One of the most common criticism levied against social media is that it’s actively making us dumber.

Social media platforms make it incredibly easy for ‘fake news’ or low-quality journalism to circulate. Indeed, they often actively encourage negative journalistic behaviours, such as clickbait headlines or opaque sponsored content – if it gets clicks, that’s all they care about. The priority becomes digestibility or shareability as opposed to quality writing or journalistic integrity.

Regardless of the quality of content, the algorithms that power many of the biggest social media platforms also tend to inoculate us from a diverse spectrum of content, particularly when it comes to political coverage. One only has to look at the United States to see the disastrous effect social media can have on politics – political polarisation is at an all-time high, in no small part thanks to the different ‘bubbles’ progressives and conservatives find themselves in.

At least that’s the theory.

DMARGE spoke to Dr Peter Chen – senior lecturer at the Department of Government and International Relations of the University of Sydney, and expert on media politics – who suggests that the common narrative that ‘getting all our news from social media is making us dumber’ isn’t entirely accurate.

“There’s no evidence they make us dumber, but some that social media use might improve information processing,” Dr Chen relates.

He points to a 2018 study by Prof. Kelly Quinn from the University of Illinois at Chicago which showed that older people who had social media training found that after being trained, they experienced “positive benefits to the function of inhibitory control, suggesting that these media impact the processing of information and cognitive function”. That is to say, using social media – including using it as a news source – might help improve things like your working memory and self-control.

Dr Chen explains that “the ‘dumb’ thing is commonly associated with high information velocity and low discrimination, which is an attention issue.”

“This generation is the most educated of all time, they’re not getting dumber; dumbness is just more visible and the value of media/engagement so low (because of abundance) that discrimination is lower in what’s produced.”

The issue is twofold. Firstly, it’s the curse of living in the ‘information age’. There is more media; more news than ever before and access to it has never been easier. It creates a ‘race to the bottom’ effect: in order for media organisations to stay profitable, they need to continue pumping out content – and that often comes at the expense of quality.

Secondly, because there’s just an oversaturation of content, on average you’re just going to be exposed to more crap. Think of it like America’s Funniest Home Videos. Americans didn’t start doing dumb stuff once the camcorder was invented. It’s just being recorded now – and if you tune into a show that’s all about people doing dumb stuff, you’re likely to see some dumb stuff.

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The post Getting Your News From Social Media May Have More Benefits Than You Think appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

When it comes to Disney child stars, it’s 50/50 whether they turn out to be a basket case later on in life (considering the pressure they’re under, we can hardly blame them). For every well-adjusted star like your Sprouse brothers, Hilary Duff or Zendaya, you’ve got a Shia LaBeouf, Miley Cyrus or Lindsey Lohan. Turns out fame’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

Vanessa Hudgens is a tricky case because for a few years in the late 2000s, it looked like she might end up as yet another Disney cautionary tale. After nudes of hers were leaked in 2007, it was speculated that she might lose her starring role in High School Musical 3. Thankfully, those rumours didn’t eventuate and she didn’t let the setback dictate the rest of her career (it also proves how backwards things were back then, with Hudgens having to apologise for a traumatic privacy breach of someone else’s doing).

Flash forward to 2020 and Hudgens is riding high off the back of appearing in Bad Boys For Life alongside Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, as well as starring in Netflix’s The Princess Switch: Switched Again. The 31-year-old is not only going from strength to strength acting-wise but also when it comes to cars. She’s got great taste in fine motors – as evidenced by the Ferrari 488 Spider she was spotted tooling around in this week.

The Ferrari 488 Spider is a two-seat open-top variant of Ferrari’s iconic rear-engined V8, produced from 2015 to 2019. Only 50kg heavier than its fixed-roof sibling, its twin-turbocharged 3.9L F154 engine makes a meaty 493kW and accelerates the Prancing Horse from 0 to 100km/h in 3 seconds flat. Hudgens has also resisted one of the worst celebrity car instincts (we’re looking at you, deadmau5) and chosen a red Ferrari. Ferraris should only be red. We don’t know why they give you other colour options.

Hudgens is actually a lowkey revhead. She also owns a Lamborghini Huracán Spyder and a Tesla Model S, plus an Audi A7 and S5 convertible. Hopefully she’s a better driver than Britney Spears.

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The post Vanessa Hudgens’ ‘Tasteful’ Supercar Proves Not All Disney Stars Are Lost Causes appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Melbourne has museums, Sydney has beaches.

Melbourne has hipster cafes, Sydney has overpriced restaurants.

Melbourne has artists, Sydney has real estate agents.

The stereotypes go on.

The main accusation levelled? Sydney is the Los Angeles of Australia. We’re a bunch of basic b*tches and finance bros.

We’re a city of activewear enthusiasts, personal trainers, British expats and hypocritical environmentalists.

Compost bins out back, BMW’s out front.

Above all? Sydney has no culture.

However, there is one thing the rest of the world forgets in its mocking assessment of Sydney.

RELATED: Man’s ‘Unbearable’ Experience Reveals The Perils Of Moving Too Far Away From The City

Sydney does Friday afternoons better than anywhere.

 

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Before you throw your bottle of Rioja at me: hear us out. I’m not suggesting Sydney has better nightlife than Barcelona or Berghain.

But from 3pm to 8pm in Spring, Autumn and Summer, Sydney is the place to be.

Whether you’re at Harbour Bar or Camperdown Park, there are a hundred places you can briefly, refreshingly, kill your inner monologue.

A social ‘flow state.’

As the following photo shows, Manly’s East Esplanade is the perfect place to do this.

 

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A post shared by OLIVIA STAUBER (@livstauber)

“Spending Fridays at The Office is such a relaxing end to the week,” photo poster Olivia Stauber told DMARGE.

“Splitting a $2 bottle of wine from Aldi next door and being surrounded by friends and strangers who are happy the week is done is the perfect way to cap your day.”

Drink free from 8pm to 8am (but otherwise a permanent BYO Happy Hour) East Esplanade has jokingly been dubbed ‘The Office’ by locals and backpackers alike (it even has its own Instagram geotag to boot).

The result? Perhaps the best drink spot in Australia.

Sure: it may be due to our dearth of a passable nightlife scene. But all that energy 20-35 year olds are not wasting on a sticky dance floor between the hours of 3am and 6am, like they might in other cities, gets sucked back into this golden pre-sunset moment, in a way you don’t quite get anywhere else.

While Europeans have “meditative” cafe experiences (the benefits of which, thanks to our takeaway culture and phone scrolling addiction, Australians miss out on), we have day drinking.

“Café life is when you just take the time to love a little instead of rushing from place to place. It is when you can afford to wait 15-20 minutes to have your order taken for a simple coffee and another 15-20 minutes to have it brought to you… The time it takes to fully enjoy the simple pleasure of another person’s company, a fresh newspaper or a good book,” Paris photographer Patrick Colpron wrote earlier this year.

We’d argue you get the same kind of thing at The Office – but for hours.

One Facebook user summed it up masterfully, recently writing: “Manly has no culture. Sit down at the Office on a Sunday arvo, sun slowly coming down and the smell of a wharf bar session with a 6 pack and change my mind.”

This came in response to the outrageous news Cr Pat Daley is trying to make East Esplanade a drink-free zone 24/7.

The user was trying to garner support for a petition against the proposed change. The petition now has 5,590 signatures.

 

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“Save The Office,” the petition reads. “A fantastic area to enjoy a sunset drink with friends and family.”

“Cr Pat Daley is attempting to shut down ‘The Office.'”

“He is putting in a motion at the next council meeting to make East Esplanade a 24-hour alcohol-free zone.”

“Pat, don’t be the hero that ruins Manly for the rest of us. Leave the office as it is, and when appropriate, return the alcohol-permitted hours to normal. It goes without saying the outcry to follow will come at you thick and fast if you don’t.”

 

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“The necessity to enforce a 24/7 alcohol prohibited area during the peak of COVID-19 restrictions was an understandable one, but let’s not use this as a justifiable excuse to enforce the ban permanently. Life might not be what it once was for a little while longer – that I realise – but to do so in perpetuity would be leading us all down a very slippery slope.”

The decision was set to have been debated in late September 2020 by the council, with an update to the petition on the 22nd September reading, “The Council will vote next week to end the Office (or not).”

 

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It would appear a firm conclusion has not been reached, with The Manly Daily, as far as DMARGE has seen, not having reported on any outcome.

Recent ‘The Office’ posts suggests whatever decision was made (or not made) in said meeting, for the time being ‘The Office’ lives on.

Just 18 hours ago (from the time of writing) The Office was pumping.

 

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A post shared by Marcus Mckinnon (@marcusmckinnonn)

Comments left beneath the petition show the perspective of some The Office enthusiasts on the prospective new rule.

“I pay 2 lots of rates to Northern Beaches Council for the privilege of sitting on the grass at the office, drinking wine with family and friends and having a swim while watching the sunset,” one wrote. “Young families who are not in a position to go to bars or clubs with their young children gather here to enjoy the little slice of Heaven that Manly offers.”

“Lets embrace what we have and enjoy it responsibly. Oh and if you are one of the many fortunate owners who live on the strip who constantly complain, pop on over for a bevvie, you might enjoy yourselves.”

 

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The post 'Humble' Photo Smashes Stereotype 'Sydney Has No Culture' appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

From Barcelona to Berghain, New York to London, there are a lot of famous places to visit in the world.

Most people will plan their trips based on Big Ticket destinations.

After that, the way we discover more low key locales can be broken down into three methods. One: tagging along with new hostel mates. Two: Lonely Planet. Three: Google.

That was until a few years ago.

Now one of the ~trending~ ways to discover new destinations is Instagram’s ‘explore’ function.

The ‘tavertet’ hashtag demonstrates this in stunning style.

Tavertet is a little clifftop town. It sits 900m above sea level, in the area known as Collsacabra, in the comarca of Osona in Catalonia.

Below the cliffs is reservoir Pantà de Sau, a dam that fattened the waters of the river Ter in the 1960s.

With 28,614 posts to its name, before the pandemic smashed international travel, the ‘tavertet’ Instagram hashtag was growing fast. So were the number of posts with the ‘tavertet’ geotag.

Unfortunately, though posts with the ‘tavertet’ hashtag have continued this year, posts with the ‘tavertet’ geotag (appear to) have not.

The most recent images under the ‘tavertet’ geotag are from 82 weeks ago (April 2019).

Whether this is a reflection of our poor Instagram skills or a direct result of the travel shaming and travel snitching phenomenons which have arisen this year is not certain (it is more likely the former seeing as the pandemic didn’t hit until the start of 2020).

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The global pandemic probably played a hand though.

In any case, the old images under the ‘tavertet’ geotag (and the new images in the ‘tavertet’ hashtag, for that matter) show why this quaint village is worth a visit.

Hiking, restaurants, peace, quiet; more views that you can throw a selfie stick at. What more could you ask for?

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Plus: many FOMO inducing places to park your van.

RELATED: How Not To Get Shot Or Arrested In The South Of Spain

The images also suggest that though international tourists are not visiting at the same rate right now, locals (and domestic tourists) are still making their way there.

From wholesome hiking pictures, to couples and friends enjoying the views, Tavertet looks attractive to visit right now.

As hikes like the Camino de Santiago have boomed in popularity over the last 10 years, perhaps when international travel returns to normal (experts believe this will be around 2024) we will see off beat destinations like Tavertet be seen more and more as a quirkier, quieter option (with significantly better views).

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The post The Little Known Spanish Town Blowing Up On Instagram appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

There tend to be three periods in a man’s life when you consider buying a sports car: either when you’re young, childless and devoid of responsibility (and keen to fulfil that adolescent desire to ‘go fast’); when you’re going through a mid-life crisis and want to rekindle your youth; or when you’ve finally retired and can afford something really nice.

But none of these periods are really that conducive to sports car ownership.

When you’re young, you probably can’t afford something decent (or safe), and buying a car as part of a mid-life crisis never ends well. But when you’re finally level-headed and cash-rich enough to indulge your sports car fantasy, you’re probably too old to really handle or appreciate the vivacity of a sports car. Life’s a bitch, ain’t it?

But some men are doing the unthinkable: driving sports cars when they’ve got young kids. Conventional wisdom would say that once you have kids, you need to give up your sporty coupé or roadster for something more practical, like a station wagon or SUV. But there’s method to their madness.

DMARGE spoke with Patrick Kidd, founder of Australian men’s grooming empire Patricks – and father of two – who says that keeping his Porsche 997 despite having two little tackers is one of the best decisions he’s ever made.

“I’m the king of the school dropoff,” he laughs.

Explaining that he’s at a stage in his life where he’s “not partying any more,” investing in a fun sports car made sense. “It makes even little journeys fun,” he relates, sheepishly admitting he uses it more than the station wagon he and his wife share, even for ferrying the kids around. Kidd’s take? It’s not that hard to make a sports car work with kids.

“People are just scared of the size. I can fit two baby seats in the back, and with a roof pod on top, I’ve got plenty of space. Plus, the pod on top looks great. It shows that the car’s actually driven, and makes it look a bit like a rally monster,” he jokes.

RELATED: ‘Will Never Happen Again’: Porsche Shuts Down Runway At Sydney Airport For Entire Day

Indeed, there’s an argument to be made that a sports car is perfect for when you’ve got young kids. Older kids or adults won’t fit comfortably in the back of most sports cars, but infants or young ones will. You may as well take advantage of the fact that they’re still small to keep your fun car around a little longer. Kidd also thinks that because his kids will be growing up alongside a cool car, it will instil in them an appreciation of nice cars – and nice things.

“Once a week me and my daughter get out all the car detailing equipment and just spend a few hours looking after the car. It’s a great bonding experience, and she loves cleaning the car with me. She knows that one day, she’ll get the car too.”

It’s not just Kidd who’s on the sports cars with kids train. A DMARGE correspondent spotted this dad driving a limited-edition Ford Mustang Bullitt, a hotted-up version of an already impressive performance car – which as CarAdvice notes, has a pretty titchy back seat. It hasn’t stopped this bloke from putting two baby seats in the back, however.

Even crazier is this mad bastard we came across, who’s put a child seat in the front of his Lamborghini Aventador (although you don’t have much of a choice, seeing as the Aventador doesn’t even have a back seat). The fact that the Aventador even has mounting points for child seats means that they’re not the only dad who’s attempted this…

The other thing that’s counterintuitive about a lot of sports cars is that despite often having rather cramped rear seats (or none at all, like in the Lambo’s case), they have surprisingly big boots (or ‘trunks’, for our American readers), particularly turn-of-the-century models: 90s legends like the Honda NSX, C5 Corvette or Mitsubishi 3000GT have surprisingly spacious cargo areas.

“I was selling a fridge, and a guy turned up in an old Toyota Celica looking to pick it up. I didn’t think it was going to fit, but he got it in there… I was incredibly surprised,” DMARGE founder and publisher Luc Wiesman recounts.

Hell, my 1996 Ford Probe’s back seats are entirely theoretical, but it’s got more boot space than my mum’s Mazda CX-5 compact SUV.

Of course, not all sports cars are as practical as a Porsche or a Probe. You’d be hard-pressed to fit the kid’s school bags and science projects in the boot of a Subaru BRZ, for example. Much of that has to do with the improved crash-worthiness of modern sports cars, which necessitates thicker A-pillars, curtain airbags and so on, compromising internal space.

But practicality is only part of the equation. Sure, sports cars might be more practical than you might anticipate, but that’s not why you drive a sports car.

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The post 'King Of The School Dropoff': Australian Fathers Ditching Family Cars For Sports Cars appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

The secret to happiness is a question or a thought that has plagued many a deep thinker. Some say the answer to happiness is money, while large portions of the population refute this as being the opinion of those who already have it.

For others, finding inner peace and being happy with who you are as a person is worth more than any sum of money, but how exactly do you achieve that? Hollywood megastar Matthew McConaughey may have the answer, and it’s something that is both simple to do and incredibly common.

Journaling.

You may be thinking, “but I already write in a journal”, and we wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a hobby practised by many people, who find writing down their thoughts each day to be a great stress reliever. But for Matthew, who revealed he has been “keeping a journal for thirty six years” on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, instead of simply writing his thoughts down – both good and bad – he chooses to revisit them at a later date.

Also importantly – and different to how most people journal – McConaughey makes an effort to keep journalling even when his life is going well, not just having a whinge into it when things are going poorly (read: us).

“My idea was that, hey, you’re going to get in a rut again. You lose your frequency, you might want this to go back and look at to help you recalibrate. And that proved to be true.”

“So many times we dissect failure and hardships, but we don’t dissect success.”

“And going back in those journals, I found that there are times when I got in a rut later and I was able to go back to those journals and go, what were your habits when you were rolling, man?”

“Who were you hanging out with? Where were you going? What were you eating, what were you drinking and how much sleep were you getting? How were you looking at life?”

“And they helped me recalibrate in the times when I was off frequency and to get back on the rails and find my frequency again.”

The Interstellar star went on to reveal more tidbits of his routines that help him achieve happiness (and which could be key to his success).

“One thing I do check in with myself before checking in with the world when I wake up in the morning.”

“Really sit there and take a little time, read a little something that’s between me and me. A little something before picking up the damn phone and saying, hey, what e-mails came in or hopping out in the kitchen and everyone is already going hey, what’s up?!”

What’s also impressive about Matthew’s commitment to keeping himself sane and happy, is that he did it all by himself and without the help of external sources such as books, teachings or classes.

“I think I figured it out on my own. I mean, the other thing I didn’t you was to book in the day before I say my prayers and night to go through the day, which I don’t know about you, but it can be hard to remember what you had for breakfast after dinner.”

“When you’re going to bed, it can be hard to remember those first things we did in the day. So I’ll go back through my day when I’m happiest. I go back to my day and I like to write a mental note of what my plans are for tomorrow.”

“That’s a big stress reliever for me. I think I learned it on my own. I’ve always been a list keeper.”

“The longer the list, the more things I can tick off that day and the more I feel like I accomplished something, it makes it kind of easy to do the hard stuff.”

McConaughey was speaking to Joe Rogan about the release of Greenlights, his memoirs in a sense, based upon his thirty plus years of journaling. Who knows, it could be the catalyst you need to turn your life around and to achieve genuine happiness.

You can listen to and watch the full interview with Matthew below.

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The post Matthew McConaughey Reveals His Unusual Secret To Happiness & Success appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

We all need a helping hand sometimes. But as a recent – hilarious – letter just proved, help doesn’t have to always go one way.

The best relationships in life are mutually beneficial. The following ‘character reference’ proves it with glee.

New York based comedian and podcast host Francis Ellis just posted what we’re calling ‘the best reference letter ever’ on Instagram, in doing so proving why it pays to befriend your boss.

“I am currently looking for an apartment. I needed a letter of recommendation from my employer, so I asked my boss. He told me to just write it myself and send to him to sign because he was busy with Zoom calls. I sent this letter to him. He actually signed this,” the comedian captioned the Instagram post.

Will it get him the apartment? Read it and decide for yourself.

 

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A post shared by Francis Ellis (@francisccellis)

The highlight? The way it segues from discussing Ellis’ performance at work (“reliable”) and merges into a post-modern pastiche of the Modern Bro Condition.

“We frequently golf together and exchange text messages that transcend the standards of most professional relationships,” the letter begins.

“I have come to him with advice for my putting issues, and he lent a comforting ear.”

“You see, I have trouble with putts outside of 10 feet. Most golfers who suffer from the yips struggle with short putts, however, my yipps set in from the long bomb range.”

“I’m not sure if I have a vision problem, or if some long-ago trauma surfaces as I go through my pre-putt routine.”

“Either way I find that with putts outside the 10 feet range I spray them erratically off line.”

“If the hole is North I am heading South West. I read the break but the green looks like an M.C Escher drawing… up is down, sideways is vertical, gravity doesn’t exist. I want to die…”

“… in sum, I recommend Francis as a tenant.  Feel free to call me for verification.”

Besides being a hilarious depiction of the struggles of putting, it perhaps also shows the pressure comedians feel to be constantly hilarious in every aspect of their lives, even when doing things like renting an apartment.

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The post 'Best Reference Letter Ever' Proves Why It Pays To Befriend Your Boss appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

When the business class bubble of trust burst it was uncomfortable – but a long time coming.

When ‘travel shaming’ hit the airwaves it was touted as “the end of Instagram’s ‘jealousy industrial’ complex.”

When Virgin Australia started serving instant noodles in business class it was hailed as the end of the (pointy end) world.

RELATED: Experts Warn Of The ‘Americanisation Of Business Class’ After Virgin Australia ‘Noodlegate’ Saga

Now there is a new travel trend.

As different countries open their borders at different rates, Covid caseloads shift, legal exemptions remain a source of confusion and influencers keep holiday snaps ‘in the bank’ to post later, we anticipate it plaguing the tourism industry for some time.

That trend?

‘Travel snitching.’

 

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DMARGE was alerted to this trend by the owner of Flight Hacks and pointy end connoisseur Immanuel Debeer.

Immanuel told us travellers have been reported to authorities this year when people assume rules have been broken.

“A friend… had the cops show up at his work because someone had snitched on him! Turned out my friend was exempt under the travel ban rules but it just goes to show how low people will go to spite someone they don’t know!”

DMARGE spoke to said acquaintance to get the (anonymous) down low.

“I went to the Serengeti on Safari end of September/beginning of October,” he told DMARGE.

 

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“I know full well Tanzania is not on the UKs travel corridor, however, given the nature of my job I am exempt for self isolation and have a letter stating as such to show at the border. My partner who I traveled with is not exempt but works from home and followed the 14days self isolation requirement.”

“The issue here was we went on safari for 4 nights in the Serengeti. However on Instagram my stories were delayed and extended to make the whole trip seem like it was 14 days.”

This turned out to be the crux of the problem.

“We returned home on the 8th of October and I continued publishing stories of my trip as if they were in real time up until the 17th where I concluded the trip.”

 

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This is when the consequences of the drawn out Instagram stories hit home.

“On the 21st I posted a story from my office complaining about the construction work and then it began.”

“Went out for lunch and came back… received a call from my boss: ‘were you overseas at the weekend?’ Me: ‘ummm no.’ Boss: ‘ok, just got a message to say you were.’ Me: ‘hmmm odd.'”

Five minutes later his boss asked to speak urgently informing him an email had hit reception saying “Your employee ******* returned from a non exempt country on the 17th of October and was seen in violation of mandatory self isolation on the 21st at your offices.”

He told his boss this email must have been prompted by his Instagram stories. His boss (and bosses boss) accepted the explanation, saying: “They must have identified your workplace from your story or know you.”

“It’s been more than 2 weeks since you were last on leave + you have exemption so we are satisfied just be careful about what you post on social media.”

“Me: jeeez never thought someone would goto the effort of doing this without speaking to me first to check the facts.”

“End of story or so I thought…”

“Literally as I hung up the phone security knock on my door. And says umm ***** there are two police officers to see you.”

“Police: ‘hi we’ve received a report that you are in violation of the UK self isolation laws and we are here to investigate.'”

“Me: burst out into laughter… ‘I just got off the phone with my bosses about this. Someone sent an email to our reception saying the same thing. I had a trip that ended on the 8th of October but on my IG stories it went through and only finished on the 17th.'”

“Police: ‘do you have any proof of this, plane tickets, boarding passes etc?’ Me: ‘yep.'”

Long story short, after seeing the evidence the police were satisfied, apologised for the disturbance (“obviously we have to follow these reports up”) and allegedly said “yeah it’s the age of the Karen.”

Our ‘travel shamed’ source then turned to their IG stories to figure out who the shamer might have been.

“Looking at the story I posted, I can only assume they’ve gone onto google street view looked at the location I tagged and figured out the building I work in. They have then taken my first name from my IG bio + company name on building and plugged it into google… that brings up my LinkedIn and confirms my full name and employment details.”

“They have then used that to send a general email to contact us on the website and called the police.”

“My other theory is it’s someone I know through Instagram and communicate but doesn’t know me that well otherwise they would know my IG stories were delayed and not in real-time. So not that close a ‘friend’ and I’ve somehow pissed them off recently.”

US-based Lizzie Post, etiquette expert and co-president of The Emily Post Institute told DMARGE ‘travel snitching’  is a “big no-no in my state [where you are allowed to travel].”

“If you’re concerned it’s going to impact you then talk to them.”

It’s not just the US and the UK experiencing ‘travel snitching.’ DMARGE recently spoke to an Australian who recently moved from Victoria to Queensland, who told us many who have crossed into Queensland via legal channels are still “scared of backlash on social media.”

Thousands of Victorians moved to Queensland – even while stage four restrictions were still in place.

 

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While it was not legal to go on holiday there (if you were from Victoria), those with long term leases or who were moving house were able to seek exemptions.

News.com.au reports, “Under stage 4 restrictions, removalists [were] still considered essential businesses and Victorians [were] permitted to move house, within curfew hours.”

As DMARGE’s source confirms, many took advantage of this.

“To get across the border, Victorians need to be able to prove they have a valid lease or residency in Queensland and will have to go through mandatory two-week hotel quarantine,” he told us last month.

“You do it all on the Queensland government website, get your permit, get all your paperwork, show it to them at both Melbourne and Brisbane airports [and you’re good to go].”

“At the airport they look for a proper long term lease (not just an Airbnb for 2 weeks), and permits from the Queensland government website.”

“We had a new address and everything, did our 2 week mandatory quarantine in Brisbane then moved up to Noosa – lots of people have done it.”

“Many people have done it – some via Brisbane, some via the Northern territory – where you can also quarantine.”

Where all this sits amid the current stack of “those living their best life” literature (read: Tall Poppy Syndrome) we’ll leave to the psychologists.

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The post The Ethics Of 'Travel Snitching': The Tourism Industry's Latest Plague appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

It’s been a year and a half since the second deadly Boeing 737 Max crash. The tragedy, which occurred in March 2019 (less than five months after the first one), prompted regulators around the world to ground all Boeing 737 Max jets whilst they investigated the issue.

20 months later this “comprehensive and methodical” review process has just concluded, with the US Federal Aviation Administration clearing Boeing’s 737 Max for flight early this morning.

This doesn’t mean they will be able to carry passengers yet.

CNN reports the signing of this order “paves the way” for the troubled Boeing 737 Max to once again fly commercially.

It will likely take between a few weeks and a few months for this to happen for each airline.

“Necessary changes identified in the approval process must be installed, the FAA must inspect the individual planes, and the pilots must complete additional training,” CNN reports.

“US airlines will be able to fly the Max once Boeing updates critical software and computers on each plane and pilots receive training in flight simulators,” the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

“Investigators focused on anti-stall software that Boeing had devised to counter the plane’s tendency to tilt nose-up because of the size and placement of the engines. That software pushed the nose down repeatedly on both planes that crashed, overcoming the pilots’ struggles to regain control. In each case, a single faulty sensor triggered the nose-down pitch.”

“The new software now requires inputs from two sensors in order to activate the software. Boeing says the software also does not override the pilot’s controls like it did in the past,” (Sydney Morning Herald).

There remains an unsolved issue though; passengers’ trust.

The Boeing 737 Max is being used again? pic.twitter.com/Z1nQnL8tv4

— SportsMemeGuy (@TheJDMman) November 18, 2020

Reading the comments beneath various media outlets’ announcing this news, it is clear not everyone is ready to step into a Boeing 737 Max jet again.

 

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A post shared by CNN (@cnn)

In the Instagram comments beneath CNN’s heralding of the news, which was posted two hours ago, there are many comments along the following lines.

“I’ll wait until the next Administration clears it or puts its stamp of approval on it. The current batch of approvers is… well… questionable.”

“I won’t be flying in one.”

“Yeah no.”

“Oh nah….not in 2020 they better not.”

Various Twitter users were quick to express their reticence too.

Exclusive video of the first Boeing 737 Max to fly after the ban. pic.twitter.com/JuLo8Q1QKb

— Chilly (@chillyplayz) November 18, 2020

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The post 'I Won’t Be Flying In One': Boeing 737 Max Return Not Good News For Everyone appeared first on DMARGE Australia.