Category: MIL-OSI

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Austin, Senior Lecturer in Theatre, The University of Melbourne

In the shadow of Franz Kafka’s visionary dystopian fiction, the faceless, hierarchical machinery of bureaucracy has long served as a symbol of quiet, grinding despair. Kafka’s institutions are at once impenetrable and absurd, systems that trap individuals in a perpetual tension between resignation and the faint, flickering hope of change.

Playwright Jean Tong’s Do Not Pass Go sits in this tradition, offering a sharp, often darkly comic examination of conformity and resistance within the modern corporate structure.

Penny (Belinda McClory) and Flux (Ella Prince) are an unlikely duo thrown together on a surreal production line. Flux is a new recruit, still learning the rhythms and unspoken rules of the nameless organisation. Penny is a seasoned employee who has survived the most recent round of redundancies.

From the outset, they appear mismatched, an odd couple divided by age, temperament and philosophy. Penny embodies corporate compliance. She has internalised the company’s expectations so completely they seem to govern her every action. She has never taken a day off, faithfully performs the recommended workplace exercises during her breaks and refuses to take personal calls on company time. For Penny, survival depends on obedience.

Flux, by contrast, views employment as transactional, a means to an end. They are unafraid to take a mental health day and openly question procedures Penny accepts without hesitation. Their early exchanges crackle with tension, shaped by suspicion and incomprehension and the differences that seem to define them.

A sterile environment

The set (from Jacob Battista) reinforces this emotional and ideological divide. The action unfolds almost entirely within a stark white room bathed in fluorescent overhead light (lighting by Harrie Hogan), a space hovering ambiguously between factory floor and science laboratory.

It is clinical, anonymous and faintly menacing.

In this sterile environment, Penny is aghast to learn Flux did not complete the online training modules before their official start date. Flux, perplexed, asks why they would work before being paid. This small but telling disagreement encapsulates the broader philosophical gulf between them.

Tong allows the narrative to unfold at a deliberate, contemplative pace. Katy Maudlin’s direction is considered and deft. Time stretches and folds in on itself; days and months blur together in the purgatory of workplace monotony. Boxes arrive through a mysterious “box door”. Penny and Flux methodically open, catalogue and repack their contents. Pool floaties are inflated and deflated. Ribbons are measured and cut. Plastic fir tree Christmas ornaments are checked and counted.

There is no rationale or meaning to this work. As the play progresses, the boxes accumulate, slowly encroaching upon the white space. The endless stocktake becomes both a literal task and metaphor for existential stasis and ultimately reveal how difficult the rhythm of the workplace can be to resist.

Building a friendship

Initially their exchanges are stilted; Penny’s clipped, interrogative responses set against Flux’s fluid, stream-of-consciousness reflections. But the dialogue gradually softens. Each begins to absorb something of the other.

Flux helps Penny navigate her teenage daughter’s climate anxiety, gently introducing language and empathy where Penny once defaulted to confusion. In turn, Penny becomes an almost maternal figure to Flux, offering reassurance, steadiness and concern beneath her rigid exterior, specifically in relation to Flux obtaining a credit card to support their desire for costly gender affirmation surgery.

Although Penny is confused about Flux’s desire to change their body, Penny’s concern is more about Flux finding themselves in a difficult financial position. Penny and Flux’s bond becomes an act of quiet rebellion against the isolating logic of the institution.

The unseen corporate overlords loom throughout. A performance review instructs Flux to increase their productivity. At one point, a cake arrives unannounced through the box door. Penny reacts with alarm: cake preceded the last wave of redundancies, and so she promptly throws it in the bin, despite Flux’s delight. The gesture captures the atmosphere of paranoia cultivated by opaque management practices.

Beneath the humour lies a deeper inquiry into institutional oppression. As Flux encourages Penny to pursue an ADHD diagnosis, the play probes the tension between social and medical models of disability. Penny muses her suburb reportedly has a high proportion of neurodiverse residents. Is the environment producing neurodivergence, she wonders, or do neurodivergent people gravitate there because it offers belonging? The question lingers, unresolved. Flux convinces Penny to ask for workplace adjustments; Penny is unsurprised when management denies her requests.

In a powerful scene toward the end of the play, Flux offers a monologue: a compelling metaphor on difference, desire and longing, deciding not to go ahead with their surgery… yet.

The moment marks a shift in the sterile surrounds. The characters move outside of the tight confines of their workplace and a warm orange glow envelopes them. Their shared humanity – the messiness, chaos, care and connection troubling the corporate machine – is highlighted.

Do Not Pass Go is a quietly devastating meditation on labour, conformity and the fragile human connections persisting, despite them.

No easy solution is offered. Instead, the suggestion is resistance may begin in smaller, subtler acts: questioning a rule, taking a longer break, making an offer of solidarity or care to a work colleague, choosing compassion over compliance. In doing so, the play honours Kafka’s legacy while speaking urgently to the anxieties of the modern workplace.

Do Not Pass Go is at Melbourne Theatre Company until March 28.

– ref. Jean Tong’s Do Not Pass Go is Kafka for the modern corporate age – https://theconversation.com/jean-tongs-do-not-pass-go-is-kafka-for-the-modern-corporate-age-274979

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/jean-tongs-do-not-pass-go-is-kafka-for-the-modern-corporate-age-274979/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia

On average, Australia’s driest town, Oodnadatta, gets just 172mm of rain a year. But the small town in inland South Australia is likely to get two years’ worth of rain in a single week.

Rainfall records are likely to topple across inland areas, as rains of 150–300mm are predicted this week, following heavy rains in recent days.

Heavy rains are lashing swathes of arid central Australia, as intensely humid tropical air from the Top End is pushed south. Alice Springs is on flood watch. The Trans-Australian rail line is cut amid track washouts. The Northern Territory’s main highway is closed.

More is to come as extreme rains continue over the driest parts of Australia this week. Severe weather warnings for heavy rain have been issued for parts of Queensland, Northern Territory, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. Intense rainfall and damaging winds from localised severe thunderstorms will lead to flash flooding. Flood warnings have been issued for rivers and streams across the entire Lake Eyre Basin. The sheer scale of this event is remarkable – and concerning.

Many remote communities will be cut off for weeks and stock losses are likely to be significant. Western Queensland is already reeling after major floods earlier this year. In coming weeks, floodwaters will engorge rivers flowing to Australia’s lowest point, Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, which could fill for the second year in a row – a rare occurrence. There’s even a possibility the lake could top its 1974 depth record of 6 metres.

What’s causing this?

In recent days, a very slow-moving tropical low has intensified as it moved southeast through the NT.

On the northern and eastern flanks of this weather system lies an incredibly humid airmass from the oceans off Indonesia. As this saturated air moves south, an upper trough extending into northwest New South Wales is forecast to deepen on Tuesday, increasing the risk of heavy falls.

This combination is a recipe for intense rain. As the strengthening upper trough intersects with the humid tropical airmass, it will push saturated air higher up in the atmosphere. Once high enough, the water vapour will condense and fall as heavy rain.

The warmer the air, the more water it can hold. The tropical low is likely to stay almost stationary over central Australia all week, which means it will dump most of its water before eventually weakening.

Two fillings of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre?

Since European colonisation, Australia’s largest salt lake has only filled to near or full capacity four times – most recently in 2025.

There’s still water in many parts of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre from last year’s floodwaters. At last year’s peak, the ephemeral lake covered about 80% of its maximum extent and was just over 2 metres deep in the two deepest parts of the lake, Belt Bay and Madigan Gulf.

As of February 10, many parts of the lake still hold water. These waters came from the torrential rains that hit western Queensland almost a year ago.

Floodwaters typically take months to snake through the lake’s often-dry inland tributaries. If the lake fills again this year, it will be highly unusual.

That’s because the La Niña climate driver in the Pacific Ocean is rapidly weakening and an El Niño is likely. La Niña years tend to bring colder, wetter conditions to Australia, while El Niño years tend to be hotter and drier.

Until now, every filling of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre recorded has been linked to strong La Niña years. Last year’s partial filling took place during a moderate La Niña.

It’s getting harder to project what’s likely to happen based on past experience. When the lake filled to a record depth of 6m in 1974, widespread falls of 300–600mm fell on dry catchments. This year, many northern rivers and streams in the Lake Eyre basin were already at minor or moderate flood level before this huge rain-bearing system formed.

Is there a climate change link?

One of the most visible and devastating changes from global heating is what’s happening to the global water cycle, which moves water from lakes and oceans to clouds to rivers, lakes, snow and ice and back again.

Burning fossil fuels and other emissions have made the world 1.48°C hotter than the pre-industrial period. This is already supercharging the water cycle. This is why we’re witnessing extreme rainfall hitting more often and more intensely across the globe.

There’s a clear link between climate change and more extreme rains and floods. For every 1°C of warming, the atmosphere holds 7% more water vapour. But this figure could be even higher for short-duration rainfall, such as during severe thunderstorms.

Without attribution studies, we can’t say this week’s extreme rains have a direct climate change influence. But the overall trends are very clear.

For the dryland and desert towns, communities and stations bracing for impact, this will be small comfort. It’s crucial we don’t underestimate these rains. They are packing a punch.

– ref. Severe flooding – in central Australia? How a vast humid air mass could soak the desert – https://theconversation.com/severe-flooding-in-central-australia-how-a-vast-humid-air-mass-could-soak-the-desert-276618

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/severe-flooding-in-central-australia-how-a-vast-humid-air-mass-could-soak-the-desert-276618/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charlotte Gupta, Sleep Researcher, Appleton Institute, HealthWise Research Group, CQUniversity Australia

It’s nighttime and you’re exhausted. But the hotel bed feels wrong. The mini fridge won’t stop making that low, irritating hum. The power outlet lights feel brighter than the sun. Outside, random car honks and noises make sleep feel like a distant possibility.

Many of us struggle to sleep in new environments, even when we’re physically tired. But why? The short answer: a mix of biology and psychology.

Broken routines and missing sleep cues

Your brain is wired for predictability, especially at night, during our most vulnerable behaviour: sleep.

A combination of internal and external cues work together to create the right conditions for rest.

Internally, your body signals that it’s time to sleep by decreasing core body temperature and increasing the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin. This makes you less alert.

Externally, your environment needs to support these signals, not compete with it. At home, your typical pre-sleep wind-down habits and familiar surroundings tell your body it is safe to sleep.

But sleeping somewhere new often disrupts these sights, sounds and sensations your body relies on.

There may be different light levels (for example, from hotel room clocks or street lights), unfamiliar noises (such as elevators, traffic and neighbours) and different bedding (for instance, a firmer mattress or softer pillows).

And you may be doing different activities, such as eating out late or working on a laptop on your bed.

An alert brain in a new place

From an evolutionary perspective, lighter sleep or more frequent awakenings when we’re somewhere new may be protective, allowing us to detect potential threats more quickly and respond to danger.

This is known as the “first-night effect”. It means when we sleep somewhere new, our brains don’t fully switch off.

Brain activity recordings have shown that during the first night in a new environment, the left side of the brain remains more responsive to unfamiliar sounds, even during deep sleep, compared to the second night. Once we become familiar with the space, this vigilance usually fades.

But even when we start to get used to a new environment, other factors can still interfere with our sleep.

Stress, travel and emotions

Sleeping in a new environment can also be stressful.

Your brain may be running through logistics and to-do lists, thinking about your early flight, or scenarios where you forget important belongings. Maybe you’re also experiencing jet lag.

Emotions such as homesickness, excitement, anticipation or anxiety can disrupt sleep as well. Even positive stress – for example, feeling excited about a big trip – activates the same arousal systems in the brain as negative stress. The brain doesn’t distinguish why those systems are switched on.

Unfortunately, a heightened arousal system and sleep are competitors. When your stress response is active, it directly interferes with the brain’s ability to disengage and transition into sleep, even when you’re physically exhausted.

But some people actually sleep better away from home

For some of us, being away from home can actually remove everyday distractions: there are no household responsibilities, no unfinished tasks competing for attention, and clearer boundaries between “work time” and “rest time”.

The change of environment may also reduce bedtime rumination, which is often triggered by familiar home environments tied to stress, deadlines or to-do lists.

Better sleep when we are away may be to do with the amount of sleep we usually get at home. Research shows that individuals who are not getting enough sleep at home are likely to get better sleep when travelling.

If your sleep improves when you’re away, it might be an opportunity to consider how stimulating or busy your usual sleep environment has become – and what you can do to make it calmer.

Tips for sweet dreams at home or away

Reassure yourself. If you have a rough night of sleep in a new place it doesn’t mean something is “wrong” with you. It’s a normal, protective response from a brain that’s tuned to safety and familiarity. You might need a night or two to settle in.

Choose sleep-friendly accommodation when you can. Many hotels are deliberately designed to support good sleep and these features, such as pillow menus, melatonin-rich foods on the room-service menu, or even a personal sleep butler, can make a real difference.

Plan for a slower first day. If you know you’re sleeping somewhere new, expect that the first night might not be your best. Where possible, avoid scheduling demanding tasks the next morning and give yourself time to adjust.

Pack your sleep routine in your suitcase. Just as parents might do for their small child, pack your sleep routine with you. If you have a particular pillow case or a sleep mask, or a certain scent that helps you sleep at home, try bringing these with you so your brain has some familiar cues in an unfamiliar environment.

If you notice you sleep better away from home, take a look at your home sleep routine and environment. Keep your room cool and dark and make your bed comfortable with supportive pillows and fresh bedding. Establish a relaxing wind-down routine: dim lights and limit screens in the evening, and stick to consistent bed and wake times, even on weekends.

– ref. The ‘first-night effect’: why it’s hard to sleep when you’re somewhere new – https://theconversation.com/the-first-night-effect-why-its-hard-to-sleep-when-youre-somewhere-new-270299

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/the-first-night-effect-why-its-hard-to-sleep-when-youre-somewhere-new-270299/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodie Avery, Research Co-Lead, Chronic Reproductive Health Conditions, Robinson Research Institute, Adelaide University

If you live with pelvic pain, period pain, sex or bowel symptoms, you may have been told you could have endometriosis, and that surgery is the “gold standard” for diagnosis and treatment.

But over the past few weeks, questions have been raised about whether surgery is actually necessary for women to detect and treat endometriosis.

This week’s ABC Four Corners highlights stories of women undergoing repeated unnecessary surgeries for endometriosis which caused significant harm and left some women unable to have have children.

So where does that leave people who have or suspect they have endometriosis?

Surgery is not always necessary but can be helpful in some instances. But it’s never a simple yes-or-no decision. Let’s look at what the evidence says about who might benefit from surgery and when it’s unnecessary.

What is endometriosis and what is surgery for?

Endometriosis occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus (womb) grows outside the uterus – usually in the pelvis or other areas. It affects about one in seven women and those presumed female at birth.

Surgery for endometriosis has two roles:

• diagnosis: seeing whether endometriosis lesions are present

• treatment: removing or destroying visible disease.

Surgery is no longer needed for diagnosis

Historically, laparoscopy (keyhole surgery) with biopsy was considered best to diagnose endometriosis. If tissue removed at surgery showed endometrial-type cells under the microscope (histology), diagnosis was confirmed.

However, endometriosis care is evolving with imaging and our understanding of pain science is improving. Australian and international guidelines now allow clinicians to diagnose endometriosis based on symptoms.

Deep and ovarian endometriosis can often be diagnosed with specialised ultrasound or MRI. This imaging can also help guide decisions about whether or not to undergo surgery.

So surgery is no longer required to “prove” a person has the condition.

When else might surgery be unnecessary?

Surgery shouldn’t be the first and only treatment option for endometriosis.

Surgery may not be needed if symptoms are manageable with hormonal therapy, allied and complementary health therapies, and lifestyle modification, or the risks of surgery outweigh the benefits.

Just because endometriosis is there, does not mean it causes the symptoms. Adenomyosis (a condition where endometrial-like tissue grows in the muscle wall of the uterus), irritable bowel syndrome, pelvic floor dysfunction and bladder pain syndrome can coexist with endometriosis.

Sometimes treating these other conditions can improve quality of life without surgery.

When might you consider surgery?

Surgery may an appropriate treatment when:

• pain is severe and persistent, and medical therapies have not helped

• imaging suggests deep endometriosis is affecting key organs such as the bowel, bladder or ureters, which can cause complications

• fertility is affected and other options have been explored.

In these cases, surgery is considered for treatment, not diagnosis, and should be performed by an expert clinician – especially for deep or complex disease.

Early surgery may provide symptom relief, but there is little evidence lesions rapidly worsen over time or that urgent surgery improves long-term outcomes.

Although laparoscopies are generally safe, they’re still performed under general anaesthesia, which comes with risks. Other risks from surgery include:

• bleeding or infections
• damage to bowel, bladder or ureters
• adhesion formation, where scar tissue forms and fuses to other parts of the pelvis.

Even after successful surgery, pain may return over time. This doesn’t mean surgery failed or was inappropriate. It means endometriosis and pelvic pain are chronic, complex conditions.

What if the surgeon doesn’t find anything?

Sometimes a surgeon looks inside the pelvis and doesn’t see endometriosis, or histopathology (the tissue taken for analysis in a laboratory) is negative.

This may mean the disease isn’t there, but sometimes it’s not that straightforward. Surgeons may miss a lesion that is microscopic or hidden in difficult-to-access areas such as the bowel.

Histopathology accuracy also depends on many factors. The diseased part of the lesion may be missed during analysis. If the lesions are surgically burnt away (ablated), or very tiny endometriosis lesions are cut out (excised), they may be destroyed by the surgical instruments, making pathology review impossible.

Other times, abnormal-looking areas are removed, when these are in fact not endometriosis.

Questions to help you decide

If you are considering surgery for endometriosis, it can help to ask your doctor:

• what is the goal of surgery?
• what does my imaging show?
• what are the alternatives?
• what other conditions do I have that may contribute to my symptoms?
• how might surgery alleviate these symptoms?
• what is your experience with complex endometriosis?
• what improvements in pain can I realistically expect?
• what are potential complications in my case?

A good surgical consultation should discuss your symptoms, priorities, past experiences and treatments, discuss benefits, limitations and uncertainties around diagnostic tests, and treatment options.

If you feel pressured into surgery, or your surgeon quickly suggests booking surgery without offering other options, seek a second opinion.

If you decide on surgery to manage pelvic pain, your clinician should offer other treatments, such as pelvic physiotherapy and/or medication, which can be used in conjunction.

For those who aren’t planning a pregnancy, evidence shows people who use a hormonal medication to suppress oestrogen after surgery have lower rates of recurrence than those who do not.

For some, surgery is transformative. For others, it offers limited relief. Individualised care is key. The goal is to improve quality of life, not simply to find endometriosis. That decision should be made with you, not for you.

Thanks to Adelaide University Adjunct Lecturer in Gynaecology Mathew Leonardi and Endometriosis Group Leader at Adelaide University’s Robinson Research Institute Louise Hull for their input into this article.

– ref. Is surgery necessary for my endometriosis or ‘suspected’ endo? – https://theconversation.com/is-surgery-necessary-for-my-endometriosis-or-suspected-endo-276365

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/02/23/is-surgery-necessary-for-my-endometriosis-or-suspected-endo-276365/