In brief:
🏕️ Police investigate death of man and woman on walking track in Victoria’s south-west Great Ocean Walk – Wreck Beach (2024-Jun-21) [ABC|News]
🍄 Puffballs to polypores: Why we know so little about Australia’s fungi (2024-Jun-21) [ABC|News]
…
❝ I am a firefighter of more than 50 years, a former fire chief and now a volunteer. When Peter Dutton said he would dump Australia’s climate targets, I felt a sense of déjà vu. The opposition’s climate denial – let’s call it what it is – is just like the tone-deaf response I received as part of a group of former emergency services leaders who asked the previous government to commit to greater climate action.
In 2019, we formed Emergency Leaders for Climate Action in response to the dangerous decisions made by the Morrison government. Before Black Summer, 23 of us came together and agreed that the conditions were dangerously dry, the forecast for the summer ahead frightening, and the Coalition government was sticking its head in increasingly hot sand. ❞
— Greg Mullins
Former commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW and founder of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action.
❝ The term currently being popularised is, “risky play” which refers to any thrilling or exciting activity which gives children opportunities to challenge themselves, and could involve a risk of physical injury.
Experts say research increasingly shows how important it is for healthy development in children and teenagers. ❞
❝ Female teachers are being sworn at, sexually harassed and physically threatened in high schools by male students.
These young men are under the thrall of Andrew Tate and other online influencers and are taking his misogynist ideas into the classroom.
Why have these so-called “manfluencers” taken told? And what can parents do to push back against this toxic content? ❞
❝ What Alex has experienced isn’t isolated. It could even be happening in your child’s school. It’s what researchers are calling the Andrew Tate effect. And we immediately think, “Well, not my boy, my son wouldn’t do that”. But the fact is, these are our boys. So why are some teenage boys behaving in this way? And what can we do to make schools a safer place for female teachers and students? ❞
❝ There are good men out there. Let’s put them in front of our sons. If teachers report to you that your son is acting in a sexist way, believe them.
Lastly, tell your son that it is never okay to use threatening behaviour or language towards women, anywhere. That includes at home, online and at school. ❞
📄 Wescott, S., Roberts, S., & Zhao, X. (2023). The problem of anti-feminist ‘manfluencer’ Andrew Tate in Australian schools: women teachers’ experiences of resurgent male supremacy. Gender and Education, 36(2), 167–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2023.2292622
❝ 30 years ago a diner was hauled from a Chinese restaurant and delivered a monologue so memorable it became a meme. Today that man was finally able to finish his succulent meal alongside one of the officers involved in his arrest. ❞
❝ Wolf expert Rick McIntyre’s 2020 book “The Reign of Wolf 21” is the true love story of an alpha pair who lead their Yellowstone pack with grace, courage, and an unbreakable bond. Living on Earth’s Jenni Doering has the story of these remarkable wolves’ lives and what they can teach us about love, loyalty, and leadership. ❞
🐺 The Reign of Wolf 21, Yellowstone’s Benevolent Alpha Male (2020-Sep-29) [Psychology Today Australia]
❝ Over the next few years, I continued to watch and study 21, 42, and the other Druid wolves. It became clear that 42 was the true leader of the pack, not 21. She appeared to make all the major decisions in the pack such as where to den and where to move the pups when they got older.
That leadership extended to far more areas, including where to hunt. One day, I watched the pack sleeping. Wolf 21 got up and wanted to go on a hunt to the east. He went that way, but nobody followed him. He tried eight times to get the others to go east but they ignored him. Then 42 went west and all the other wolves immediately followed her, including 21. I also found that alpha females were the leaders of other packs I have studied. You could say that that males like 21 just worked for the alpha female. ❞
Visible Procrastinations 