised in law. Like other unrecognised states such as Taiwan, it doesn’t fly a flag at the United Nations in New York. It also suffers from a lack of access to global financing, and humanitarian and development aid, most of which must come via Mogadishu.

    Somaliland’s determination to achieve recognition was evident in January 2024 when it signed an agreement with neighbouring Ethiopia. Under this deal, Ethiopia would get access to the sea via a 19km strip of coastline, possibly near the port of Berbera (though three sites have been identified), and Addis Ababa would recognise Somaliland’s statehood. The agreement, which has yet to be ratified, was met with a storm of protests, including from Somalia.

    Somaliland is run by the ruling party, Kulmiye, which is led by Muse Bihi Abdi, Somaliland’s president since 2017. The party has been in power since 2010. The main opposition party is Waddani (also spelled Wadani), led by Abdirahman Mohamed Abdilahi (or Ciro/Irro).

    I have carried out a decade of research and fieldwork in Somaliland. In my view, this election carries weight in terms of Somaliland’s democratic health, as well as its prospects for peace and stability – within its borders and in the region.

    Somaliland’s democracy, like all democracies, relies on giving politicians and parties the chance to win elections. It is the voters who will decide who gets to run Somaliland next, and they face a clear choice between Kulmiye and Waddani.

    Political landscape

    Somaliland’s 2024 presidential election will be a test of its democratic institutions and a critical moment in its quest for independence.

    Kulmiye can point to milestones on the road to Somaliland’s recognition. It was in power when Somaliland and Taiwan (Republic of China) recognised one another and swapped diplomats.

    The party can also claim success for a strategy to get support from western states for Somaliland’s formal recognition. This includes the staffing and funding of Somaliland’s overseas missions in London, Washington DC and Dubai, among others. These act as non-accredited embassies for the country.

    Their work resulted in a non-official visit to Washington, DC by Bihi in 2022. The same year, a UK parliamentary delegation visited Hargeisa.

    Somaliland and Ethiopia also reached their agreement in January 2024. This is the closest Somaliland has come to gaining official recognition from another state.



    Read more:
    Somaliland has been pursuing independence for 33 years. Expert explains the impact of the latest deal with Ethiopia

    Like the ruling party, the opposition party Waddani fully supports the agreement with Ethiopia. It sees recognition from Somaliland’s huge neighbour – which also happens to host the headquarters of the African Union – as a first step to gaining official recognition.

    However, based on my recent interviews with a Waddani official, the party is likely to adopt a broader approach if it wins the upcoming election. Instead of focusing solely on western states like the US and the UK, Waddani plans to approach African and global south states, such as Senegal and Kenya, for support.

    This potential shift reflects an understanding that both regional and global dynamics are changing.

    Waddani’s broader diplomatic strategy is reinforced by its recent coalition with KAAH (the Somali acronym for Alliance for Equity and Development). KAAH is a young political association rather than a formal political party. Somaliland has a constitutional limit of three official parties.

    KAAH was formed, in part, by experienced politicians. In building a coalition, Waddani and KAAH hope to displace Somaliland’s current third party, the Justice and Welfare Party.

    KAAH’s support is partially based in Somaliland’s eastern region, which has experienced violent upheavals in recent years. This coalition promises to better incorporate the eastern regions and clans into the government should Waddani win.

    Regardless of the outcome of the election, one issue unites Somaliland’s political parties: the push for independence.

    Regional implications

    A peaceful election would reinforce Somaliland’s claim as a stable, democratic entity.

    Mogadishu should not expect any winds of change to blow from Hargeisa if Waddani wins. Three generations and counting have been raised in a de-facto independent Somaliland and they remember the violent dissolution from the Somali Union. This included the bombing of Hargeisa, the destruction of Berbera port and the displacement of thousands of people. Somalilanders largely support independence.

    Neither Waddani nor Kulmiye will be wishy-washy on this issue. And there will be forward movement on the Ethiopia-Somaliland agreement. This is likely to lead to increased tensions in the Horn region. As it is, Ethiopia and Somaliland are disturbed by the prospect of a resurgent Somalia supported by Egypt with arms and troops.



    Read more:
    Somaliland crisis: delayed elections and armed conflict threaten dream of statehood

    There won’t be a shooting war – Mogadishu still has far too many problems with al-Shabaab, clan infighting and a lack of resources and training. But history shows that states take extreme measures if they feel existentially threatened.

    Mogadishu’s stance is to retake Somaliland at all costs. And it has much of the world’s tacit support for its “one Somalia” policy. That makes Somaliland a textbook case of an existentially threatened state.

    Risks that lie ahead

    There are some risks of instability regardless of who wins the election.

    The Isaaq clan controls much of the political and economic landscape. This may intensify tensions, especially if minority clans feel sidelined. Waddani’s promise of inclusivity may appeal to marginalised groups, but clan-based grievances have grown over the past decade.

    There’s also the risk of unrest among Isaaq loyalists if power shifts too much. And allegations of electoral fraud or voter suppression could fuel protests.

    After 2022’s violent postponement due to election disputes, maintaining peace will require transparency, clan reconciliation and careful oversight to prevent renewed conflict.

    Despite these risks, Somaliland is again (better late than never) going to the polls. Regardless of who wins, this is good news for Somaliland and its ongoing push for independence recognition.

    Brendon J. Cannon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Somaliland elections: what’s at stake for independence, stability and shifting power dynamics in the Horn of Africa – https://theconversation.com/somaliland-elections-whats-at-stake-for-independence-stability-and-shifting-power-dynamics-in-the-horn-of-africa-242131

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Michiganders or Michiganians? A linguist explains why the answer is clear

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Robin Queen, Professor of Linguistics, English Language and Literatures and Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan

    Beloved Michigander Aidan Hutchinson is no silly goose. Nic Antaya/Getty Images

    Growing up in the late 1970s, my best friend was from Michigan. Early in our friendship I asked her what someone from Michigan is called. “Michigander,” she replied. I laughed and said, “You mean like a goose?” Her older sister then chimed in that it was being changed to Michiganian. Michigander is sexist, she said, since gander refers only to a male goose.

    I spent the next two decades never questioning, or particularly thinking about, Michiganian.

    Then, I moved to Michigan. In over 20 years living here, I’ve never heard anyone say Michiganian. People from Michigan call themselves Michiganders.

    Even though it may seem rather trivial, there is endless interest in the Michigander-Michiganian question. News articles about this topic pop up fairly regularly, inevitably stating that:

    1. Both terms are recognized.

    2. Abraham Lincoln coined “Michigander” in 1848 to insult Michigan Gov. Lewis Cass, implying he was silly, weak and unserious.

    3. Govs. James Blanchard, John Engler and Jennifer Granholm used “Michiganian,” while Govs. Rick Snyder and Gretchen Whitmer prefer “Michigander.”

    4. The debate about which term is correct is ongoing.

    For the most part, though, the debate seems long over. Many Michiganders haven’t heard of Michiganian, as a recent text thread with my 19-year-old neighbor illustrates:

    ‘It’s just Michigander.’
    Robin Queen, CC BY-SA

    Regardless of whether there is – or ever really has been – a debate, the pas de deux between Michigander and Michiganian has an unusual history and peculiar twists and turns.

    As a linguist who works on issues related to authority in language and linguistic justice, I like to investigate how terms come to be understood as correct, and on whose authority those determinations are made.

    In the case of Michiganian and Michigander, Michiganian appears in style guides, and Michigander is the term most frequently used by people from Michigan.

    Rooted in an insult

    While it’s true that Lincoln called Cass “the great Michigander” as an unambiguous insult, the term Michigander appeared in print as early as 1838.

    Despite not having coined the term, however, Lincoln did likely play a part in its popularization by using it to malign Cass.

    Google’s NGram, which tracks how often terms appear in a large collection of print sources, shows Michigander has been used more frequently in print than Michiganian since around 1845.

    Michigander has outperformed Michiganian in print for over 175 years.
    Google NGram

    No specific law designates the use of one term or the other, but the terms do appear in two Michigan laws.

    The first is in the Older Michiganians Act, which was passed in 1981.

    The second is tied to the Historical Markers Act. The original act, established in 1955, used the term Michigander, but an amendment to it in 2002 changed the term to Michiganian. In 2017, the act was updated and the moniker was changed back to Michigander.

    Interestingly, the federal government, in the form of the U.S. Government Publishing Office’s Style Manual, specifies Michiganian as the correct term. This represents a change from Michiganite, which was the term specified in the Style Manual from 1945 to 2000, likely as a match to terms such as Wisconsinite.

    It’s difficult to know the origins of Michigander prior to 1848, but Lincoln did likely coin the term Michigander as a blend of Michigan and gander, leading to the possibility for goose jokes and humor. While other states have unusual monikers – such as Hoosiers for Indiana – none involves an animal pun like gander.

    The humorous aspect of Michigander is what likely keeps the articles, Reddit threads and friendly banter going.

    In 1947, the American journalist and essayist H.L. Mencken wrote, “The chief objection to Michigander is that it inspires idiots to call a Michigan woman a Michigoose and a child a Michigosling, but the people of the State have got used to this …”

    Funny or sexist?

    Gander humor reigns when it comes to Michigander. But perhaps more importantly, Michigander provides a greater sense of belonging and identity than Michiganian, despite the fact that there are those who find Michiganian has more finesse.

    That sense of identity is evident in the many pairings of Michigander with other charming things that are a part of living in Michigan, such as using your hand to show where in the mitten-shaped state you are from.

    How Michiganders explain where they’re from.
    (WT-en) TVerBeek at English Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA

    Given that gander designates a male goose, Michigander does raise questions about sexism.

    The rise in the use of Michiganian along with the fall of Michigander from the late 1970s to the early 2000s occurred alongside broader recognition of sexism in different realms of social life. It corresponds with a variety of changes to the terms people had been using, such as chairman, waitress and fireman. In 2024, it is unremarkable to refer instead to a chair or chairperson, a server, or a firefighter.

    So, why hang on to Michigander?

    Given that Whitmer is a proud and consistent user of Michigander, the most likely answer is that people from Michigan don’t feel the term is exclusionary. As a colleague of mine, a Michigan-raised feminist activist in her 60s, told me, “Do we not have real issues of sexism in the vernacular? I never heard anyone use any other term growing up.”

    Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has no qualms with Michigander.
    GIPHY News

    Over the past several days, I’ve asked over two dozen people who were born and raised in Michigan what they call someone from Michigan. To a person, they have said Michigander. They range in age from 19-89, have different gender identities and racial affiliations, and have a wide range of professions and political orientations.

    Only one had ever heard anyone referred to as a Michiganian, while a third had never heard the term Michiganian at all.

    My results reflect other poll results about these terms. A clear majority choose Michigander.

    When the people of Michigan say they are Michiganders, it’s odd to insist that they are Michiganians. And even those few, such as The Detroit News, who prefer Michiganian acknowledge that Michigander is more broadly preferred.

    Ultimately the debate rests on whether it’s the people from Michigan or some other entity, such as the Government Publishing Office, that decides which term should be used. If we grant the people of Michigan the right to name themselves, the verdict is clear.

    Robin Queen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Michiganders or Michiganians? A linguist explains why the answer is clear – https://theconversation.com/michiganders-or-michiganians-a-linguist-explains-why-the-answer-is-clear-241664

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why donors should ask local communities what matters to them while deciding what success looks like

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Erin K. McFee, Professor of Practice of Climate Security, National Defense University

    Members of the Leonor Cuadras cooperative sort nursery-grown oysters in La Reforma, Mexico, in December 2023. Jonathan Röders, CC BY-ND

    Have you ever asked a teacher whether something will be on an upcoming test to decide whether to closely pay attention to a particular lesson? Taken the long way back from a lunch break to get enough exercise to meet a goal monitored by a fitness app? Logged on to a virtual meeting to be seen showing up, even as you worked on other tasks?

    It’s human nature to adapt your behavior to meet evaluation criteria – even when meeting those targets comes at the expense of attaining more meaningful goals. Most donors, whether they are governments providing foreign aid, foundations making grants or individual people who give nonprofits money, expect or demand reports on what was accomplished with their funding. And what is measured for that purpose and how it’s measured tend to shape entire programs – often missing the mark on what truly matters to the communities involved.

    While spending years conducting fieldwork everywhere from Colombia to the Kenya-Uganda border as a political anthropologist and a political scientist, we’ve witnessed firsthand the absurdities of the bureaucratic hoops people must jump through to access vital aid. We’ve watched both genuine efforts to abide by the guidelines donors set and the cynical exploitation of them. We have also spent years engaged in international development efforts, both with and through nonprofits that sought to resolve some of the world’s most intractable problems.

    There’s a glaring and crucial question we’ve rarely heard asked when projects are being designed: What does success look like to the people meant to benefit from development funding?

    Promoting environmental sustainability

    We conducted an exploratory field study in La Reforma, a small coastal town located in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

    We focused on the Leonor Cuadras Oyster Aquaculture Cooperative, a locally led initiative supported by the seafood company Marine Edén and SUCEDE, a Mexican nongovernmental organization that’s dedicated to promoting individual, social and environmental well-being in La Reforma and other nearby communities.

    This particular project sought to create jobs for women in La Reforma, while promoting environmental sustainability through oyster farming. The cooperative’s objectives included empowering women, fostering collective work and contributing to local environmental restoration by improving water quality through oyster filtration. Traditional metrics for projects like this would tally labor hours, harvest size and jobs created – all important but incomplete insights into the whole story.

    Our study was unusual because it was designed as an exploratory effort to help shape future metrics in a participatory manner. We sought to understand the cooperative’s internal dynamics and challenges so we could create metrics that reflected what the cooperative members wanted and needed.

    After several weeks of fieldwork, multiple focus group discussions and eight interviews with people involved in the cooperative in the last quarter of 2023, we found that success is not solely defined by the number of oysters they produce or the dollar signs next to their names in a report submitted to donors.

    In their view, success is framed around dignity, gender equity and the well-being of their families and the environment. We also learned that their work together had increased a sense of collective commitment to the project and each other.

    Measuring success in terms that make sense to locals

    Most donors love numbers. They want to know how many people attended an event, how much money was spent, how many widgets were produced. But while such outcomes are easily measurable, they are not always meaningful.

    In La Reforma, the women who belong to the Leonor Cuadras cooperative told us that they define success differently. Their primary goal isn’t just to grow oysters. They see their co-op as a tool for social transformation, not just a source of income.

    One woman we’ll call Aurelia to protect her anonymity proudly shared that working with the cooperative has proved that “we can do things on par with men.”

    Julia, another cooperative member, put it this way: “We are not just working for ourselves – we are working for the future of our families and our community.”

    This version of success includes improving their family’s prospects and safeguarding their marine environment for future generations. As the oysters they grow naturally filter and clean the bay’s waters, so too does their collaborative work improve the social fabric of this violence-affected community in ways that won’t show up on a balance sheet.

    Finding participatory approaches

    When donors impose their own frameworks and set their own goals for the projects they fund, they usually miss what truly defines success for local communities. In La Reforma, the women are acquiring technical skills related to oyster farming, but they seem to see more value in the empowerment that comes with leading a project that reflects their realities and needs.

    If the cooperative’s donors had chosen to focus on traditional production metrics, such as the number of participants, the scale of the harvest and the hours of labor involved, they would have surely overlooked the deeper social shifts, such as women’s leadership in a male-dominated profession or a greater commitment to collective well-being.

    What if, instead of dictating outcomes from the start, donors worked collaboratively with communities to define success? The cooperative’s members want independence. They hope that someday they will run their own oyster farms or support other aquaculture initiatives. These are aspirations that don’t fit into traditional donor checkboxes. But that kind of approach is critical for the project’s sustainability.

    Some donors and development agencies are beginning to integrate this approach. For example, the International Organization for Migration consults with community members when writing performance reviews. Some donors have embraced an approach called trust-based philanthropy, which largely removes reporting burdens altogether. They focus instead on collaborative relationships with their grantees.

    What is measured matters. It can shape the goals and the limits of projects long before a single dollar is spent.

    Setting goals that are more relevant to local conditions requires a radical shift in how development projects are designed and evaluated. Rather than imposing predetermined outcomes, we believe that it is crucial to ask of the communities and individuals on the ground: What does success look like to you?

    Erin McFee is the founder and president of the Corioli Institute, which conducted this study. The research for this article was funded by the UK Research and Innovation Future Leader Fellows Program. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect official policies or positions of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U. S. government.

    Jonathan Röders is Director of Projects & Programs at the Corioli Institute, which conducted this study. His contribution to this research was funded by UK Research and Innovation.

    – ref. Why donors should ask local communities what matters to them while deciding what success looks like – https://theconversation.com/why-donors-should-ask-local-communities-what-matters-to-them-while-deciding-what-success-looks-like-241196

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: US math teachers view student performance differently based on race and gender

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Yasemin Copur-Gencturk, Associate Professor of Education, University of Southern California

    Teachers hold different views on why girls are good at math than they do for boys. Maskot via Getty Images

    Teachers report thinking that if girls do better in math than boys, it is probably because of their innate ability and effort. But they also report that when boys do well in math, it is more likely due to parental support and society’s higher expectations for their success.

    That’s what we discovered from 400 elementary and middle school math teachers we surveyed across the country for our new study. The purpose of the study was to learn more about how teachers explain students’ success and failure in math.

    We found that the variation in views among educators is not limited to the gender of students. Teachers also hold contrasting views about math performance when it comes to students’ race and ethnicity, our study found.

    More specifically, we found that when Black and Hispanic students outperform Asian and white students, teachers are more likely to think it’s because of effort and differences in their cognitive abilities. In contrast, when Asian and white students outperform others, teachers attribute it to the support and expectations of others, such as from parents and society as well as cultural differences that value math learning.

    To reach these conclusions, we conducted an experiment. In the experiment, teachers were first asked to help us by reviewing student responses to items on a math test we were developing. After they rated the student responses, we randomly assigned teachers to conditions telling them that one group – either boys or girls, Black and Hispanic or Asian and white – performed better on this test. Then, we asked the teachers to rate their agreement with a set of potential explanations for the disparity. These potential explanations included statements such as, “Boys often pay more attention and follow directions in class compared with girls.”

    After teachers had rated their agreement with these explanations, we asked them about their personal beliefs and experiences with gender and racial discrimination in math classrooms. We analyzed how these beliefs related to their explanations of performance differences.

    We found that teachers were more likely to attribute the success of girls and Black and Hispanic students to internal factors, such as ability and effort, whereas they were more likely to attribute boys’ and Asian and white students’ success to external factors, such as parental involvement and cultural differences.

    We also observed that teachers who reported personally experiencing racial discrimination in math classrooms when they were students were more likely to agree that ability was responsible for Black and Hispanic students’ higher performance.

    Why it matters

    How teachers explain student performance can affect their expectations of students. It can also affect how they teach and how they emotionally respond to student needs.

    For example, research has shown that when teachers attribute students’ failure to a lack of effort, they tend to maintain higher expectations of students and encourage them to expend more effort next time. When they attribute student failure to a lack of ability, however, evidence shows that teachers are more likely to lower their expectations and express more pity. Lowered expectations and feelings of pity can be internalized by students. This can in turn lead them to assume that they have low ability and expect to fail more often in the future.

    Findings from our study show that teachers tend to explain students’ failures and successes differently based on which social group performed better than another. Sometimes, these attributions were consistent with stereotypes, such as attributing the higher performance of white and Asian students to their parents and culture.

    What still isn’t known

    Our research, along with that of others, shows that implicit biases exist in math classrooms. These biases influence how teachers view students’ abilities and explain their performance. However, most existing anti-bias training interventions are not very effective.

    Researchers need to develop new types of training to combat these biases in math classrooms, which could help improve teaching and reduce cognitive and emotional burdens that students experience.

    Yasemin Copur-Gencturk receives funding from the NSF, IES, and Herman & Raseij Math Initiative.

    Ian Thacker receives funding from the Spencer Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

    Joseph Cimpian receives funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation.

    – ref. US math teachers view student performance differently based on race and gender – https://theconversation.com/us-math-teachers-view-student-performance-differently-based-on-race-and-gender-241418

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why do we use gasoline for small vehicles and diesel fuel for big vehicles?

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Michael Leamy, Woodruff Endowed Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

    Green pump for diesel, blue for gas – but what’s the difference? Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

    Why do we use gasoline for small vehicles and diesel fuel for big vehicles? – Methdini, age 15, Sri Lanka

    Gasoline fuels most light-duty vehicles, such as passenger cars and pickup trucks. Heavy-duty vehicles, like buses, delivery trucks and long-haul tractor-trailers, typically run on diesel.

    Both fuel types are needed because gasoline and diesel engines have different strengths. As my automotive engineering students learn, this makes them suitable for different uses.

    Let’s start with what they have in common. Gas and diesel engines both work through a process called internal combustion.

    • First, they mix fuel with air because the fuel needs oxygen from the air to burn.

    • Next, they compress the fuel-air mixture, which makes the mixture hot enough to burn.

    • Then the engine burns the mix of fuel and air, releasing heat. This creates high pressure, which moves internal parts that make the car move.

    • Finally, the car releases spent combustion gases to the atmosphere through its tailpipe. These gases contain pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and unburned fuel, that are harmful to human health, as well as carbon dioxide, which warms Earth’s atmosphere.

    How a gas-powered internal combustion engine converts chemical energy in gasoline into kinetic energy that makes the car move.

    Different engines for different jobs

    Gasoline and diesel fuel are both made from crude oil, a fossil-based energy source. But they have different chemical properties that require different types of engines.

    In a gas engine, a small device called a spark plug ignites the compressed fuel-air mixture. It uses hundreds of thousands of volts to create an electrical arc that can start the burn, much like striking a flint rock against another stone.

    Diesel fuel is harder to ignite and slower to burn than gasoline. But if it is compressed enough, it will ignite without a spark. And this higher compression results in higher efficiency, so vehicles powered with diesel get more miles per gallon. That’s important for transporting goods and people as economically as possible – one reason why most buses, trains and large trucks run on diesel.

    Diesel engines tend to be more expensive than gas engines, since they need sturdier parts to withstand the higher temperatures and pressures they produce. But they also last longer than gasoline engines. This is a plus for vehicles such as long-haul trucks that need to go many hundreds of thousands of miles between engine overhauls.

    So why do passenger cars use gas? One reason is that diesel engines’ higher compression and temperature make them noisier, especially at higher frequencies that humans find annoying. Diesel engines also produce higher levels of fine particle pollution, known as PM 2.5, that has been linked to many human health risks.

    These trade-offs typically lead consumers to prefer cheaper, quieter gasoline engines in cars they drive for work and pleasure. Efficient, long-lasting diesel engines are more attractive to companies hauling goods and transporting large numbers of people.

    Beyond internal combustion engines

    In the future, transportation may not use gas or diesel at all. Some cars and light trucks – models known as hybrids – already use gas or diesel together with batteries and electric motors, or run entirely on electricity. And cities across the U.S. are investing in electric school buses, which are lower-polluting and cheaper to maintain than diesel buses.

    Hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles promise to result in far fewer emissions of toxic gases and carbon dioxide – especially if they are recharged with electricity produced from renewable sources like wind and solar power. These vehicles will be quieter than gasoline and diesel models and also cheaper to maintain, since they have fewer moving parts. Gasoline and diesel vehicles will remain in use for years to come, but they no longer represent the forefront of transportation innovation.

    Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

    And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

    Michael Leamy receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, General Motors, and other government agencies and corporations.

    – ref. Why do we use gasoline for small vehicles and diesel fuel for big vehicles? – https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-use-gasoline-for-small-vehicles-and-diesel-fuel-for-big-vehicles-235084

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s anti-Haitian rhetoric reflects America’s long-standing racism against Haiti and its people

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Thurka Sangaramoorthy, Professor of Anthropology, American University

    Pastor Dieufort Fleurissaint denounces the hateful rhetoric aimed at Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, during a Sept. 24, 2024, rally in Boston. Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe/Getty Images)

    Since 2021, about 15,000 Haitians have found new lives in Springfield, Ohio, after fleeing the violence of Haiti, their native country.

    But a wave of baseless rumors and hate, amplified by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, has shattered that sense of safety. Many of the city’s Haitian immigrants are left questioning whether their vision of an American dream is still possible.

    Frightened and worried, many Haitians say they are fearful of going outside and staying in Springfield.

    The morning after the presidential debate, a Haitian woman who had moved to Springfield six years ago told a newspaper reporter that “they’re attacking us in every way.”

    In addition to the anxiety, the woman, who asked not to be identified, said that her car windows had been broken in the middle of the night. “I’m going to have to move because this area is no longer good for me,” the woman said. “I can’t even leave my house to go to Walmart. I’m anxious and scared.”

    Trump’s inflammatory statements, which have included wrongful allegations of Haitians eating pets, are part of a broader historical pattern of racism and anti-Black xenophobia in the U.S. aimed at Haitians. Days after the debate, Trump further explained how he would start his mass deportation program in Springfield. “Illegal Haitian migrants have descended upon a town of 58,000 people, destroying their way of life,” Trump said.

    The comments have not only stoked existing racial tensions but have also sparked racist discourse and violent threats against Haitians across the country.

    As a scholar of migration who has studied Haitian immigrants in the U.S. for over 25 years, I have seen how Haitians, as Black immigrants, are doubly marginalized, by not only the structural racism embedded in U.S. immigration policies but also the broader societal racism experienced by Black Americans.

    In my view, Trump’s baseless allegations reflect America’s deeply rooted history of systemic racism against Haiti and its people.

    A flawed history

    The roots of anti-Haitian racism in the U.S. can be traced to the Haitian Revolution in 1804 in which Black Haitians who were enslaved rose up and overthrew the French colonial government.

    Haiti became the first independent Black republic in the world, and the country’s independence terrified many in the U.S., especially white slaveholders. They feared the revolution might inspire slave revolts at home.

    Illustration depicting the Haitian Revolution led by Toussaint Louverture.
    Bettmann/Getty Images

    For much of the 19th century, the U.S. refused to recognize Haiti as a legitimate nation. It wasn’t until 1862, during the Civil War, that the U.S. finally established diplomatic relations with the country.

    But the U.S. continued to exploit Haiti for its own economic and military interests, occupying the country with the military from 1915 to 1934. During this period, the U.S. controlled Haiti’s government and finances, installed a pro-American president and helped establish a brutal military force.

    The occupation worsened racial and economic inequality in Haiti and further destabilized the nation.

    This history of exploitation and interference has had long-lasting effects on Haiti’s ability to develop economically and politically, a situation exacerbated by continued U.S. intervention throughout the Cold War era.

    During the nearly 30-year dictatorships of François “Papa Doc” and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier between 1957 and 1986, for example, the U.S. government provided approximately US$900 million in financial support to these repressive regimes, despite their notorious human-rights abuses.

    Anti-Black immigration policies

    All the history of U.S. involvement in Haiti set the stage for the mass migration of Haitians to the U.S. since the early 1960s.

    Over the years, about 200,000 Haitians have sought to escape violence and poverty to the U.S.

    Those with resources, such as the Haitian elite and middle class, migrated legally, settling in New York and Miami. Many of them organized ways to send aid to Haiti and brought attention to human-rights abuses being committed by the Duvalier regimes.

    Poor Haitians soon followed, arriving by crude boats.

    In September 1963, the first boatload of Haitian refugees landed in Miami. But instead of finding freedom, all 23 Haitians were denied asylum and sent back to Haiti by the U.S. immigration authorities.

    Since then, Haitians arriving by boat have faced arrest, detention, asylum denials and deportation as successive U.S. governments refused to recognize the political repression in Haiti. Instead, Haitians were labeled economic migrants who sought a better standard of living and, as such, were not eligible for asylum.

    From 1981 to 1991, for instance, 433 boats carrying approximately 25,580 Haitians were intercepted by U.S. immigration authorities. Only 28 people were allowed to pursue refugee claims.

    The Haitian experience in the US

    Often portrayed by white policymakers as disease carriers and criminals, Haitian immigrants have long suffered discrimination and dehumanization in the U.S.

    In the 1980s, during the HIV crisis, U.S. health officials wrongly labeled Haitians as high-risk carriers of the virus, reinforcing harmful racial and ethnic stereotypes.

    Despite a lack of scientific evidence, Haitians were stigmatized as a group, leading to economic and social exclusion within the U.S. Many Haitians lost jobs, housing and faced threats of violence simply because of their nationality and ethnicity.

    My research has shown this portrayal of Haitians as dangerous and undesirable persists today, as reflected in Trump’s and Vance’s recent claims. The narrative of immigrants eating pets and spreading diseases is a recycled trope in American history, used by white conservative politicians to stoke fears about foreigners to reinforce white supremacy.

    Historically, these kinds of claims have been used to justify exclusionary immigration policies and racial violence against nonwhite populations.

    A group of Haitian Americans in Springfield, Ohio, listen to area residents denounce the town’s growing Haitian population during a public meeting on Sept. 24, 2024.
    Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images /Getty Images

    The accusations against Haitians in Springfield have not only triggered immediate threats of violence but have also reinforced deep-seated, anti-Black xenophobia that continues to plague U.S. society.

    In recent years, hate speech and attacks against Black immigrants, including Haitians, have been on the rise. Black immigrants, regardless of their legal status, face higher rates of deportation and are more likely to be targeted than white immigrants by law enforcement.

    Addressing anti-Haitian racism

    The allegations made by Trump and Vance represent a dangerous escalation of rhetoric that has real-life consequences for Haitians in the U.S.

    The demonization of Haitians in Springfield is not just a political ploy – it is part of a broader strategy to uphold systems of exclusion that have historically been used to marginalize Black people, both immigrants and citizens.

    Thurka Sangaramoorthy receives funding from the National Institutes of Health.

    – ref. Trump’s anti-Haitian rhetoric reflects America’s long-standing racism against Haiti and its people – https://theconversation.com/trumps-anti-haitian-rhetoric-reflects-americas-long-standing-racism-against-haiti-and-its-people-240975

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: LGBTQ+ voters in these 4 states could swing the 2024 presidential election

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Dorian Rhea Debussy, Lecturer of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, The Ohio State University

    LGBTQ+ voters lean heavily Democratic, and they tend to turn out in high numbers. Dani VG via Getty Images

    Victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election may come down to LGBTQ+ voters.

    Polling data shows that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are running in a near-dead heat in four states – Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. And as a scholar of LGBTQ+ politics, I suspect that LGBTQ+ voters could play an outsize role in these states and the race.

    So, how might LGBTQ+ voters swing these states?

    LGBTQ+ voting behavior, explained

    In the most comprehensive political survey of LGBTQ+ Americans ever conducted, the Pew Research Center found in 2013 that the vast majority of respondents – 85% – “always” or “nearly always” voted, compared with roughly a third of the general population. Turnout in the most recent presidential election validated that finding. A 2020 post-election survey by the advocacy group GLAAD found that 81% of LGBTQ+ voters cast a ballot.

    For context, 64% of all eligible voters cast a ballot in the 2020 presidential election, which was unusually high voter participation. Historically, turnout hovers around 55% for presidential elections and 35% for midterm elections.

    An LGBTQ+ delegate at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
    Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images

    The National Center for Transgender Equality, an advocacy organization, finds that voter turnout is particularly high among transgender people.

    Even in the historically low-turnout 2014 midterm election, the group’s data indicated that roughly half of transgender respondents had voted, compared with only one-third of the general population. In the 2022 midterm election, transgender voter turnout increased to nearly 75%, according to the 2024 U.S. Trans Survey.

    LGBTQ+ voters and partisanship

    LGBTQ+ voters strongly lean Democratic. Pew’s 2013 survey found that nearly 60% of all LGBTQ+ respondents were Democrats, and less than 10% were Republicans. Transgender voters are even more partisan, and nearly 80% identified as Democratic or Democratic-leaning in the 2015 U.S. Trans Survey.

    Exit poll data from the 2016 presidential election supports this conclusion. Nearly 80% of LGBTQ+ voters told researchers outside polling stations that they’d cast their ballot for Hillary Clinton. Just 14% reported that they’d backed Trump.

    Initial exit poll data from the 2020 presidential election indicated that Trump had doubled his share of LGBTQ+ voters to 28%. Later analyses contradicted that finding, however, showing that LGBTQ+ voters were actually essential to Joe Biden’s victory.

    The surprising miscalculation was likely due to COVID-19-related polling errors. Exit poll data from the 2022 midterm election put LGBTQ+ support for Republican congressional candidates back at 14%.

    LGBTQ+ voters in ‘tipping-point’ states

    Taken together, past polling data indicates that the LGBTQ+ community will likely back Harris over Trump by strong margins in four of the most likely “tipping-point” states – that is, the swing states with enough electoral votes to tip the entire election for one candidate.

    Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania all have populations of LGBTQ+ adults that are significantly larger than the margin of victory by which the winning candidate took the state in 2020.

    For instance, Biden won Georgia and its 15 electoral votes by 11,779 votes in 2020, and there are over 400,000 LGBTQ+ adults in the state. Trump’s apparent current lead in Georgia is within the margin of error, and even a slight increase in Democratic-leaning LGBTQ+ voters, compared with 2020, could hand Harris the state.

    Georgia now has 16 electoral votes following a population increase.

    The gap between the two candidates in all four tipping-point states is similarly narrow – 2% or less. That’s well within state polls’ margin of error. Together, these states have a combined 66 electoral votes. That’s nearly double Biden’s Electoral College margin of victory in 2020 and Trump’s margin in 2016.

    If higher turnout among LGBTQ+ voters in these four likely tipping-point states could deliver the 2024 race for Harris, then lower LGBTQ+ turnout could pave Trump’s path to victory.

    Trump is well within striking distance in the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania and Michigan, where polling puts him in a statistical dead heat with Harris. With those slim margins that are well within the margin of error, even a moderate decrease in turnout among the states’ many thousands of LGBTQ+ voters could cause serious problems for Harris.

    For context, Biden won Pennsylvania and Michigan by 80,555 and 154,188 votes, respectively, in 2020.

    Possible X factors

    Of course, the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections are not carbon copies of each other.

    The LGBTQ+ electorate grows each year, and by 2030 1 in 7 voters are expected to identify as LGBTQ+.

    Republicans have also ramped up legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ rights since 2020, and GOP campaign ads with anti-transgender messages dominate this election cycle. Both of these factors will play a role in 2024, as will a shake-up in the North Carolina governor’s race.

    In September, CNN reported that the Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson, had posted controversial comments on a pornographic website between 2008 and 2012. In addition to referring to himself as a “black Nazi,” Robinson said that he enjoyed watching transgender pornography.

    For a candidate whose anti-trans rhetoric includes saying transgender women should be arrested for using women’s restrooms, this was shocking news. Robinson has denied the allegation, which has severely damaged his campaign. Two weeks ahead of the election, polling gave Robinson’s Democratic opponent, Josh Stein, a clear lead over Robinson.

    Robinson’s troubled past and embattled campaign could mobilize multiple pockets of progressive North Carolinians, including LGBTQ+ voters, against him. Boosted turnout would almost certainly eat into Trump’s vote share in North Carolina – a state he won by 1.3% in 2020.

    What to expect on election night

    Historical trends, demographic data and current affairs all point toward LGBTQ+ voters playing an important – and potentially decisive – role in tipping swing states to Harris.

    Yet, there are also signs that Harris may underperform with LGBTQ+ voters.

    A September 2024 survey by the Human Rights Campaign, a LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, reported that about 20% of LGBTQ+ respondents were undecided, planning to stay home or backing a third party. Less than 8% of LGBTQ+ respondents were leaning toward Trump, but disaffected LGBTQ+ Democrats could cause problems for Harris.

    Ultimately, there’s no way to know what LGBTQ+ voters will actually do at the ballot box. This race is in flux, and plenty can happen before election day. Other voting blocs have grown or changed since 2024, too.

    The answers will come on election night or – in a race with such narrow margins of victory – in the days and weeks of counting and recounting to follow.

    Dorian Rhea Debussy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. LGBTQ+ voters in these 4 states could swing the 2024 presidential election – https://theconversation.com/lgbtq-voters-in-these-4-states-could-swing-the-2024-presidential-election-239656

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Vampire bats – look beyond the fangs and blood to see animal friendships and unique adaptations

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sebastian Stockmaier, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee

    Vampire bats have complex social relationships. Samuel Betkowski/Moment via Getty Images

    You can probably picture a vampire: Pale, sharply fanged undead sucker of blood, deterred only by sunlight, religious paraphernalia and garlic. They’re gnarly creatures, often favorite subjects for movies or books. Luckily, they’re only imaginary … or are they?

    There are real vampires in the world of bats. Out of over 1,400 currently described bat species, three are known to feed on blood exclusively.

    The common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, is the most abundant. At home in the tropical forests of Central and South America, these bats feed on various animals, including tapirs, mountain lions, penguins and, most often nowadays, livestock.

    A vampire bat enjoys a blood meal at the expense of a domestic goat.
    Nicolas Reusens/Moment via Getty Images

    Feeding on a blood diet is unusual for a mammal and has led to many unique adaptations that facilitate their uncommon lifestyle. Unlike other bats, vampires are mobile on the ground, toggling between two distinct gaits to circle their sleeping prey. Heat-sensing receptors on their noses help them find warm blood under their prey’s skin. Finally, the combination of a small incision, made by potentially self-sharpening fangs, and an anticoagulant in their saliva allows these bats to feed on unsuspecting prey.

    To me, as a behavioral ecologist, who is interested in how pathogens affect social behaviors and vice versa, the most fascinating adaptations to a blood-feeding lifestyle are observable in vampire bats’ social lives.

    Vampire bats build reciprocal relationships

    Blood is not very nutritious, and vampire bats that fail to feed will starve relatively quickly. If a bat returns to the roost hungry, others may regurgitate a blood meal to get them through the night.

    Vampire bats will share their blood meal with a hungry friend.
    Gerry Carter

    Such food sharing happens between bats who are related – such as mothers and their offspring – but also unrelated individuals. This observation has puzzled evolutionary biologists for quite a while. Why help someone who is not closely related to you?

    It turns out that vampire bats keep track of who feeds them and reciprocate – or not, if the other bat has not been helpful in the past. In doing so, they form complex social relationships maintained by low-cost social investments, such as cleaning and maintaining the fur of another animal, called allogrooming, and higher-cost social investments, such as sharing food.

    These relationships are on par with what you would see in primates, and some people compare them to human friendships. Indeed, there are some parallels.

    For instance, humans will raise the stakes when forming new relationships with others. You start with social investments that don’t cost much – think sharing some of your lunch – and wait for the other person’s response. If they don’t reciprocate, the relationship may be doomed. But if the other person does reciprocate by sharing a bit of their dessert, for instance, your next investment might be larger. You gradually increase the stakes in a game of back-and-forth until the friendship eventually warrants larger social investments like going out of your way to give them a ride to work when their car breaks down.

    Vampire bats do the same. When strangers are introduced, they will start with small fur-cleaning interactions to test the waters. If both partners keep reciprocating and raising the stakes, the relationship will eventually escalate to food sharing, which is a bigger commitment.

    Relationships, in sickness and in health

    My lab studies how infections affect social behaviors and relationships. Given their vast array of social behaviors and the complexity of their social relationships, vampire bats are the ideal study system for me and my colleagues.

    How does being ill affect how vampire bats behave? How do other bats behave toward one that is sick? How does sickness affect the formation and maintenance of their social relationships?

    We simulate infections in bats in our lab by using molecules derived from pathogens to stimulate an immune response. We’ve repeatedly found a form of passive social distancing where sick individuals reduce their interaction with others, whether it’s allogrooming, social calling or just spending time near others.

    Researchers attach proximity sensors to bats. The sensors communicate with each other and exchange information about meeting time, duration and signal strength, which is a proxy for distance between two bats.
    Sherri and Brock Fenton

    Importantly, these behavioral changes haven’t necessarily evolved to minimize spreading disease to others. Rather, they are parts of the complex immune response that biologists call sickness behaviors. It’s comparable to someone infected with the flu staying at home simply because they don’t feel up to venturing out. Even if such passive social distancing may have not evolved to prevent transmission to others, simply being too sick to interact with others will still reduce the spread of germs.

    Interestingly, sickness behaviors can be suppressed. People do this all the time. So-called presenteeism is showing up at work despite illness due to various pressures. Similarly, many people have suppressed symptoms of an infection to engage in some sort of social obligation. If you have little kids, you know that when everyone in your household is coming down with something, there’s no way you can just sit back and not take care of the little ones, even if you feel quite bad yourself.

    Animals are no different. They can suppress sickness behaviors when competing needs arise, such as caring for young or defending territory. Despite their tendency to reduce social interactions with others when sick, in vampire bats, sick mothers will continue to groom their offspring and vice versa, probably because mother-daughter relationships are extra important. Mothers and daughters are often each other’s primary social relationships within groups of vampire bats.

    Despite vampire bats’ elaborate social relationships, farmers often consider them pests.
    Sherri and Brock Fenton

    Human-bat conflict centers on livestock

    Despite their many fascinating adaptations and complex social lives, vampire bats are not universally admired. In fact, in many areas in South and Central America, they are considered pests because they can transmit the deadly rabies virus to livestock, which can cause quite significant economic losses.

    Before people introduced livestock into their habitat, vampire bats probably had a harder time finding food in the form of native prey species such as tapirs. Now, livestock has become their primary food source. After all, why not feed on something that is reliably at the same place every night and quite abundant? Increases in livestock abundance come with increases in vampire bat populations, probably perpetuating the problem of rabies transmission.

    The farmers’ quarrels with vampires make sense, especially in smaller cattle herds, where losing even one cow can significantly hurt a farmer’s livelihood. Culling campaigns have used topically applied poisons called vampiricide, basically a mix of petroleum jelly and rat poison. Bats are caught, the paste is applied to the fur, and they carry it back to the roost, where others ingest the poison during social interactions. Interestingly, large-scale culling may not be very effective in reducing rabies spillover.

    Vampire bat colonies live in places like hollow trees.
    May Dixon

    Now, the focus has started to shift toward large-scale cattle vaccinations or vaccinating the vampire bats themselves. Researchers are even considering transmissible vaccines: They could genetically modify herpes viruses, which are quite common in vampire bats, to carry rabies genes and vaccinate large swaths of vampire bat populations.

    Whichever method is used to mitigate vampire bat-human conflicts, more empathy for these misunderstood animals could only help. After all, if you stick your head into a hollow tree full of vampire bats – assuming you can brave the smell of digested blood – remember: You’re looking at a complex network of individual friendships between animals that care deeply for each other.

    Some of the cited work in the article is from long-term collaborators (such as Dr. Gerald Carter at Princeton University) with whom I frequently interact and work together.

    – ref. Vampire bats – look beyond the fangs and blood to see animal friendships and unique adaptations – https://theconversation.com/vampire-bats-look-beyond-the-fangs-and-blood-to-see-animal-friendships-and-unique-adaptations-239980

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What you need to know about clonazepam, the drug found in Liam Payne’s hotel room

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Michael Cole, Professor of Forensic Science, Anglia Ruskin University

    Early toxicology reports suggest that former One Direction singer Liam Payne had several drugs in his system when he fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina. These include pink cocaine (which comprises several drugs), cocaine, benzodiazepine and crack.

    While the type of benzodiazepine wasn’t mentioned in the toxicology report, it is known that the police found a blister pack of clonazepam in the singer’s hotel room.

    Although there has been a general fall in the use of benzodiazepines, clonazepam has bucked that trend. The reason for this is unclear, but it could be the drug’s potency. It is not without reason that on the street it is sometimes referred to as “super Valium”.

    Clonazepam was first approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1975. It is used to treat a range of conditions, including epileptic seizures, muscle spasms, anxiety and panic disorders. Doses range from 0.5mg to 2mg in tablet or liquid forms. (By comparison, a teaspoon of sugar weighs about 5,000mg.) It is also 20 times more potent than diazepam (Valium), with 0.5mg of clonazepam being equivalent to 10mg diazepam.

    The onset time for clonazepam – that is, the time to have an effect – is an hour or more. Xanax, also a benzodiazepine, starts to act within ten minutes, while Valium takes between 15 and 60 minutes.

    Although slower to start acting, the effects of clonazepam are longer lasting than many benzodiazepines. For example, the half-life (the time taken for the body to reduce the amount of drug in the body by 50%) of Xanax is six to 25 hours, of Valium 48 hours and clonazepam up to 54 hours.

    In recreational use, tablets are powdered and then snorted. The drug enters the bloodstream through the membranes in the nose. Taken this way the drug is faster to act and more is available in the bloodstream to have an effect.

    The drug is thought to work by enhancing the activity of a brain chemical (neurotransmitter) called Gaba. It dampens brain activity by blocking the signals between neurons. Boosting Gaba is known to reduce anxiety, promote relaxation and help with sleep.

    Steady rise

    Recently there has been a rise in the use and misuse of clonazepam in the UK. Prescriptions for the drug increased by 12% in 2023. The UK Rehab website states: “The rise in clonazepam addiction reflects a larger trend in the misuse of prescription medications, a public health crisis that has escalated into epidemic proportions in some regions.”

    Google searches for clonazepam have increased, with a particular interest in the drug in parts of the US. There are also reports of new polydrug mixtures containing clonazepam, such as karkoubi, which has been reported in Algeria and Morocco, mixing clonazepam with cannabis and tobacco.

    Taking clonazepam is not without dangers. Even under medical supervision, people can develop tolerance to it and become dependent.

    Doctors tend to prescribe low doses and then gradually increase the dose until the desired therapeutic effect is achieved. However, if the drug is taken over long periods (four weeks is often cited) people can become dependent. Withdrawal symptoms – such as tremors, sweating and nausea – are then experienced when the patient stops taking the drug.

    Clonazepam also causes side-effects that can include trouble speaking, feeling sleepy, a slower heartbeat and excitability. Although rarer, some people hallucinate.

    When mixed with other drugs or alcohol, the problems are compounded. For example, mixing with opiates and opioids (for example, codeine, methadone, morphine, oxycodone and tramadol) or alcohol can lead to sedation, slower breathing and heart rate, coma and even death.

    Taking drugs in combination is known to be extremely dangerous. More than 93% of drug deaths in Scotland in 2021 involved more than one drug.

    With these potential dangers, clonazepam is tightly controlled internationally. In the UK, it is a class C drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Other class C drugs include GHB, tramadol, cathinone and anabolic steroids.

    But tough laws alone will not stop drugs from being misused. So when people choose to take drugs, including clonazepam, it is important that they understand what the drug might do and what the risks might be.

    Michael Cole receives funding and “in kind” support from the European Union and a number police forces and forensic science organisations around the world to carry out research.

    – ref. What you need to know about clonazepam, the drug found in Liam Payne’s hotel room – https://theconversation.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-clonazepam-the-drug-found-in-liam-paynes-hotel-room-241853

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Kamala Harris is being called ‘Jezebel’ – a Biblical expert explains why it’s a menacing slur

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By M.J.C. Warren, Senior Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies, University of Sheffield

    lev radin/Shutterstock

    Jezebel has long been used as a slur against women who are considered too self-confident, too independent or too close to power – particularly when they happen to be Black. From Beyonce to Nikki Minaj, US vice-president and Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris is only the latest in a long line of women of colour to be on the receiving end of the slur.

    But beneath the use of Jezebel’s name as a way to paint powerful women as promiscuous lies something even more sinister: the threat of sexual violence for those who will not submit to white patriarchal control.

    An increasing number of Christian nationalist personalities have taken to claiming that the vice-president is a Jezebel spirit. Notably, televangelist Lance Wallnau appears in multiple videos on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that: “with Kamala you have a Jezebel spirit, a characteristic in the Bible, that is a Jezebel spirit. The personification of intimidation, seduction, domination and manipulation”.

    Nor is Wallnau shy about connecting his use of Jezebel to Harris’s race: according to his video, the fact that Harris is Black makes her even more of a seductive Jezebel than Hillary Clinton: “the spirit of Jezebel in a way that will be even more ominous than Hillary [Clinton] because she’ll bring a racial component, and she’s younger”.

    Jezebels old and new

    Different versions of Jezebel are found in the Old and New Testaments, but both are associated with power, independence and sexuality. In 1 Kings, Jezebel is a queen from Sidon (present-day Lebanon). She ruled along with her husband Ahab and refuses to worship the biblical God; she continued her traditional worship of Ba’al.

    Her authority in her marriage and in politics attracted the prophet Elijah’s negative attention. Elijah utters a prophecy that: “The dogs shall eat Jezebel” (1 Kings 21:23), and indeed, 2 Kings 9:32-37 says that the prophecy is fulfilled.

    Knowing her life is in danger, Jezebel puts on her make up and does her hair to prepare to meet her enemy.

    As religious studies academic Jennifer L. Koosed writes, while her self-beautification is used to sexualise Jezebel, “these acts are those of a proud and powerful queen” who boldly meets the man who is about to have her thrown from a window. Jezebel’s bloodied body is trampled by horses and her corpse utterly destroyed.

    Her violent death and the desecration of her body, which is consumed by dogs, dehumanises Jezebel. The Bible presents this as apt punishment for a woman who was so bold as to defy her husband’s traditions and maintain her independence.

    When we meet another Jezebel in the New Testament, the process begins again. In Revelation 2, Jezebel is a prophet, a rival of John the Seer, who travels to different early Christian communities and teaches them. John, the author of the Book of Revelation, imagines Jesus writing to the community who allow themselves to be taught by her. In that letter, the voice of Jesus declares that the punishment for this woman, who dares to be a leader, is rape. John uses vitriolic language to paint Jezebel as sexually immoral, but his complaint is with her authority.

    Long and damaging history

    The Bible frequently paints female characters as unacceptably sexual, or threatens them with sexual violence, in order to maintain its patriarchal hierarchy.

    Definition of the word Jezebel in a religious dictionary.
    Shutterstock

    For example, as biblical scholars such as Renita J. Weems have pointed out, Hosea 1-3 uses the metaphor of God as (abusive) husband and the people of Israel as their (abused) adulterous wife in order to convince the Israelites to worship God again.

    The infamous figure of the “Whore of Babylon” in Revelation 17-18 echoes that divine threat: her control over the kings of the world, her opulence and her sexuality all make her God’s enemy – and her punishment is sexual humiliation and violence.

    Kamala Harris has been labelled Jezebel since at least as early as 2021 when pastor Steve Swofford as “Jezebel Harris” and pastor Tom Buck tweeted: “I can’t imagine any truly God-fearing Israelite who would’ve wanted their daughters to view Jezebel as an inspirational role model because she was a woman in power.”

    Buck doubled down on his comments the next day, saying, “For those torn up over my tweet, I stand by it 100%. My problem is her godless character. She not only is the most radical pro-abortion VP ever, but also most radical LGBT advocate. She performed one of the first Lesbian ‘marriages.’ Pray for her, but don’t praise her!”

    Understood in the context of the attack on women’s rights by Christian nationalists and their allies, giving Harris the name Jezebel connects the biblical threats with the move to criminalise abortion access and even divorce – to take power away from women and restore it to the patriarchal Christian structure.

    While Jezebel is a clearly misogynist term, it has long been used in particular to dehumanise Black women. Racist stereotypes about Black women as hypersexual Jezebels were used by slavers to justify their rape of enslaved women. Even after the end of slavery, this use of the name persisted, as did the racist stereotype about Black women’s sexual availability to justify sexual violence. And Black women continue to experience sexual harassment and abuse at much higher levels than white women.

    So, when Christian nationalists urge their followers to “confront this Jezebel spirit” we can’t forget that confronting Jezebel is violent – in the Bible confronting Jezebel means her death or her rape. These veiled threats should not be taken lightly.

    Femicide is an ongoing crisis. A woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK and three women are killed by men every day in North America. Sexual violence against women is also rampant and is a weapon in the patriarchal arsenal for subduing independent women.

    Calling a powerful woman like Harris a Jezebel, then, isn’t just an offensive slur – it carries with it the persistent threat of racist violence and sexual assault.

    M.J.C. Warren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Kamala Harris is being called ‘Jezebel’ – a Biblical expert explains why it’s a menacing slur – https://theconversation.com/kamala-harris-is-being-called-jezebel-a-biblical-expert-explains-why-its-a-menacing-slur-241746

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is targeting UN peacekeepers in Lebanon a war crime? Here’s what international law says

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Giacomo Biggio, Lecturer in Law, University of Bristol Law School, University of Bristol

    Recent incidents involving the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (Unifil) have raised an important question. Can Israel lawfully target UN peacekeepers and premises in Lebanon, or would that constitute a war crime? To answer that question, it’s worth looking at the rules of International Humanitarian Law and how they relate to these apparent attacks by the IDF.

    First though, some background. Since Israeli troops entered Lebanon on October 1, there have been a number of incidents where IDF units have apparently targeted Unifil positions in southern Lebanon. This happened most recently on October 20, when the UN reported that “an IDF bulldozer deliberately demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position” in Marwahin, near Lebanon’s border with Israel.

    Israel has repeatedly called for Unifil units to withdraw from the area. But, according to a UN statement of October 22: “Despite the pressure being exerted on the mission and our troop-contributing countries, peacekeepers remain in all positions.” The UN statement added that: “breaching a UN position and damaging UN assets is a flagrant violation of international law and Security Council resolution 1701. It also endangers the safety and security of our peacekeepers in violation of international humanitarian law.”

    Getting to grips with the legal position involved here begins by looking at the principle of “distinction”. This requires a party to the conflict to distinguish at all times between civilian and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives.

    A combatant is everyone who is a member of the armed forces of a party to the conflict, with the exception of medical and religious personnel. In turn, the notion of armed forces comprises all organised armed forces, groups and units which are under a command responsible to that party for the conduct of its subordinates. Everyone who falls outside this category is considered a civilian.

    It’s a fundamentally important distinction. Combatants can be killed unless they are hors de combat (captured, trying to surrender or incapacitated). Civilians, meanwhile, enjoy absolute protection from attack and cannot intentionally be targeted unless they take a direct part in hostilities.

    Civilians or combatants?

    So, are Unifil peacekeepers combatants or civilians? Despite Unifil being armed and under military command, it is a peacekeeping force and not a party to the conflict. Unifil is mandated by UN security council resolution 1701. It operates with the consent of its host state, Lebanon, and in accordance with the principles of neutrality, impartiality and limited use of force.

    Since the war between Israel and Hezbollah ended in 2006, its job has been to confirm Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon, ensure that the government of Lebanon exercises effective authority in the area and prevent the entry of weapons into the region. Crucially, Unifil is not engaged in hostilities with either the IDF or Hezbollah. So it is not a party to the conflict.

    From this it follows that Unifil peacekeepers must be considered civilians and enjoy protection from attack. So they cannot be intentionally attacked by the IDF unless they engage in conduct amounting to “direct participation in hostilities” (DPH).

    The state of the conflict in southern Lebanon, October 22 2024.
    Institute for the Study of War

    For conduct to qualify as DPH, it must either kill or injure a party to an armed conflict, or destroy or damage a protected object. This must be deliberate, intentional and result directly from the action of the person accused.

    In practice, this means that a peacekeeper would be committing DPH by, for example, shooting on IDF soldiers with the intent of affecting their military operations. If that was the case, a peacekeeper would lose protection from attack, but only for the time they engage in the conduct amounting to DPH. After this conduct has ended, they would regain protection from attack.

    Crucially, Unifil peacekeepers have never fired on IDF soldiers. If they did perhaps return fire from IDF soldiers, they would acting in self defence, rather than with the intention of affecting the IDF’s military operations. So their actions would not be sufficient for them to be regarded as combatants and they’d still be protected as civilians.

    What is a legitimate military target?

    The same conclusion can be reached with regards to IDF attacks on Unifil’s premises. These qualify as civilian objects and are protected from direct attack. Only military objectives are legitimate targets because, according to IHL, they make “an effective contribution to military action” and their capture, destruction or neutralisation offers a definite military advantage.

    Clearly, that is not the case for Unifil posts. So attacking Unifil peacekeepers and premises would violate the principle of distinction and qualify as a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. So, intentionally demolishing a Unifil watchtower with an IDF bulldozer, as happened recently, appears to qualify as a war crime, despite the claim that there was a Hezbollah weapons cache near the watchtower.

    It’s worth adding that peacekeepers and their premises must be the intended target of the attack for it to be a violation of the principle of distinction. If the IDF’s target was – as claimed – a nearby Hezbollah weapons cache, which clearly qualifies as a military objective, any resulting damage to peacekeepers or their premises must be evaluated under the principle of “proportionality” and must not exceed the military advantage anticipated from the attack. Once again, launching an attack with the knowledge it would cause excessive incidental damage would amount to a war crime.

    In the confusion of an IDF offensive in southern Lebanon it’s impossible to ascertain all the details beyond reasonable doubt. Knowing what actually happened is one thing. But once the fog of war lifts and the details become clear, so will the judgment of international law.

    Giacomo Biggio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Is targeting UN peacekeepers in Lebanon a war crime? Here’s what international law says – https://theconversation.com/is-targeting-un-peacekeepers-in-lebanon-a-war-crime-heres-what-international-law-says-241849

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is Tim Burton an outsider auteur or a global megastar? The Design Museum thinks it has the answer

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Catherine Spooner, Professor of Literature and Culture, Lancaster University

    “Like walking around in a weird, beautiful funhouse.” That’s how Tim Burton described his private viewing of The World of Tim Burton at the exhibition’s opening at London’s Design Museum.

    A travelling circus that initially took shape at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2009 and has since visited 14 cities in 11 countries, the exhibition now reaches its grand finale in expanded, remixed form in Burton’s adopted hometown. At the press conference, he admitted to feeling somewhat anxious about it. This points to one of the underlying tensions of the exhibition itself – the contrast between laying bare an intensely personal creative process, and Burton’s global megastar status.

    The exhibition’s collaboration with the Design Museum has enabled its re-framing as an exploration of Burton’s “design practice” (in curator Maria McClintock’s words). It traces the complex path from Burton’s initial sketches to their realisation on screen.

    In this respect, the exhibition is successful. Visitors get a sense of the holistic development of Burton’s ideas from preliminary drawings to their realisation by puppet-makers and set and costume designers. Unrealised film projects and personal artworks are also included. This provides a unique insight into the director’s creative process.

    The work itself, moreover, is joyous – a riot of colour and fizzing line. The Burton that emerges is restlessly inventive. We see not only his prolific sketches in pen and ink and watercolour but also his experiments across media with collage, pastels, oils, acrylics on velvet, home movies, photography, children’s picture books and comic verse.

    Some of the most thrilling items are the most personal – teen fan art, scribbles on table napkins, university lecture notes. These offer an impression of intimacy, of unadulterated creativity bubbling up from some hidden wellspring of the subconscious. The staging of the exhibition enhances this impression. Skewed doorways and chequerboard floors suggest that the art is spilling out of the frame into the space of the gallery, evoking the “funhouse” feel that Burton commented on.

    The exhibition is invested in the notion of Burton as auteur, supported by a loyal team of creatives, many of whom are showcased here. One highlight is rows of Jack Skellington heads with different facial expressions, devised by stop-motion animators Mackinnon and Saunders for The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Elsewhere, there is a genuine frisson in seeing Bob Ringwood and Mary Vogt’s iconic costume for Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992), now so fragile that it can only be laid flat, and looking uncannily like shed skin.

    The indisputable star among Burton’s collaborators, however, is costume designer Colleen Atwood. Her spectacular ensembles for Edward Scissorhands (1990), Mars Attacks! (1996), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Wednesday (2022) dominate the central room of the exhibition. Someone please give her a show of her own.

    Missed opportunities

    Where the exhibition is less successful is in its attempts to place Burton in a wider cultural framework. Burton’s influences are covered patchily and explained poorly. Vincent Price is conflated with Hammer Horror (he never made a film with Hammer Studios) and the theoretical concept of the carnivalesque is misunderstood.

    A more thorough exploration of the horror traditions on which Burton draws – particularly German expressionism and Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations – would have been welcome. The focus on Burton’s drawings also begs closer attention to the illustrative traditions he is indebted to, from Ralph Steadman to Charles Addams and Edward Gorey. To neglect this is to diminish Burton’s skill as an artist who consciously reworks the American gothic tradition into a distinctive new form.

    The final room, “Burtonesque”, has the potential to be the most interesting. It explores the way that Burton’s aesthetic has become distinctive enough to be recognisable in the work of other artists.

    Ultimately, however, it shies away from asking searching questions about stylistic transferability and influence. Rather, it looks at Burton’s collaborations with artists in other media, whether fashion designer Alexander McQueen, photographer Tim Walker, or rock band The Killers.

    These are interesting in their own right but crucially, Burton is still involved in this process. The traditional exit through the gift shop reveals another side to Burton, in which his highly recognisable aesthetic has lent itself to merchandise with varying degrees of connection to the original source. The director has been vocal about the exploitation of his work by AI. But is this, in today’s culture, the logical end-point of the “Burtonesque”?

    The exhibition avoids any kind of investigation of the Burton brand, or even of Burton’s influence on a new generation of creators. In doing so, it misses what is one of the most fascinating paradoxes about Burton: that an artist who is so preoccupied with the figure of the outsider has been so widely embraced, with such immense commercial success.

    Burton’s work raises serious questions about the role and popularity of gothic imagery in 21st-century culture, but this exhibition is content to stick with the funhouse thrills.

    The World of Tim Burton is on at the Design Museum, London, until April 21 2025.


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    Catherine Spooner has previously received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for a related project.

    – ref. Is Tim Burton an outsider auteur or a global megastar? The Design Museum thinks it has the answer – https://theconversation.com/is-tim-burton-an-outsider-auteur-or-a-global-megastar-the-design-museum-thinks-it-has-the-answer-242172

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Class identity: why fancy freebies are a bigger political problem for this Labour government than its Tory predecessors

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Vladimir Bortun, Lecturer in Politics, University of Oxford

    While much of the intense media coverage of the UK government’s freebies scandal might be attributable to overzealous scrutiny by a predominantly right-of-centre printed press, there is at least one important issue at the heart of all this.

    It should be acknowledged that the gifts are in line with existing regulations – and also arguably less controversial than some of the donations received by members of former Conservative governments. But this Labour government sold itself as something different.

    Several frontbench figures, including prime minister Keir Starmer and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner focused heavily on their working-class credentials ahead of the election. They were doing so to reinforce the message that they are infinitely more in tune with regular people than the Tories.

    Several Labour ministers have accepted donations and freebies from big business and wealthy individuals. Lord Alli lent Starmer his £18m London flat and a New York property to Rayner for a holiday. Several Labour MPs were given tickets to Taylor Swift concerts, and perhaps more importantly, £4 million was donated to the Labour party by Quadrature – a tax-haven-based hedge fund with shares in the arms manufacturing, private healthcare and fossil fuel industries.

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    The obvious question is why these companies and wealthy individuals have made these donations and what they expect in return. People don’t make political donations out of the kindness of their hearts. They often expect something in return, whether in the form of a seat in the House of Lords or a lucrative state contract.

    Even in cases where there is no reciprocity, there are deeper questions of professional and political ethics that arise from donations. And fair or not, those questions are more pressing for a Labour government.

    There is, first of all, a matter of perception during a cost of living crisis. Labour MPs have just voted to keep the two-child benefit cap and remove universal winter fuel payments. Against this backdrop, it’s not a stretch to suggest accepting glamorous gifts creates a distance between lawmakers and the people they govern.

    But beyond that perception is the fact that living a privileged life may have a material effect on an MP’s outlook. There is a significant body of evidence showing that upward social mobility leads people towards more rightwing views on the economy.

    That may be particularly true of politicians. For this group, the trajectory is the most extreme. If you start from a working-class position in society and end up being part of the group that effectively leads that society, your vantage point could not be more different. You are less likely to try to change the status quo that is now the source of your own social and financial benefits.

    To be fair, research my colleagues and I conducted shows that working-class origins have a lingering effect on an MP’s outlook when they enter parliament. They are more likely to take an interest in issues that are important to working-class voters, for example.

    But this effect is diluted by party discipline, such as when MPs are whipped to vote in a certain way (such as on benefits). Social mobility, and in particular a simmering angst about falling back down the social ladder, also shapes these MPs’ decisions.

    Closing the experience gap

    It doesn’t have to be this way. In the 1980s, one of the most leftwing and working-class Labour MPs at the time, Terry Fields, ran and won an election on the slogan “a worker’s MP on a worker’s wage” – pledging to only draw a salary equivalent to a fireman’s and to donate the remainder.

    While this could be dismissed as performative populism from a politician looking to prove that he’s a “man of the people”, there is a deeper rationale at work here. Arguably, you can’t truly represent the interests of working-class people if you live in considerably better material conditions, cut off from the daily experience and living standards of those people.

    How can you fully understand what working-class people and communities go through and, thereby, what kind of policies they need, if you live in a parallel reality to theirs?



    Read more:
    What does class mean today in Britain? Podcast

    This is not to argue that MPs should give up their salaries or that they’re incapable of empathy, but it does show why freebies are such a glaring problem for a new government.

    Working-class people have, themselves, indicated that this experience gap matters to them. Their political alienation over the past few decades has been fuelled by their sense that they do not recognise themselves in the current political elite and the inequality-enhancing policies the elite have been enacting.

    The last election recorded one of the highest abstention rates (and according to at least one estimate, actually the highest) since the introduction of universal suffrage.

    And should a political party remain unmoved by those statistics, there is the small matter of electoral survival. Taken more cynically, working-class communities have become the electoral battlegrounds of the modern era.

    There are not many promising signs so far that the new Labour government is up to the task of representing the working class once again – even the recent workers’ rights legislation has been criticised as falling short by some of the trade unions. And while there’s a long way to go before we know if the freebies scandal will end up costing Labour support at the next election, it certainly won’t be counted as a bonus.

    Vladimir Bortun does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Class identity: why fancy freebies are a bigger political problem for this Labour government than its Tory predecessors – https://theconversation.com/class-identity-why-fancy-freebies-are-a-bigger-political-problem-for-this-labour-government-than-its-tory-predecessors-241619

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –