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The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that harmonised technical standards – an influential form of governance – must be more accessible. Here’s what this landmark decision means.

Technical standardisation, which encompasses standards published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), has become a critical aspect of global regulation. Its scope has expanded far beyond goods, encompassing services, the environment, corporate social responsibility (ISO 26000) and anti-corruption measures (ISO 37000).

This trend is particularly evident within the European Union. The “new approach” to standardisation, launched in the 1980s by then European Commission president Jacques Delors, placed technical standards at the heart of the EU’s single market. The success of this approach, evidenced by the “CE” marking on products, was initially focused on goods and later extended to services. It plays a central role in the recent EU Artificial Intelligence Act, which requires AI computing services to comply with a series of technical standards, including for personal data security.

3,600 harmonised European standards

Over the past 30 years, the European Commission estimates that more than 3,600 “new approach” technical standards have been developed. The sectors covered by these standards represent over 1.5 trillion euros in annual trade – about 10% of the EU’s gross domestic product. These standards, developed by private bodies like the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), are voluntary and require manufacturers and service providers to pay a fee to access them. However, compliance is not optional, because aligning with these standards creates a presumption of conformity with EU law. Failure to comply means manufacturers must either withdraw their products or prove compliance through alternative, often costly, means.

Until recently, these fee-based standards were viewed as a form of self-regulation beyond judicial scrutiny. That changed in 2016 when the CJEU ruled in the James Elliott Construction case that these technical standards produce legal effects, making them “part of the law of the Union”.

Following this ruling, two non-profit organisations, Public.Resource.org and Right to Know, whose mission is to make the law freely accessible to all citizens, asked the European Commission for free access to four harmonised standards. The Commission denied the request, a decision upheld by the General Court of the European Union in July 2021.

On March 5, 2024, the CJEU, the supreme body of the European legal order, overturned the decision, finding that an overriding public interest justified the disclosure of the harmonised standards in question. Moving forward, the Commission will need to grant requests for free access to harmonised standards.

This jurisprudential development has turned the technical standardisation model on its head. Indeed, given that these standards are becoming legalised and will henceforth be free of charge, the production and funding methods of standardisation bodies and the intellectual property protections they rely on must be re-evaluated. This evolution could also be an opportunity to improve the legitimacy of these standards.

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Based on figures from CEN, the potential loss of revenue from making these standards freely accessible could amount to around 11% of the 19 million euros of average annual revenue, or around 2 million euros. This calculation was made by averaging the revenues reported as income for each year between 2019 and 2022 in the 2021 CEN annual report and the 2022 CEN annual report.

Governed by engineers

This amount does not appear to be insurmountable for the Commission to manage, but it should be accompanied by a systemic reform. This reform would aim to involve civil society organisations more effectively, ensuring that technical standards impacting fundamental principles are developed with a diverse range of perspectives in mind. The Commission is best positioned to verify the genuine involvement of all stakeholders and ensure that standards bodies take their input into account.

Technical standards produced by “engineers” are not merely technical, neutral or optional, but are powerful modes of governance that have significant political implications. Consequently, these standards must not escape a democratic adoption procedure and respect for the rule of law under the control of the courts. It is therefore incumbent on the EU’s institutional bodies – the Commission, the Parliament and the Council of the European Union – to stop basing public policies, especially non-economic ones, on technical standards.

The EU’s recent AI legislation illustrates this tendency. When public authorities rely on technical standards, it gives the impression that norm-setting is being outsourced, allowing authorities to bypass the political process. This approach may be pragmatic, but it is legally questionable. The CJEU’s recent rulings signal a need for EU public decision-makers to change their approach. Läs mer…

In late 2024, more than 20 years after the birth of Facebook, the impact of social media on our lives cannot be overstated. Initially underestimated by many in business, social media eventually came to be recognised for its power to enable workers to share solutions, ideas and perspectives. While companies took time to see its potential, younger generations have been living part of their lives through social platforms for years. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey reveals that a majority of US youth aged 13 to 17 visit YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat at least “about once a day”, with roughly 15% saying they visit these platforms “almost constantly”.

This widespread use of social media has brought with it an increased focus on its effects on young people, particularly adolescents. Over the past year, we collaborated with our former doctoral student Elena Fumagalli to review research in this area and its potential impact on policymaking. Our findings were surprising and, at times, conflicting. While many studies share evidence of the negative impacts of social media use on adolescent wellbeing, the research we reviewed also showed conflicting findings and a dearth of high-quality research designs. And yet, policy decisions and media coverage are often based on them.

In response to this, we recently published a paper focusing on the most rigorous studies on this topic. Our goal was to identify research that we believe offers valid and dependable conclusions. Through this review, we discovered that social media’s effects on adolescent wellbeing are complex, varying by age, gender and the type of platform use.

The “moving target” of social media research

A critical challenge in this area is what we call the “moving target” problem. Social media platforms are constantly evolving, making it difficult to generalise research findings from one period to another. For example, Facebook today is not what it was 10 or 15 years ago – its functionality, user base and even its name have changed. Similarly, platforms like Instagram have gained popularity, while others such as Friendster, Vine and Google’s Orkut have disappeared.

Given this ever-changing landscape, it’s nearly impossible to draw definitive conclusions from older studies. That’s why we focused our review on research conducted in the past five years, a period marked by significant advances in data collection and analysis. We limited our scope to adolescents and young adults aged 13 to 21 to better understand how social media affects wellbeing during these critical developmental years.

Developmental sensitivity to social media

One of the most significant findings from our paper is that the negative effects of social media vary by age and gender, something which is rarely taken into consideration by authorities and the media. For girls, the most vulnerable period appears to be between 11 and 13 years old, while for boys it is between 14 and 15. These age ranges coincide with the onset of puberty, which we believe plays a significant role in how adolescents experience social media.

The beginning of puberty is already a challenging time for most young people, and social media seems to amplify these challenges. For example, body image issues, which often emerge during adolescence, are exacerbated by the highly curated and idealised content found on platforms like Instagram. While social media didn’t create these issues, it amplifies them like never before, making it harder for adolescents to ignore them.

Interestingly, we also found negative psychological effects for both boys and girls at age 19. This age corresponds to major life transitions such as leaving home, entering college or starting a job, all of which can induce anxiety. Social media appears to intensify these anxieties, possibly by fostering unrealistic expectations about life or creating a sense of inadequacy.

Active versus passive use

Another challenge we encountered in our research is the lack of clear definitions for what constitutes “social media use.” Furthermore, platforms vary significantly in their design, function, and audience, and these differences matter when it comes to their effects on wellbeing. For instance, image-based platforms like Instagram tend to have a more significant negative impact on body image than text-based platforms such as X (formerly Twitter).

Moreover, the way adolescents and young adults use social media also matters. We found that active use, where individuals post and engage with others, is linked to more positive self-esteem. In contrast, passive use, where users merely scroll through content without interacting, is associated with negative effects on wellbeing. These differences are crucial to understanding social media’s impact and need to be better accounted for in future research.

A further factor is the intentional addictiveness of these platforms. Whistleblowers have revealed that many social media companies design their products to be habit-forming, encouraging users to spend more time on their platforms. This makes social media more invasive than previous technologies like television or radio, and its influence is likely to extend into the workplace as today’s adolescents enter the job market.

Beyond adolescence

Our study highlights the need for more long-term, rigorous research to better understand social media’s impact on wellbeing. Recent studies suggest that various moderators – such as the type of platform and patterns of use – can either worsen or mitigate the negative effects of social media. These must be taken into account in evaluating measures to take against these negative consequences.

We also believe it’s important to look beyond adolescence. As the next generation enters the workforce, their social media habits are likely to follow them, potentially affecting their productivity and mental health. This is why we advocate for more longitudinal studies that track social media use over time and examine its long-term effects on wellbeing.

As we have found, despite the complexities and inconsistencies in social media research, politicians and the media often draw simplistic conclusions. For example, the Kids Off Social Media Act, a US bipartisan effort to ban social media for children under 13, reflects a tendency to make blanket statements about the dangers of social media. While it’s true that younger adolescents are more vulnerable to its negative impacts, age is not the only factor that matters. The type of platform, how it’s used, and individual psychological differences also play significant roles. Therefore, we must be careful not to jump to conclusions or implement one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, we need nuanced, data-driven policies that account for the many variables at play.

Finally, as social media continues to evolve, so too must our understanding of its effects. More detailed, high-quality research can help guide interventions and programmes that protect the wellbeing of adolescents and young adults. With the right approach, we can better understand and mitigate the risks associated with this powerful technology. Läs mer…

The United Nations calls access to the internet a human right. However, in Canada, the Assembly of First Nations continues to list access to the internet as a problem within First Nations communities. Although 90 per cent of Canadians have access to high-speed internet, 61 per cent of First Nations, especially those in remote or rural areas, cannot say the same.

This fall, the Ontario government announced a $34-million investment plan to address internet access in some hard-to-reach communities in southwestern Ontario. In Ontario, 39 per cent of First Nations do not have access to high-speed internet. Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) will subsidize the project.

Network Sovereignty: Building the Internet Across Indian Country.
University of Washington Press

This initiative sounds great, but digital infrastructure like the internet is often determined by non-Indigenous third parties. They set the terms, conditions and profitability of digital access for Indigenous communities. This issue is highlighted by Marisa Duarte, a professor at Arizona State University, who wrote a book critical of third parties infringing on Indigenous sovereignty by controlling network access and data for Indigenous communities in Arizona.

So, how can investments like the one in Ontario be envisioned with ethical and equitable infrastructure?

Indigenous ownership

Based on my preliminary research on data and archive infrastructure, I propose a couple of ways. For one, the ownership of the project should be shifted to Indigenous Peoples.

In this way, the power dynamic is reversed. Instead of being given permission to use a platform where their data is controlled by outsiders, Indigenous people would invite others to share in digital spaces.

A Short History of the Blockade: Giant Beavers, Diplomacy, and Regeneration in Nishnaabewin by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.
University of Alberta Press

Another way to augment this is to learn from Indigenous storytelling and lean into the wisdom of the natural world. To envision how we build, I propose a methodology inspired by beavers in Indigenous storytelling. Specifically, I propose that we consider the building of beaver dams as a starting point for creating and sustaining Indigenous spaces.

I draw upon the work of the Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg storyteller and scholar, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and Audra Simpson, professor of anthropology at Columbia University.

Both situate the beaver dam as an ethical bridge between worlds. They also describe the beaver dam as a site of protest. It is one in which Indigenous thinkers and dreamers build their own sustainable and ethical infrastructure.

Beavers and blockades

In these Indigenous stories, passing on the knowledge to build the beaver dam to the next generation is a form of direct action that is connected to the act of protest.

Blockades are metaphorical in these stories but they are also literally blockades that Indigenous Peoples build during protests to protect their lands and waters.

In this particular case, the blockade, or refusal, is metaphorical and may include saying “no” to third-party control of Internet infrastructure.

A close up of a worker connecting wires on an electrical box to set up an internet connection.
THE CANADIAN PRESS

The beaver dam

While the beaver dam acts as a physical blockade, it is also regenerating the environment around it.

This environmental regeneration by beavers was supported by a NASA grant in 2024.

Using data, land trust managers attracted beavers to areas that needed to bring back water and life following environmental disasters. In this way, people are “enlisting the aid of nature’s most prolific engineers — beavers,” according to NASA science writer Margo Pierce.

This relationship between beavers and the human world is seen as an important part of maintaining harmony in Indigenous communities. As Betasamosake Simpson says, harming the beaver harms everyone in the community because the beaver brings water and life.

Bringing relational practices into design

This emphasis on working together and with nature because everyone is interconnected is a relational practice I believe can be applied to infrastructure, design and policy.

Prof. M. Murphy at the University of Toronto, a leader at the Technoscience Research Unit, thinks through how establishing values and ethics for infrastructure projects can change our relationships.

These small changes can be part of the shift away from public infrastructure that is exclusionary, and towards public infrastructure that is collaborative and a true regenerative public space.

Power and infrastructure

Returning to the story of rural internet in Ontario, whoever builds the digital infrastructure has the power to impact the communities that are gaining access to the internet — their human rights access — through a third party.

However, if the ownership of this new infrastructure remains out of the community, there will likely continue to be a lack of resources put towards building bridges between communities..

For example, my work “Presented on Mapping Assiniboia Residential School Survivor Stories: Did You See Us?” for the Canadian Cartographic Society involves building infrastructure for telling stories using online maps.

This creates a challenge. I am stewarding online spaces for Indigenous storytelling but the infrastructure of my projects is owned by the University of Toronto, and access to it is at the mercy of other third parties.

These bridges are not just invisible ideas or metaphors but real cables and structures through which the internet is shared.

These structures are part of a larger power dynamic being exercised by both the government and private companies. They choose to include only particular Indigenous communities as specialized projects instead of ongoing strategic partners of their businesses.

Building the blockade

To properly work against such power structures, organizations must understand the power dynamics within a community.

There are organizations in Ontario taking on the metaphorical role of the beaver, such as the future Public Library in Ottawa, Ādisōke. This organization has Indigenous partners embedded within its design, infrastructure and future.

Public libraries are potentially hubs for community regeneration, as sites to honour human rights and provide access to both information and internet. But this requires a commitment to long-term funding.

Control and consent

With the Ontario provincial government subsidizing third parties, there is an issue of ownership and control. Communities are not given control of the infrastructure intended to regenerate community.

This is not to say SWIFT or the companies building this infrastructure are actively engaging in bad faith, but the power dynamics obfuscate the infrastructure and how it will relate to the community.

On the surface, it looks like the $34 million is going to subsidize projects to profit from remote areas without having to invest directly.

But, ultimately, for these projects to be successfully integrated, these First Nations communities need to be involved in the building of it: using a model that emulates the beaver dam and includes mutual consent between all parties.

Revisioning

Right now, companies continue to dominate Indigenous data, whether it is the data collected through programs like Zoom, or the very infrastructures that enable Zoom.

However, I am optimistic. Re-envisioning how we engage in building infrastructure as a relational practice, we can build like beavers and aim for structural regeneration and sustainable digital infrastructure in the community’s hands. Läs mer…

The West Coast’s rainy season has arrived in force, as an atmospheric river carrying moisture from the tropics joins a bomb cyclone off the Pacific Northwest coast. Heavy, wet snow began falling in the mountains on Nov. 19, 2024, and bursts of rain have been blasting the Oregon and Northern California coasts. These storms are forecast to last for days, hitting up and down the West Coast. Parts of Washington have seen more than 70 mph winds from the bomb cyclone.

When these two phenomena get together, the weather gets hard to predict, as meteorologist Chad Hecht of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the University of California San Diego explains.

What happens when an atmospheric river meets a bomb cyclone?

An atmospheric river is exactly what it sounds like – it’s a long, narrow river of water vapor in the lower atmosphere. These rivers in the sky transport moisture from the subtropics to the mid-latitudes.

When an atmospheric river runs up against North America’s West Coast, the mountains and complex topography force the air to rise, cool, and the moisture to condense and precipitate. That can mean feet of snow at high elevations and rainfall elsewhere.

That’s not always a bad thing. Weaker atmospheric rivers help replenish reservoirs that are essential for supplying water during the dry season. California relies on atmospheric rivers for up to half of its yearly precipitation and streamflow.

This storm, however, is expected to be stronger and more unpredictable than unusual because of the bomb cyclone.

Atmospheric rivers explained.

Atmospheric rivers tend to form out ahead of cold fronts that are associated with low-pressure systems known as extratropical cyclones. These are air mass boundaries circulating around the area of low pressure. A bomb cyclone is a rapidly intensifying extratropical cyclone.

These two weather phenomena go hand in hand. A strong atmospheric river will feed moisture into the low-pressure system, providing fuel for the cyclone. The stronger the low-pressure system becomes, the stronger the atmospheric river becomes.

What will this combo mean for the West Coast?

This atmospheric river is impressive for its duration – it is forecast to continue hitting the coast with moisture for several days and may spread precipitation as far south as Southern California. Its integrated vapor transport – a measure of how much moisture is moving in the atmosphere – suggests that we’ll see a lot of rain and snowfall, with over a foot of precipitation expected in some areas.

On top of that, the bomb cyclone – one of the strongest we’ve seen along the coast – is bringing powerful winds.

While the atmospheric river is hitting the coast, the bomb cyclone will sit over the ocean off the Pacific Northwest and spin. As it spins, it sends small frontal waves through the atmosphere that push the atmospheric river inland. That creates a lot of uncertainty for forecasts.

If you picture the atmospheric river as a fire hose pointed at the coast, these frontal waves are essentially the fireman taking his hands off the fire hose and letting it go all wavy. It can move northward, and then back southward. The question is how far it will go before pivoting, then how quickly it will pivot back.

A forecast for the storm’s vertically integrated vapor transport shows the direction and magnitude of the water flow, measured in kilograms per meter per second.
Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes

So, how long specific parts of the coast will see rainfall and how intense that rainfall will be are the big questions.

The harder and longer it rains, the more impacts you’re likely to see.

The saving grace with this storm is that it’s early in the season, so the soils are relatively dry. That means they’ll be able to soak up more of the moisture. If a storm like this hit in winter, after the soils were already saturated, more water would run off, causing more widespread flooding than an early-season storm.

Are areas recently burned by wildfires in trouble?

With a storm this intense, the main concern in areas recently burned by wildfires is high-intensity precipitation.

When land burns, the surface can become impervious – almost hydrophobic. So, when that surface gets hit with high-intensity precipitation, the water runs off a lot faster than if vegetation or soil was able to absorb the water. Wildfire burn scars tend to be in hilly places, so that can lead to debris flows.

The forecast for the atmospheric river hitting the West Coast, covering Nov. 20-27, 2024, shows a powerful storm. Much of Northern California is expected to experience a Category 4 strength atmospheric river, on a scale of 1 to 5.
Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes

It’s really a matter of chance whether the burn scars get that intense precipitation. A strong cold front can form narrow cold-frontal rain bands that bring bursts of high-intensity rain. These small but powerful rain bands tend to form in dynamically robust storms. Meteorologists are seeing some signatures suggesting that these features could form.

The best advice if you’re in one of those areas is to pay attention to the National Weather Service’s watches and warnings.

Does this storm suggest a wet winter ahead?

Unfortunately, one really impressive storm doesn’t tell us anything about what’s ahead.

We’ve seen seasons with powerful early-season storms and then not much more. October 2021 is an example: A really strong storm hit that month, with record-breaking, 24-hour precipitation accumulations. But then the tap shut off, and California ended up with below-normal rainfall for the rest of the year.

An animation of satellite data shows how the atmospheric river draws moisture from the subtropics and is pushed toward the coast by the bomb cyclone.
Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

There are tools that offer some indication of whether the season will be above or below normal, but those aren’t 100% accurate.

For example, the La Niña weather pattern that’s close to forming in the Pacific typically indicates drier than normal conditions across California. But looking at the past 10 years, we’ve had some really wet La Niñas – 2017 being the granddaddy of them all, with record-breaking precipitation in the northern Sierra.

Meteorologists typically have a good sense of what’s coming in the short term, about 10 days out. But what the rest of the season will look like is really an educated guess at this point. Läs mer…

The West Coast’s rainy season has arrived in force, with an atmospheric river joining a bomb cyclone off the Pacific Northwest coast. Heavy, wet snow began falling in the mountains on Nov. 19, 2024, and rain has been blasting Oregon and Northern California, causing flooding and landslides in some areas. The atmospheric river was forecast to last for several days, hitting up and down the West Coast. Parts of Washington have seen more than 70 mph winds from the bomb cyclone.

When these two phenomena get together, the weather gets hard to predict, as meteorologist Chad Hecht of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the University of California, San Diego explains.

What happens when an atmospheric river meets a bomb cyclone?

An atmospheric river is exactly what it sounds like – it’s a long, narrow river of water vapor in the lower atmosphere. These rivers in the sky transport moisture from the subtropics to the mid-latitudes.

When an atmospheric river runs up against North America’s West Coast, the mountains and complex topography force the air to rise, cool, and the moisture to condense and precipitate. That can mean feet of snow at high elevations and rainfall elsewhere.

That’s not always a bad thing. Weaker atmospheric rivers help replenish reservoirs that are essential for supplying water during the dry season. California relies on atmospheric rivers for up to half of its yearly precipitation and streamflow.

This storm, however, is expected to be stronger and more unpredictable than unusual because of the bomb cyclone.

Atmospheric rivers explained.

Atmospheric rivers tend to form out ahead of cold fronts that are associated with low-pressure systems known as extratropical cyclones. These are air mass boundaries circulating around the area of low pressure. A bomb cyclone is a rapidly intensifying extratropical cyclone.

These two weather phenomena go hand in hand. A strong atmospheric river will feed moisture into the low-pressure system, providing fuel for the cyclone. The stronger the low-pressure system becomes, the stronger the atmospheric river becomes.

What will this combo mean for the West Coast?

This atmospheric river is impressive for its duration – it is forecast to continue hitting the coast with moisture for several days and spread precipitation into Southern California. Its integrated vapor transport – a measure of how much moisture is moving in the atmosphere – suggests that we’ll see a lot of rain and snowfall, with over a foot of precipitation expected in some areas.

On top of that, the bomb cyclone – one of the strongest we’ve seen along the coast – is bringing powerful winds.

While the atmospheric river is hitting the coast, the bomb cyclone will sit over the ocean off the Pacific Northwest and spin. As it spins, it sends small frontal waves through the atmosphere that push the atmospheric river inland. That creates a lot of uncertainty for forecasts.

If you picture the atmospheric river as a fire hose pointed at the coast, these frontal waves are essentially the fireman taking his hands off the fire hose and letting it go all wavy. It can move northward, and then back southward. The question is how far it will go before pivoting, then how quickly it will pivot back.

A forecast for the storm’s vertically integrated vapor transport shows the direction and magnitude of the water flow, measured in kilograms per meter per second.
Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes

So, how long specific parts of the coast will see rainfall and how intense that rainfall will be are the big questions.

The harder and longer it rains, the more impacts you’re likely to see.

The saving grace with this storm is that it’s early in the season, so the soils are relatively dry. That means they’ll be able to soak up more of the moisture. If a storm like this hit in winter, after the soils were already saturated, more water would run off, causing more widespread flooding than an early-season storm.

Are areas recently burned by wildfires in trouble?

With a storm this intense, the main concern in areas recently burned by wildfires is high-intensity precipitation.

When land burns, the surface can become impervious – almost hydrophobic. So, when that surface gets hit with high-intensity precipitation, the water runs off a lot faster than if vegetation or soil was able to absorb the water. Wildfire burn scars tend to be in hilly places, so that can lead to debris flows.

The forecast for the atmospheric river hitting the West Coast, covering Nov. 20-27, 2024, shows a powerful storm. Much of Northern California is expected to experience a Category 4 strength atmospheric river, on a scale of 1 to 5.
Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes

It’s really a matter of chance whether the burn scars get that intense precipitation. A strong cold front can form narrow cold-frontal rain bands that bring bursts of high-intensity rain. These small but powerful rain bands tend to form in dynamically robust storms. Meteorologists are seeing some signatures suggesting that these features could form.

The best advice if you’re in one of those areas is to pay attention to the National Weather Service’s watches and warnings.

Does this storm suggest a wet winter ahead?

Unfortunately, one really impressive storm doesn’t tell us anything about what’s ahead.

We’ve seen seasons with powerful early-season storms and then not much more. October 2021 is an example: A really strong storm hit that month, with record-breaking, 24-hour precipitation accumulations. But then the tap shut off, and California ended up with below-normal rainfall for the rest of the year.

An animation of satellite data shows how the atmospheric river draws moisture from the subtropics and is pushed toward the coast by the bomb cyclone.
Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

There are tools that offer some indication of whether the season will be above or below normal, but those aren’t 100% accurate.

For example, the La Niña weather pattern that’s close to forming in the Pacific typically indicates drier than normal conditions across California. But looking at the past 10 years, we’ve had some really wet La Niñas – 2017 being the granddaddy of them all, with record-breaking precipitation in the northern Sierra.

Meteorologists typically have a good sense of what’s coming in the short term, about 10 days out. But what the rest of the season will look like is really an educated guess at this point.

This article was updated Nov. 21, 2024, with landslides and flooding from the storm. Läs mer…

Stan’s new Christmas film Nugget is Dead is a colourful production that follows the rules of the seasonal genre film to a tee – with an Aussie twist and a dash of queer multiculturalism thrown in for good measure.

Most screenwriters refer to the Hallmark Channel as the generic yardstick of Christmas films. The US cable network pumps out dozens of tinsel-tinged offerings each year.

But what exactly are the rules of a Christmas movie? And how does Nugget is Dead fit in with the rest?

A cast stuffed with homegrown talent

Christmas movie screenwriting blogger and podcaster Caryn McCann has laid out the steps of the Christmas film formula, which can be applied to the case in point.

Step 1: choose a cute regional location situated a good distance from the big smoke. Christmas in Australia is, of course, in summer, so no snow-covered Midwest town for us. Instead, what better than an unnamed seaside location reminiscent of a less desirable version of Home and Away’s Summer Bay?

Step 2: find a key character who’s down on love. Enter struggling bisexual registrar Steph Stool (played by Vic Zerbst, who also cowrote the film). Steph’s swanky millennial boyfriend (Alec Snow) has it all, including a double-barrelled surname and an overbearing mum (Tara Morice) from Sydney’s North Shore. But their relationship is floundering at this crucial time of year.

Steph’s zany family, on the other hand, are on the more bogan end of the Australian social order. Notable mention goes to Steph’s OTT (over-the-top), recently separated parents, Jodie and John Stool (Gia Carides and Damien Garvey).

Vic Zerbst plays Steph Stool, with Gia Carides as her mother Jodie Stool.
Lisa Tomasetti

Meanwhile, cowriter Jenna Owen hurls herself into the fun role of ditzy eshay cousin Shayla, who probably gets the most laughs as a foil to Zerbst’s uptight Steph.

The film mostly plays out in the Stool brood’s hometown, but crosscuts to Steph’s boyfriend’s affluent family’s celebrations.

Comedy doubling as class commentary

When Steph is called back home to attend to her dying dog, the titular Nugget, she encounters Step 3: the love interest. In this case, the attractive distraction appears in the form of her poor pooch’s new vet, Ella Lander (Priscilla Doueihy), who quickly becomes enmeshed in the Stool way of life.

Steps 4 and 5 of the form involve the careful balancing of cheerful Christmas traditions alongside drama aplenty. True to form, Nugget is Dead has more than enough fruity pavlova, Christmas crackers and sizzling snags on the barbie.

There are no shortage of Christmas tropes in this film.
Lisa Tomasetti

These elements serve as a vital backdrops to several hectic – and silly – family barneys. I tip my festive headwear to emerging director Imogen McCluskey and director of photography Kate Cornish for capably managing dialogue-heavy scenes that include a large ensemble cast.

The humour in these sections comes from mix of comedic voices, as well as by contrasting ocker “realness” (and groan-worthy dad jokes) with urban upper-middle-class vapidity.

Director Imogen McCluskey experlty handles dialogue-heavy scenes featuring a large ensemble cast.
Lisa Tomasetti

Out with the old

The final steps of the Christmas movie formula come down to the hero, heroine or non-binary protagonist embracing the true spirit of the holiday season – and restoring his, her or their reliance on romance and family values. On this front, Nugget is Dead does not deviate.

The film has an endearing core message about being accepting of poeple’s differences, which helps to extend it away from the genre’s norm.

The film’s core message is about accepting poeple’s differences.
Julia Firak

In an Australian context, the film dabbles in the dreaded cultural cringe. I wasn’t sure if this was a deliberate wink to those in the know, or the result of trying to write for a wider audience and becoming a bit reductive in the process.

Nugget is Dead demonstrates the many ways in which our Christmas customs are becoming less white-bread and heteronormative.

Nugget is Dead is streaming on Stan from November 21. Läs mer…

In 1978, Ann Patty, a young, inexperienced editor for Pocket Books, was on the subway with her friend Humphrey Evans, who told her about an “awful and fabulous” 98-page manuscript he’d read that day, in his role as assistant to a literary agent.

Patty, intrigued by Evans’ description, came by his apartment later to pick the manuscript up. She stayed up until 2am reading it, then promptly phoned him, saying that it was “some sort of brilliant” and that she “must have it”. That manuscript would become Flowers in the Attic (1979) by V.C. Andrews, who was 56 when it was published.

Initial reviews were not kind – one described it as “deranged swill”. But the book quickly became a runaway success, selling almost three million copies in its first year of publication.

Sensing they had a hit on their hands, Pocket Books quickly solicited a sequel. Petals on the Wind came out a year later and topped the New York Times mass-market paperback bestseller list. So too did the next two books in what became known as the Dollanganger series: If There Be Thorns (1981) and Seeds of Yesterday (1984).

Flowers in the Attic was adapted as a 1987 telemovie starring Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over the Cuckoos’ Nest’s Nurse Ratched) as the evil grandmother and Kristy Swanson (the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as Cathy Dollanganger, the story’s narrator. It was adapted again in 2014.

The original Flowers in the Attic telemovie (1987) starred Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant and Kristy Swanson.

It has been 45 years since Flowers in the Attic was published, but it still looms large in the minds of many. As Tammy Oler wrote for Slate, “we are clearly not over Flowers in the Attic. For women of my generation, Cathy Dollanganger’s story continues to possess a weird, singular power.”

Murderous mothers and dubious consent

Flowers in the Attic is the story of, as a once “obsessed” Roxane Gay puts it: “Wealth! Children! An attic turned into a playground! Evil grandmother and eviler mother! Incest!”

The narrator, Cathy, is the second of the four Dollanganger siblings. When their father is killed in a car accident, their mother Corrine is unable to support the family. She was disinherited by her wealthy father Malcolm upon her marriage – and so now, Corrine decides, her only hope is return to her childhood home, Foxworth Hall, and try to get herself reinstated into his will.

There’s a catch, though. Malcolm does not know Corrine has children. When she and the children arrive at Foxworth Hall, she hides them away in the attic, assuring them they will only have to be there for a few days.

In the end, though, the four Dollanganger children – Cathy, her older brother Christopher, and their younger twin siblings Cory and Carrie – are locked in the attic for three years. During this time, Cathy and Chris become surrogate parents to the twins, which eventually culminates in the novel’s most notorious moment: an incestuous sexual encounter, in which Cathy’s consent is dubious at best, although she later assures Chris, “I could have stopped you if I’d really wanted to.”

V.C. Andrews.
Wikipedia

An intensely claustrophobic book, Flowers in the Attic owes a lot to pulp Gothic novels. Typified by authors like Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney, these books were usually about young women trapped in mysterious houses with frightening men, a form Joanna Russ famously summed up with the phrase, “Someone’s trying to kill me, and I think it’s my husband.”

In Flowers in the Attic, though, the menace comes not from a husband (despite what happens between Cathy and Chris) but from older female relatives. Their primary jailer is their grandmother, who frequently addresses them as “devil’s spawn”. She is regularly cruel to them, and occasionally starves them. In one memorable scene, she covers Cathy’s blonde hair with tar.

Their mother, though, is ultimately even more menacing. As time passes, she visits the children less and less. After one bout of starvation, they start to receive sugar-covered doughnuts in their food. Soon afterwards, all four children start to become ill, which culminates in one of them dying.

Cathy and Chris realise the doughnuts have been laced with arsenic – and while they initially blame their grandmother, they later realise that their mother was actually responsible. (“I still cannot eat powdered donuts and am very suspicious of all white powdery substances,” wrote Gay in 2013.)

‘I still cannot eat powdered donuts,’ says Roxane Gay, referring to a horrific element of the novel.
Unaizat/AAP

This shift, where the menacing husband of the pulp Gothic became the Dollangangers’ mother and grandmother, was arguably key to the appeal of the book to younger audiences. What is a more teenage experience, after all, than feeling unfairly oppressed and imprisoned by your family?

Indeed, that feeling may have come from Virginia (“V.C.”) Andrews’ own life: “When I wrote Flowers in the Attic, all of Cathy’s feelings about being in prison were my feelings,” Andrews told an interviewer in 1985.

Progressive arthritis had left her limited in terms of movement. A wheelchair user, she was largely dependent on her mother, who her biographer Andrew Neiderman describes as controlling. Her editor Patty, though, was more circumspect. “You could say that Virginia is locked in the attic and her mother is the grandmother,” Patty said. “But she seemed normal.”

According to her sister-in-law, Joan Andrews, the money Virginia made from her books enabled her to become more independent, buying her own home, a computer to write on, and a van that accomodated her wheelchair. “She became very mobile and loved getting out and about,” Joan told Buzzfeed.

The thrill of the forbidden

Flowers in the Attic was not originally marketed to teens. Like most pulp Gothics, it was published as a mass-market paperback, a form Patty described as “cheap editions not meant to endure, not intended for review, often selling in the hundreds of thousands but utterly unknown to the sophisticated, literary reader”.

Given this, it would have been easy for the book to completely disappear into the wilds of literary history, never to be thought of again. But a few things worked in its favour.

goodreads

Firstly, it was published in the heyday of mass-market paperbacks. In the same year Flowers in the Attic was published, paperback rights for Judith Krantz’s novel Princess Daisy – which, coincidentally, also centres on a heroine raped by her brother at age 15 – were sold for a record $3.2 million: an indication of the paperback market boom of the time.

Secondly, Flowers in the Attic almost accidentally became a lead title for Pocket Books, due to a lack of any reprints of major hardcover bestsellers coming out in the month of its publication. This meant it received a much more substantial marketing push than it would have otherwise.

Thirdly, it benefited substantially from its iconic cover, which, due to said marketing push, featured in a lot of bookshop displays. The cover shows a heavily foiled image of a house with a keyhole cut-out over the attic window. Through the window, Cathy’s face is visible, but when the cover is opened, all four Dollanganger children are revealed.

The wholehearted embrace of the book by younger readers, however, was fundamental to its success. It combined a particularly teen-resonant form of the pulp Gothic with the scandal and taboo of more explicit books like Princess Daisy.

All of this contributed to a feeling that it was a book young people should not be reading, that even knowing about it was illicit and forbidden.

Of course, this just made them want to read it even more.

A style icon

Whether or not V.C. Andrews was a “good” writer is up for debate. Plenty of critics have derided her books – but those books have also clearly struck a chord with many, who still remember them very well, many decades later.

What she certainly was, though, was a distinctive writer. “It may be awful, but it is a style,” Patty said when defending the book to Pocket’s sales manager.

Neiderman, Andrews’ biographer, became her ghostwriter after she died of breast cancer in 1986. He studied that style intently and is still publishing books under her name.

She was also clearly an impactful writer. Andrews has influenced many other authors: (including, but not limited to, Gillian Flynn).

Decades after its publication, Flowers in the Attic in particular has proved to be iconic. It holds an enormous place in the collective cultural memory of people who read it growing up: even if all they remember is that “the brother and sister do it”. Läs mer…

An enduring challenge facing science around the world is how to best include and engage Indigenous communities.

In Australia, for example, 0.5% of Indigenous peoples held a university STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) qualification in 2021, compared to 4.9% of the Australian population. Studies have also shown that while researchers are increasingly engaging Indigenous communities, they often do so disrespectfully and with a lack of goodwill.

Addressing this challenge was the focus of a research summit I attended earlier this month.

The Tri-Academy Partnership on Indigenous Engagement: A Research Summit on Cultural Heritage in an Era of Reconciliation was the first of three annual events bringing together academics from Canada, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. It showed how the scientific community can be more inclusive – and how increased Indigenous engagement and participation will benefit everybody.

Leading minds from across the world

Leading Indigenous academics from all three nations attended the summit. They gave talks on topics such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous leadership in academic institutions and the role of Indigenous engagement in expanding and improving research and education.

Many of the issues Indigenous academics raised at the summit were common to all three nations.

We heard of structural issues such as lack of recognition and protection of Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Protocols. We also heard about the problem of research being about us but without us and the barriers to increasing the number of Indigenous academics.

One of these barriers is the historical erasure and suppression of Indigenous cultures and their associated knowledges. Another is the education pipeline: only 68% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged 20–24 have completed Year 12 or equivalent. A third barrier is the cultural safety for both university students and staff.

These barriers were highlighted by deeply personal stories shared throughout the summit, including from residential school survivors and academics who had experienced racism in their workplace.

Fundamentally these issues are all rooted in the same thing: the significant power imbalance between Indigenous communities and the academic community seeking to engage them.

This has resulted in previous engagement being a purely extractive process. Researchers have taken knowledge from Indigenous communities, without giving anything back. This has eroded trust.

There is movement to improve engagement by moving from projects done “on us” to projects done “with us” and “by us”. But achieving this goal will require long-term, strategic engagement of Indigenous communities to move from merely nice-to-have representation to genuine partnership.

It will take time to rebuild that trust. And it may require non-Indigenous researchers to spend years simply sitting with and listening to Indigenous communities.

Mutual benefits

But even though it may take time, this is worthwhile work.

For communities with genuine partnership and benefit sharing, engagement with academia and the learned academies could meaningfully uplift communities.

For example, Indigenous-led organisation Trioda Wilingi employs Indigenous people at all levels and is working with scientists from the University of Queensland to produce medical gels from spinifex grass. These gels can treat painful conditions such as arthritis.

For academia, Indigenous communities hold a great depth and breadth of knowledge which is recognised in Australia’s Science and Research Priorities. It can improve our lives and better connect us with the places we live.

A mountain to climb

As the summit began, we heard of the passing of the First Nations Canadian politician and lawyer the Honourable Murray Sinclair. His presence looms large in matters of Indigenous engagement – he chaired the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada.

Thanks to his extensive work in this area, his presence and words echoed through every talk and panel. The most notable are two quotes from his time chairing the commission. One describes the commission’s work:

We have described for you a mountain. We have shown you the way to the top. We call upon you to do the climbing.

The second quote reflects on the role of education in reconciliation:

Education got us into this mess, and education will get us out of it.

These are statements that reverberate across the three nations that took part in the summit. They highlight the ongoing issues in the engagement of the learned academies and academia more broadly with Indigenous peoples.

Transformational education

There is still a mountain to climb – and education remains key.

But to overcome history, education must be developed in the communities’ interests with their voices at the table to create genuinely transformational education.

For the academic sector – and society more broadly – education is key to understanding why climbing the mountain is important.

Hampering the climb is easy, but it doesn’t make the mountain disappear.

The summit in Vancouver was supported by the Royal Society of Canada, the Australian Academy of Science, and the Royal Society Te Apārangi (Aotearoa New Zealand). There will be another summit next year in Aotearoa New Zealand. The final one will be in 2026 in Australia. Läs mer…

Cricket originated in England, but has been spread worldwide by British soldiers and settlers in the past few hundred years.

It is now the second most popular sport in the world in terms of number of fans, after soccer.

This spread has been most successful in the Indian sub-continent, which is now considered the epicentre of world cricket.

This region includes countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

According to the International Cricket Council (ICC), 90% of the world’s cricket fans are from the sub-continent.

History of cricket in the Indian sub-continent

Cricket was introduced to the Indian sub-continent by sailors and traders from the East India Company in the early 18th century.

The first recorded cricket match in this region was played between British sailors in western India in 1721.

Introducing English sports and traditions was intended to assert British dominance and cultural superiority. However, Indian elites embraced cricket as a way to gain favour with their rulers.

Over time, cricket became popular with the entire population.

Modern popularity

Cricket is now the most popular sport in countries such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan.

Cricket matches between India and Pakistan are considered one of the biggest sporting events in the world, and are regularly watched by nearly half a billion fans.

While cricket is also very popular in other successful cricketing nations such as Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom, it does not enjoy the same unrivalled status as it does in the Indian sub-continent.

Cricket as religion

Cricket is now a hugely important part of the region’s culture and identity.

It has the ability to cut across regional, ethnic, social class and religious divides, and unite countries in a way no other sport or cultural institution can.

Indeed, cricket has been described as a religion, particularly in India where it brings people of all faiths and backgrounds together.

While politicians and religious leaders in the region have used the popularity of cricket to their advantage, “cricket diplomacy” has also been used to cool tensions and diplomatic issues, particularly between India and Pakistan.

It even has the power to temporarily stop civil wars. In 2007, the Tamil Tigers militant group declared a ceasefire with the government of Sri Lanka for the duration of the Cricket World Cup.

Why is cricket so popular?

Cricket can be played anywhere. In large South Asian cities, it is often played in cramped spaces such as rooftops, markets and busy streets.

Variations such as “tape ball cricket” and “street cricket” mean players can simply use a rubbish bin, milk crate, or marks on a wall as the wickets.

The bat can be a stick, and a rubber or tennis ball can be taped to ensure it deviates in the air to make things more challenging for a batter.

Games of cricket can be seen just about anywhere on the Indian sub-continent.

This softer ball means equipment such as pads and helmets are not needed.

Many of South East Asia’s cricket legends such as Wasim Akram and Sachin Tendulkar first honed their skills in chaotic street games that required quick reflexes and improvisation.

Winning the Cricket World Cup in 1983 (India), 1992 (Pakistan), 1996 (Sri Lanka) and 2011 (India) made cricketers heroes and role models for new generations.

A lack of success in other sports – except India and Pakistan in hockey, particularly during the 20th century – means cricket has little competition for the hearts of sports fans in the region.

Media momentum

Huge media coverage and sponsorship across the sub-continent has ensured significant money and resources have been invested back into cricket.

For instance, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has previously earned billions of dollars over a five year period from lucrative television rights.

Much of this money is from the Indian Premier League – a Twenty20 competition that has quickly become the biggest cricket league in the world.

Similar successful (but not as profitable) T20 competitions have been set up in countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The majority of the ICC’s revenue now comes from India. Consequently, the BCCI has increasing control over the ICC and its decisions.

Additionally, India will be given 38.5% of the ICC’s profits in the 2024-2027 cycle – 105 nations will share the other 61.5%.

The BCCI have invested their profits in cricket stadium upgrades, centres of excellence and world class training staff .

While these investments help build future cricket pathways and facilities for the next generation of aspiring Indian cricketers, the ICC profit split has been criticised for making the richest countries richer and missing the chance to grow the game in other countries.

What about women’s cricket?

Cricket has the potential to be even more popular in the region if it embraces gender equality. One example of this would be Afghanistan, if the Taliban lifts its current ban on women playing cricket.

Countries such as Australia have refused to play men’s cricket matches against Afghanistan until conditions for women and girls improve.

Female cricketers in the Indian sub-continent often have to deal with barriers such as reduced funding and salaries, death threats, sexism and conservative gendered expectations.

However, the success of women’s teams has resulted in increased acceptance of women’s cricket in the Indian sub-continent in recent years.

Notable recent initiatives include the BCCI launching a successful women’s T20 competition in 2023. The recent ICC T20 World Cup was the first time women received the same prize money as their male counterparts.

These decisions align with the ICC prioritising the growth of the women’s game.

Continued popularity and growth

The deep passion for the game and continued success of teams from the Indian sub-continent is likely to ensure cricket’s continued popularity.

Cricket is also growing in popularity in countries like the United States, thanks to large Indian communities – in fact, the US co-hosted the 2024 T20 World Cup.

The addition of cricket to the Los Angeles Olympic program in 2028, should ensure that sub-continent cricket fans support the popularity of cricket in the years ahead. Läs mer…

When spring arrives, so do warnings about thunderstorm asthma. But a decade ago, most of us hadn’t heard of it.

So where did thunderstorm asthma come from? Is it a new phenomenon?

In 2016, the world’s most catastrophic thunderstorm asthma event took Melbourne by surprise. An increase in warnings and monitoring is partly a response to this.

But there are also signs climate change may be exacerbating the likelihood of thunderstorm asthma, with more extreme weather, extended pollen seasons and a rise in Australians reporting hay fever.

A landmark catastrophe

The first time many Australians heard of thunderstorm asthma was in November 2016, when a major event rocked Melbourne.

During a late night storm, an estimated 10,000 people were rushed to hospitals with severe asthma attacks. With thousands of calls on emergency lines, ambulances and emergency departments were unprepared to handle the rapid increase in people needing urgent medical care. Tragically, ten of those people died.

This was the most catastrophic thunderstorm asthma event in recorded history and the first time deaths have ever occurred anywhere in the world.

In response, the Victorian Department of Health implemented initiatives, including public awareness campaigns and improvements to health and emergency services, to be ready for future thunderstorm asthma events.

A network of pollen monitoring stations was also set up across the state to gather data that helps to predict future events.

A problem for decades

While this event was unexpected, it wasn’t the first time we’d had thunderstorm asthma in Australia – we’ve actually known about it for decades.

Melbourne reported its first instance of thunderstorm asthma back in 1984, only a year after this phenomenon was first discovered in Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Thunderstorm asthma has since been reported in other parts of Australia, including Canberra and New South Wales. But it is still most common in Melbourne. Compared to any other city (or country) the gap is significant: over a quarter of all known events worldwide have occurred in Melbourne.

Why Melbourne?

Melbourne’s location makes it a hotspot for these kinds of events. Winds coming from the north of Melbourne tend to be dry and hot as they come from deserts in the centre of Australia, while winds from the south are cooler as they come from the ocean.

When hot and cool air mix above Melbourne, it creates the perfect conditions for thunderstorms to form.

Northern winds also blow a lot of pollen from farmlands into the city, in particular grass pollen. This is not only the most common cause of seasonal hay fever in Melbourne but also a major trigger of thunderstorm asthma.

Why grass pollen?

There’s a particular reason grass pollen is the main culprit behind thunderstorm asthma in Australia. During storms there is a lot of moisture in the air. Grass pollen will absorb this moisture, making it swell up like a water balloon.

If pollen absorbs too much water whilst airborne, it can burst or “rupture,” releasing hundreds of microscopic particles into the air that can be swept by powerful winds.

Normally, when you breathe in pollen it gets stuck in your upper airway – for example, your nose and throat. This is what causes typical hay fever symptoms such as sneezing or runny nose.

But the microscopic particles released from ruptured grass pollen are much smaller and don’t get stuck as easily in the upper airway. Instead, they can travel deep into your airways until they reach your lungs. This may trigger more severe symptoms, such as wheezing or difficulty breathing, even in people with no prior history of asthma.

A grass pollen rupturing.
Kira Hughes/Supplied, CC BY

So who is at risk?

You might think asthma is the biggest risk factor for thunderstorm asthma. In fact, the biggest risk factor is hay fever.

Up to 99% of patients who went to the emergency department during the Melbourne 2016 event had hay fever, while a majority (60%) had no prior diagnosis of asthma.

Every single person hospitalised was allergic to at least one type of grass pollen. All had a sensitivity to ryegrass.

Is thunderstorm asthma becoming more common?

Thunderstorm asthma events are rare, with just 26 events officially recorded worldwide.

However there is evidence these events could become more frequent and severe in coming years, due to climate change. Higher temperatures and pollution could be making plants produce more pollen and pollen seasons last much longer.

Extreme weather events, including thunderstorms, are also expected to become more common and severe.

In addition, there are signs rates that hay fever may be increasing. The number of Australians reporting allergy symptoms have risen from 15% in 2008 to 24% in 2022. Similar trends in other countries has been linked to climate change.

Read more:
Why do I have hay fever? I didn’t have it as a child

How can I prepare?

Here are three ways you can reduce your risk of thunderstorm asthma:

stock up on allergy medication and set up an asthma action plan with your GP
check daily pollen forecasts for the estimated pollen level and risk of a thunderstorm asthma event in your local area
on days with high pollen or a high risk of thunderstorm asthma, spend less time outside or wear a surgical face mask to reduce your symptoms. Läs mer…