Tag Archives: oceania

Sydney train station removes ‘AI slop’ mural after backlash

A mural at a Sydney train station has been removed after being labelled "AI slop".

At first glance, the scene at Redfern train station depicting an Aussie Christmas appears to be done by an artist, speckled with icons of Australia, such as thongs, Santa and beach umbrellas.

However, upon closer inspection, people noticed the art appeared to have been created by artificial intelligence, with telltale signs including a kangaroo with the head of a koala and an Australian flag floating mid-air.

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The train station art was labelled 'AI slop'

A bandicoot-type rodent with its limbs disconnected from its body was also spotted on the mural.

The mural garnered attention online after being slammed as "AI slop" on Reddit's r/sydney board.

The term refers to low-quality content created by generative AI, which often contains errors.

"Sydney Trains' Redfern Station staff have displayed artwork for several years to help create a positive end-of-year atmosphere for our customers," a Transport for NSW spokesperson said in a statement.

"We received feedback about this year's display and, in response, have decided to remove the artwork," the spokesperson said.

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La Niña has just been declared days out from summer. Here’s what it means

The Bureau of Meteorology has declared that La Niña is under way off Australia just days ahead of summer, but a counteracting weather event means it will not be as impactful as other La Niñas.

Conditions consistent with the weather phenomenon have been observed in the Pacific Ocean since early October, with meteorologists today saying all signs point to La Niña.

"There are clear signs the tropical Pacific ocean and atmosphere are now coupled, meaning they are acting to reinforce and sustain the La Niña pattern," the Bureau of Meteorology said.

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The Bureau of Meteorology has declared that La Niña is currently underway off Australia just days ahead of summer. 

"Atmospheric indicators, such as trade winds, pressure and cloud patterns over the equatorial central Pacific, also show consistent signs of La Niña."

The last La Niña was in 2023.

The Bureau of Meteorology's La Niña declarations are mostly retrospective, meaning conditions need to be present in the ocean and atmosphere for some time before it can be determined that the event is occurring.

The La Niña declaration comes after warmer-than-average waters were observed across much of the Australian region, with sea surface temperatures the second warmest on record for October.

Meteorologists forecast that the unusually warm conditions are likely to continue from December through to February, particularly for the east coast. 

This could worsen the severity of rainfall, storms and cyclones.

But this year's La Niña appears to be quite weak and forecast to be short-lived, with levels returning to neutral by early 2026.

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Bureau of Meteorology's long-range summer weather forecast.

"Our rainfall forecast currently suggests there will be little overall influence from this event," the Bureau of Meteorology said.

The Bureau of Meteorology's latest long-range outlooks predict near or below average rainfall and abnormally warm days for much of the country this summer.

Weatherzone said one of the reasons why La Niña is not having too much of an influence on the weather is because of the ongoing negative southern annular mode in the Southern Hemisphere, which has been in place since early October.

The southern annular mode is a shift in strong westerly winds over Australia, which can counteract the influence of La Niña's easterly winds.

"The current negative southern annular mode phase has indeed been hindering La Nina's influence on Australian weather in recent months, and this influence may linger into early summer," Weatherzone said. 

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What is La Niña?

La Niña is one of the phases of a Pacific Ocean phenomenon called the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, which affects weather patterns roughly every two to seven years. 

The event occurs when equatorial winds become stronger, changing the ocean currents.

In Australia, it is synonymous with increased rainfall, storms, and tropical cyclones in the northern and eastern parts of the country.

El Niño and neutral are the other phases of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation.

El Niño typically leads to drier conditions, higher temperatures and a greater risk of heatwaves and bushfires in northern and eastern parts of the country.

The phenomenon is considered one of the most important climate drivers in our region.

It has a large impact on Australia, as well as every other continent in the world, particularly South America, Asia and Africa.

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Bondi Junction killer’s psychiatrist ‘can’t be blamed’ for fatal attack

A psychiatrist was put in a "grossly unfair" position when asked about whether her long-time client was experiencing psychosis when he stabbed 16 people, her lawyer says. 

Joel Cauchi, 40, was experiencing psychotic symptoms and armed with a knife on April 13, 2024, when he killed six people and injured 10 others, including a nine-month-old baby.

Dawn Singleton, 25, Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Pikria Darchia, 55, Yixuan Cheng, 27, and security guard Faraz Tahir, 30, died before Cauchi was fatally shot by Inspector Amy Scott. 

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From left: Ashlee Good, 38, Faraz Tahir, 30, Dawn Singleton, 25, Jade Young, 47, Pikria Darchia, 55, and Yixuan Cheng, 27.

Contrary to expert evidence Cauchi was "floridly psychotic" at the time of the attack, his long-time psychiatrist Andrea Boros-Lavack initially suggested he was motivated by frustration and hatred of women.

"That was nothing to do with psychosis," she told an inquest. 

She later withdrew the speculation but it was deemed "shocking, genuinely shocking" by counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC in her closing address. 

Dwyer noted the psychiatrist had shown an "exceptional … level of belligerence and confrontation" in the witness box, but Boros-Lavack's lawyer took issue with the criticism. 

His client had been in pain, on medication and "clearly felt she was under attack" during the questioning, Mark Lynch said today. 

Boros-Lavack was unqualified to answer the question because she had been called as a treating psychiatrist instead of an expert and hadn't read the expert reports, Lynch said. 

"It was grossly unfair to be forced to give an answer to that question," he said. 

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Joel Cauchi

Suggestions she had been attempting to justify her decision to wean Cauchi off antipsychotic medication or her statement that he didn't have chronic schizophrenia were "perverse", he argued.

"It's deeply regrettable that the families felt further traumatised by those remarks, but in one sense they never should have been asked," Lynch told the inquest. 

An audible scoff was heard in the courtroom and Dr Dwyer was seen shaking her head. 

Cauchi had been successfully treated for schizophrenia since he was a teenager before he decided with Dr Boros-Lavack to wean off antipsychotic medication.

"He decided for himself 'I'm not going to take those anymore'. Dr Boros-Lavack cannot be blamed for that," Lynch told the inquest. 

The psychiatrist's "largely exemplary care" for eight years could not be said to be a material cause for his rampage on the Bondi Junction Westfield centre four years later, he said. 

Although she had admitted there were deficiencies in her discharge of Cauchi into the care of his general practitioner, Lynch said there was no warrant to refer Dr Boros-Lavack for referral to a regulatory body as suggested by the victims' families. 

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Cauchi fell through the cracks of mental health care after moving from Queensland to NSW and becoming homeless, the inquest has been told. 

Dr Dwyer suggested the coroner recommend psychiatry regulatory bodies develop guidelines for the management of patients with chronic schizophrenia. 

She proposed a focus on professional guidelines for de-prescribing antipsychotic medication when patients decline to continue.

They should include strict requirements for a discharge letter for a patient with treatment-resistent schizophrenia, such as the probability of relapse and early warning signs.

Readers seeking support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyond blue on 1300 22 4636.

Surfers and survivors call for life-saving Shark Bite Kits on all Aussie beaches

Surfers and shark attack survivors are calling for government or corporate funding to roll out life-saving emergency response kits across all Australian beaches.

The Community Shark Bite Kits, designed to help control life-threatening bleeding, were designed by Danny Schouten, after his friend Kai McKenzie almost died from being bitten by a shark while surfing in Port Macquarie in 2024.

"It was by the grace of a man… walking his dog on the beach that day, who was trained in trauma control and used his dog lead to save Kai's life," Schouten said.

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"And I thought, we need to have one of these kits on every one of our beaches so it's not left up to chance next time."

Ten kits were initially rolled out in northern NSW last year and now there's 150 on beaches across NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.

The inexpensive kits contain a tourniquet, two conforming bandages, two large dressings, an emergency thermal blanket, gloves, a whistle and step-by-step instructions on how to treat a shark bite.

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Schouten said his local community, which has seen multiple shark attacks, immediately jumped behind the project but interest was now also coming from further afield.

"The wider community, the surfing community is right behind this," he said.

"We know we're entering the unknown.

"There's a lot of people who will say 'we don't want to cull', 'we don't want nets'.

"There's no right mitigation strategy, only preparation."

He said a tourniquet applied within seconds could be the difference between someone surviving or succumbing to a shark attack.

"We live in a community where our mums, our dads, our friends, our brothers, they surf and if it's your friend, it's your brother, I pray that the place that they're surfing has one of these kits.

"Someone's life, after being attacked by a shark, has minutes… at most before you bleed out."

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McKenzie said he was fortunate to have had someone on the beach with trauma experience on the day he was bitten – but not everyone would be so lucky.

"I was lucky to have someone with such experience to save me, but there will come a day where that won't be the case and a Shark Bite Kit would help the chances of surviving dramatically," he said.

Schouten is currently fundraising on GoFundMe to expand the project, with the goal to see a kit on every single beach across the country.

"Ideally, we'd have the government's support… funding from businesses or other ventures to be able to get behind it and put one everywhere," Schouten said.

"It's about Australian beaches being well prepared for when these attacks happen and making our coastline a safer place for everyone.

"We're not going to stop doing what we love, so we just have to be better prepared."

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