Indice dei contenuti per September 2022 in Readers Digest Australia

THIS MONTH, IN A FUN JUXTAPOSITION, we take a serious look at the technology that we can come to expect in the near future, while also enjoying a laugh at robots and how they don’t always perform with precision and common sense. Aptly called ‘Robots Gone Wild’ (page 62), our dig at robots shows just how difficult a day-in-the-life of your average robot can get… and how mean we humans are! Meanwhile our Bonus Read, ‘The Future Of Tech’ (page 126), investigates the five leading areas of technology most likely to impact our lives in coming years. From self-driving cars and automated workplaces to leaps into the space frontier, the future is looking anything but slow. Again on the topic of technology, this month’s Genius section examines a trend many…

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST Can’t find your keys – again? Cognitive experts can help you stop searching (and stressing) Sasha Bradford doesn’t have time to lose things. She’s a working mother with lots of hobbies, and when she misplaces her keys, she becomes frustrated and irritable. “It impacts me greatly,” says Bradford. She has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which, she says, makes her “prone to put things in places and not remember where I put them.” Her angst is probably familiar to anyone whose phone is ‘missing-in-action’ a dozen times a day, or who can’t find the TV remote until ten minutes after a favourite show has begun. Such lapses might be accompanied by a nagging fear: is something wrong with me? Probably not, experts agree. “It’s a common occurrence and…

My six year old loves bananas and loves pancakes, but when Daddy makes banana pancakes, I’m the “worst dad ever!” @DEVONESAWA Last night my wife asked me to grab her keys out of her handbag. Instead I found three Tupperware lids, two socks and a third kid we didn’t know we had. @HOMEWITHPEANUT You can’t break me, kid. My generation survived dial-up internet and texting on a flip phone. @GBERGAN Have kids so you always have someone to tell you that your nose hairs need trimming while standing in checkout lines. @RODLACROIX My car was making annoying squeaky noises. It stopped once I dropped off the kids. @CHHAPINESS…

Carol Heffernan, a 43-year-old marketing writer, regularly felt worn out from her busy life of working, shuttling her two young kids to school and play dates, and taking care of housework. But when COVID-19 hit and the kids were suddenly at home all day, learning remotely, she noticed that her run-of-the-mill weariness quickly turned into full-on exhaustion. “All the extra responsibility and the mental load – it just added up,” she says. “I felt grumpy and tired – and it wasn’t due to lack of sleep.” Heffernan didn’t have any time in the day to exercise off her stress. She was short on energy, and she started becoming short with her kids. “After I put them to bed at 8pm, I would just crash on the couch,” she says. If there’s…

“Once I talked to a pizza delivery guy who couldn’t reach his destination because a defiant chicken was standing in the middle of the road.” “Someone called because they got their head stuck in their cat’s scratching post. The cat was stuck inside with them. Throughout the call, I kept hearing, ‘Ow, dude, this isn’t fun for me either.’ ” “On Christmas morning, I got a call from a lady who needed help cooking a turkey. I told her this was an emergency line. She informed me this was an emergency, because she had family coming over.” SOURCE: REDDIT…

Can you identify 12 famous people from our tricky questions? QUESTIONS 1 Leonardo da Vinci is probably the most famous polymath of all time. The testimonies of his varied work are traded at top prices today. Those who are lucky enough to acquire da Vinci’s personal notes will find that they are not easy to read. This is because he often wrote his notes in… a) hieroglyphicsb) a shorthand he developedc) mirror writingd) an early version of Morse code 2 This composer was born in 1770 into a family of musicians. He gave his first piano concert at age seven, and published his first compositions at 12. His works can still be heard in concert halls around the world. He is considered to be the perfecter of Viennese Classicism and…

Teachings From The Fab Four Thank you for your write up regarding the way the Beatles’ creativity came into play during the production of their albums such as Let It Be (‘A Lesson In Creativity’, June). I’ve been a long-time fan of the ‘Fab Four’. The Beatles and Elvis Presley, who is dubbed ‘The King’, remain influential in the world of music in general, and rock and roll in particular. I hope to be able to apply the lessons shared in the article. DINO VIRGILIO G. MONZON III Triumph Over Tragedy I was deeply touched by the story of Carter Viss (‘Run Over By A Speedboat’, May). His remarkable strength of character, inherent nobility and spiritual maturity were evident in the article. This story shows that whatever happens in one’s…

FELINE BEHAVIOUR can vary enormously from one cat to another – they can be friendly or aloof, lazy or energetic, vocal or quiet. They are certainly intriguing creatures with many cute and sometimes strange habits that often have us wondering. Veterinarian Dr Katrina Warren provides answers to your questions about oddball cat behaviours. 1 WHY DO CATS LIKE HIGH PLACES? Wild cats were hunters, and frequenting high places meant they had somewhere safe to view their territory, watch for danger, and attack prey. Tree branches offer them camouflage protection, and being up high provides a sense of security. This appears to be embedded into their DNA. Our domesticated cats also enjoy watching the world from above, which provides them with a safe, calm place away from the activity in a…

SIMPLE TREATMENT TO HALT HEARING LOSS Exposure to loud noise, such as a fire cracker or blaring concert, is a common cause of hearing loss – and now there may be a way to prevent it. A study from Keck Medicine of University of Southern California found that exposure to 100 decibels of sound or more – equivalent to a chainsaw or a motorcycle – causes inner-ear fluid to build up and cause nerve damage. However, when the researchers applied a salt-based solution inside the affected ears one hour after noise exposure, the solution drew out the excess fluid and the nerve damage lessened. After more testing of this simple technique, people exposed to a loud noise could be treated with the relatively inexpensive remedy. GET MOVING FOR YOUR MENTAL…

ROBOTS REALLY ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD. They’re writing novels – the first was 1 The Road published in 2018, a cyborg’s homage to Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. And they’re making lunch: a robot that can make 2000 burgers a day is being tried out by US restaurant chain CaliBurger. What human can compete – especially given that androids don’t complain or ask for a pay rise? But we are quickly learning that there is another side of robotkind, one that’s all too human. Here’s a by-no-means-complete list of failed attempts by automatons to replace us flesh-and-bone types. WORST HOTEL SERVICE EVER A few years back, the Henn na Hotel in Nagasaki, Japan, hired 243 robots to cover positions ranging from concierge to hotel porter. Unfortunately, the check-in robots…

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST Spring is upon us, which means we’re making the most of barbecues, picnics and other outdoor fun. That’s all good, but it also means we’re at increased risk for mishaps. When it comes to treating injuries, the strategies our parents used may no longer be the right things to do. In some cases, folk tales have been debunked; in others, doctors have found better treatments.
 “As we learn new things from science, the guidelines change – and that’s happening with first aid. We now have better evidence of what works,” says Dr Sean McGann, from the American College of Emergency Physicians. If your first-aid techniques aren’t on target, you could end up exacerbating an injury. In a study published in the journal Pediatric Emergency Care, 654…

It’s 11.45 on a Saturday night and I’m waiting for my 14-year-old son Marlais to come back from his first gig. He’s been to see the legendary rap group Public Enemy, playing at the Roundhouse in London. He’s been to festivals with me, hung around in Oasis’ dressing room, and watched the New York Dolls from the side of the stage when he was little. But this is the first time he’s gone with a friend, even though his friend’s dad went, too. I’d have liked to have gone myself, but my mate sorting the tickets had gone off to Glastonbury and – rather unsurprisingly – it was impossible to get hold of him. Never mind, I told myself. I actually interviewed Public Enemy three times early on in their…

FROM THE BOOK TIME WISE I used to be a mobile phone addict. It was my crutch for any situation where I might be bored. I would pull out my phone when standing in line for a coffee or having dinner with a friend if they left the table for a few minutes. It would be the first thing I would check when I woke up in the morning and the last when I went to bed at night. I would even check emails or scroll through Instagram when I brushed my teeth. I behaved like this for many years. Thousands and thousands of hours were sunk into scrolling through my Instagram and Facebook feeds. Hours that I will never, ever be able to get back. Research collated by MediaKix as…

Spot The Difference There are ten differences. Can you find them? Card Logic Adam has seven index cards and writes a number from 1 to 9 on each. The average of all seven of his numbers is 5. The only number that Adam writes on more than one card is 9. When Adam arranges his cards in increasing order by number, the middle card has a 4 on it. What numbers are on the seven cards? Puzzle Answers PAGE 154 Card Logic 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 9…

1. credible – A: upfront. B: biased. C: believable. 2. ruse – A: pledge. B: trick. C: secret. 3. obscure – A: cheat. B: make public. C: hide. 4. axiom – A: myth. B: source. C: truism. 5. duplicitous – A: dishonest. B: wishy-washy. C: principled. 6. candid – A: frank. B: phony. C: undercover. 7. apocryphal – A: trustworthy. B: sceptical. C: of doubtful authenticity or origin. 8. feign – A: leave out details. B: give the appearance of. C: offer as evidence. 9. verify – A: discredit. B: confirm. C: exaggerate. 10. ersatz – A: genuine. B: neutral. C: bogus. 11. slander – A: false statements. B: flawed argument. C: con artist. 12. cozen – A: guarantee. B: fact-check. C: deceive. 13. fallacy – A: gold standard. B:…

FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER, I’VE LOVED DRESSING UP. This is me in a sailor hat (above, far left), aged five, in the garden of our home in Melbourne. I was a very happy small child, the eldest of four – I have a younger sister and two brothers – content to play on my own. My parents often referred to me as ‘Sunny Sam’. I was always cheerful and always indulged by a large number of aunties. On Sunday afternoons, I had to perform a little cabaret. There was a camphor box – I still have it – in which I kept a diverse range of costumes. I’d appear and they’d all laugh and clap and then my mother would urge me to sing Nymphs and Shepherds. But…

Pyramid Scheme Two pharaohs in Ancient Egypt are looking for a new pyramid, so they contact a local real estate agent. “We want the cheapest pyramid you have,” says King Res-sen-ba. Sensing his commission getting smaller, the real estate agent says: “Most of my esteemed pharaoh clients desire the most luxurious pyramids since they are guaranteed to last for 3000 years or more. Can I ask why you only want to look at cheap pyramids?” “We want to get our mummy’s worth,” replies King Shaa-em-uas. www.theclose.com Missing Numbers My neighbour’s house doesn’t have any numbers on its door or postbox. I just feel like that’s something that needs to be addressed. CHRIS SCHMIDT, COMEDIAN Getting A Raise I told my boss that three companies were after me and I needed…

What we do is more important than what we say or what we say we believe.BELL HOOKS, AUTHOR If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.DESMOND TUTU, ARCHBISHOP AND HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGNER Sleep like a baby? No, thanks. I want to sleep like a teenager. They sleep for 12 hours and still take a nap.AISHA ALFA, COMEDIAN To those wondering about giving while living: try it. You’ll like it.CHUCK FEENEY, ONE-TIME MULTIBILLIONAIRE WHO GAVE AWAY HIS ENTIRE US$8 BILLION FORTUNE DURING HIS LIFETIME Fear of looking stupid is the No. 1 killer of dreams. The worst part? The people who make you feel stupid are usually the ones least qualified to judge someone else’s life.ANTHONY MOORE, MUSICAL COMPOSER SMALL OPPORTUNITIES ARE OFTEN…

1. Malaysia is home to how many UNESCO-designated World Heritage Sites? a) Eight. b) Two. c) Four. 1 point 2. What did Princess Charlotte Casiraghi of Monaco ride down the runway at a 2022 Chanel show? 1 point 3. What kind of summer footwear has been worn since early civilisation in the Americas, Asia and Africa? 1 point 4. South Pacific nation Vanuatu offers the world’s only post office in what location? 1 point 5. What juicy salad food is also known as ‘love apples’? 1 point 6. Which common drink may reduce the likelihood of Alzheimer’s, liver disease and depression? 1 point 7. The Philippines is home to the world’s longest navigable underground river. True or false? 1 point 8. Magawa was awarded a gold medal in recognition of…