Looking for a locally-themed background image for your online conference calls?
City of Newcastle has you covered. It has created a series of free backdrop photos, which it says promise to "take your on-screen presence to the next level".
Eight stunning images have been produced, including this aerial one of the Bogey Hole.
Others include Nobbys Lighthouse, the Newcastle coastline, Blackbutt Reserve, Glenrock, Civic Theatre and Supercars.
The virtual backgrounds are suitable to use with Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
They're all available to download from City of Newcastle's website.
Turtles All The Way Down
The Odd Spot snippet in Topics on Monday told the story of caterpillars of a butterfly introduced on the island of Sottunga. This had led to the emergence of two other species on the Baltic Sea island.
Some caterpillars contained a parasitic wasp. Inside some of these small wasps was another even tinier and rarer parasite - a "hyperparasitoid" wasp.
This reminded Paddy Lightfoot, of New Lambton Heights, of a rhyme he learnt many years ago: "Great fleas have little fleas on their backs to bite 'em; Little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum."
The rhyme is part of a book by Augustus De Morgan, titled A Budget of Paradoxes (1872).
It touches on the possibility that all particles in the universe may be made of clusters of smaller particles and so on forever. And similarly, that planets and stars may be particles of some larger universe and so on forever. Kind of like fractals and the expression "turtles all the way down".
As Diana Ross sang, we're in the middle of a chain reaction.
Survey Says
Australians can survive three days without water, but only four hours without the internet, according to the Generation Resilience Report 2021.
The report involved a survey of 1000 Australians on the effects that digital technology has had on their careers, perception of the internet and how they connect with others. The key findings include:
About 44 per cent of Australians are unable to go more than four hours without internet access before becoming "uncomfortable".
Millennials are the most internet-obsessed, with more than a quarter (27 per cent) saying they cannot go more than an hour without internet access before becoming "uncomfortable".
Two thirds of Gen Z (67 per cent) fear their online actions (social media posts, past purchases etc) will affect future job offers.
More than half of young Australians think their online reputation will determine their dating options (Gen Z - 53 per cent; Millennials - 52 per cent), and whether they'll be eligible for a loan to buy a car or a house in the next five years (Gen Z - 60 per cent; Millennials - 51 per cent).
