Latest news with #RMIT
Sydney Morning Herald
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
I was the Osbournes' nanny. One day I saw Ozzy eat 50 steaks
When Melbourne artist Jessie Breakwell was 26 years old, backpacking and almost broke in London, she landed a special gig: working as a nanny for Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. It was 1996, and Bracewell had applied for work with a nannying agency to fund her travels after studying fine arts at RMIT. The next week, a limousine arrived where she was temping as a receptionist and she was taken to meet the family. She was interviewed by Ozzy and Sharon – together with their children, Jack, Kelly and Aimee, then aged 13, 14 and 15 – and thinks she got the job because they wanted someone relaxed. For the next 18 months, Breakwell lived and worked with the Osbournes, travelling between their home in Buckinghamshire and Beverley Hills. This was several years before the MTV reality show The Osbournes launched them to global fame; they asked her to stay ahead of the show's launch, but she was keen to get back to Australia. With news of Ozzy Osbourne's death on Wednesday, she has been remembering her time with the family. 'I spent more time with Ozzy than probably any of them, to be honest, when he was home between tours. He was the funniest guy. Because he spoke slowly people thought he was stupid, but he was so smart.' Breakwell, a Melbourne-based artist who runs her own gallery, said Ozzy was funny, down-to-earth, and without any airs or graces. 'He was always kind, he had time for everybody and made you feel really welcome,' she said. 'Because he didn't drive, he used to do things like get in the car, open the sunroof, turn his own music on and stand up and sing out the roof. He was quite obsessive compulsive. For a week he'd just be drawing all week, the next he'd have a cycling obsession, so he'd put the bike in the loungeroom and be cycling for days, or he'd decide he would only eat steak and he'd have 50 steaks a day.'
The Age
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
I was the Osbournes' nanny. One day I saw Ozzy eat 50 steaks
When Melbourne artist Jessie Breakwell was 26 years old, backpacking and almost broke in London, she landed a special gig: working as a nanny for Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. It was 1996, and Bracewell had applied for work with a nannying agency to fund her travels after studying fine arts at RMIT. The next week, a limousine arrived where she was temping as a receptionist and she was taken to meet the family. She was interviewed by Ozzy and Sharon – together with their children, Jack, Kelly and Aimee, then aged 13, 14 and 15 – and thinks she got the job because they wanted someone relaxed. For the next 18 months, Breakwell lived and worked with the Osbournes, travelling between their home in Buckinghamshire and Beverley Hills. This was several years before the MTV reality show The Osbournes launched them to global fame; they asked her to stay ahead of the show's launch, but she was keen to get back to Australia. With news of Ozzy Osbourne's death on Wednesday, she has been remembering her time with the family. 'I spent more time with Ozzy than probably any of them, to be honest, when he was home between tours. He was the funniest guy. Because he spoke slowly people thought he was stupid, but he was so smart.' Breakwell, a Melbourne-based artist who runs her own gallery, said Ozzy was funny, down-to-earth, and without any airs or graces. 'He was always kind, he had time for everybody and made you feel really welcome,' she said. 'Because he didn't drive, he used to do things like get in the car, open the sunroof, turn his own music on and stand up and sing out the roof. He was quite obsessive compulsive. For a week he'd just be drawing all week, the next he'd have a cycling obsession, so he'd put the bike in the loungeroom and be cycling for days, or he'd decide he would only eat steak and he'd have 50 steaks a day.'
Perth Now
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Skye Wheatley: ChatGPT is ‘fave therapist'
I'm A Celebrity winner and influencer Skye Wheatley has revealed she has been using AI for mental health support. The 30-year-old reality star shared with her 646,000 Instagram followers that she had been asking ChatGPT for advice on complex mental health issues such as ADHD and rejection sensitivity disorder. 'I've been to therapy and ChatGPT is my favourite counsellor,' she said in a post of the OpenAI chat bot providing advice to her. skye wheatley chatgpt Credit: @ / Instagram The screenshot posted by Wheatley shows the chat bot gave a list of coping strategies for her to utilise, including 'self-forgiveness' and 'connecting with other ADHD women or parents'. The social media star got vulnerable about her mental health during a recent episode of her podcast, Skye & Callum. 'Back in my day, ADHD wasn't like a well-known thing and it wasn't a positive thing,' she said, revealing to co-host Callum Hole that she was diagnosed at age five. 'Nowadays I feel like it's a strength because it means that you're good creatively, or you're good at social stuff like this, and there's more job opportunities for people who do struggle intellectually.' The reality star spoke out about her mental health during a recent episode of podcast Skye & Callum. Credit: Supplied The I'm a Celebrity alum isn't alone in using AI as a therapist, with practitioners noticing a rise in Australians using ChatGPT as a counsellor. Dr James Collett, a psychologist and lecturer at RMIT, told the Royal Australian College of GPs that AI therapies are 'here to stay', however they could lead to patients 'not getting the best support'. 'There might be cases where people are talking about topics that they realistically need support with, and we would be worried about their welfare, but that's not coming to light because they're using ChatGPT. 'There's probably some superficially useful therapeutic advice that it can draw on, but it's not necessarily matching that to a client's individualised needs.' The Head of the UWA School of Social Sciences Amanda Davies said while psychologists might harbour concerns, the AI chatbot can be a strong asset to individuals who face barriers trying to access mental health support, such as high costs and long wait times. 'Therapy is a luxury item for some people, although it's an essential,' Ms Davies told the Australian Psychological Society. 'People are having to cut those sorts of things out of their household budgets, and that's where ChatGPT can fill in a gap, which is an unfortunate truth.'
The Advertiser
6 days ago
- The Advertiser
He was there when Mark 'Chopper' Read made his stand: Why did he do nothing?
A lot of people think life inside a prison's walls should be made as difficult as possible for the inmates, but it's not a view shared by former Victorian prison boss John Van Groningen. "People on the outside feel that we should make things tougher, and the question is, who's that for? Is that for the prisoner or for... the people on the outside?" He said. "There's no evidence that a harsh system deters people. There's none at all, Zero." Read more from The Senior The 85-year-old former Commissioner of Corrections in Victoria has more than 50 years' worth of experience working in the criminal justice system. He has worked as a prison officer and juvenile corrections officer and has held supervisory, management, and executive positions in the United States and Australia. He also holds a Master's Degree in Sociology and Criminology, has published a number of widely read papers and has lectured at Monash and RMIT universities as an Adjunct Professor. John said that while many people on the outside think that making life as uncomfortable as possible for prisoners is a harsh but necessary lesson, it does nothing for the prisoners and only makes life harder for prison staff. Not that he's saying prisoners should be mollycoddled. But some creature comforts, within reason, can make life inside a prison's walls easier for all concerned. "To be over the top in your strictness, it doesn't produce any results, and in the meantime, it produces a reaction that you don't have to live with. "I mean, the number of riots that some prisons have is incredible... we might have the odd uprising (in Victoria), but we don't have any riots to speak of." John was appointed Director General of Correctional Services in Victoria in 1992 and served as Commissioner from July 1995 to the end of 1999. He had previously served as Superintendent of Pentridge Prison. In that time, he successfully pushed for a number of reforms, including the decommissioning of older prisons in favour of more modern facilities, and giving prisoners access to better food and more education and work opportunities. John interacted with some colourful characters in his time working in the prison system and was never afraid to take a less conventional approach. In the 1990s, while John was serving as Director General, Mark "Chopper" Read scaled the A-Division roof at Pentridge Prison, refusing to come down unless he could speak to a journalist. John was informed of the situation and asked if prison officers should scale the roof to bring him down. Being aware that Read had nowhere to go, and that there was a helicopter exclusion zone over the prison, ensuring the media would not catch wind of the situation, John decided the best course of action was to leave him there until he decided to come down by himself. "I said, 'How long can he stay?' ' How long can you be up on the roof?' He's not causing any trouble. "Of course, some prison officer's idea was, 'He's disobeying an order. I said, 'Well, we can charge him with disobeying an order when he comes down." Eventually, Read did come back down. It was the second instance of him scaling a roof at the prison. He had previously climbed a roof with two other prisoners in 1978. Prior to moving to Australia, John worked in the prison system in the USA. He said there are some major differences between the two countries' prison systems, with the USA taking a much more punitive approach to justice. "The biggest difference is, I think we have much better facilities. We're probably more generous with the creature comforts that we let prisoners have and be involved with." One anecdote from his time as a corrections officer at the California Men's Colony highlights just how aggressive inmates can become when denied creature comforts. At one point, the prison started serving the inmates strawberries and cream in order to get rid of an abundance of overripe strawberries. A prisoner wrote a humorous note to the local newspaper saying inmates were now being served strawberries and cream and suggesting this was not good for rehabilitation because they were being treated too well. This angered many of his fellow prisoners, who felt he was putting their privileges in jeopardy in a place where privileges were extremely rare. "We had to put him in protection for a while... obviously, he became very unpopular." John tells all about his 50-plus-year career in the prison system in his autobiography, Prisons: The Good, The Bad, The Mad and the Sad. The book is available now through Hybrid Publishers. Share your thoughts in the comments below, or send a Letter to the Editor by CLICKING HERE. A lot of people think life inside a prison's walls should be made as difficult as possible for the inmates, but it's not a view shared by former Victorian prison boss John Van Groningen. "People on the outside feel that we should make things tougher, and the question is, who's that for? Is that for the prisoner or for... the people on the outside?" He said. "There's no evidence that a harsh system deters people. There's none at all, Zero." Read more from The Senior The 85-year-old former Commissioner of Corrections in Victoria has more than 50 years' worth of experience working in the criminal justice system. He has worked as a prison officer and juvenile corrections officer and has held supervisory, management, and executive positions in the United States and Australia. He also holds a Master's Degree in Sociology and Criminology, has published a number of widely read papers and has lectured at Monash and RMIT universities as an Adjunct Professor. John said that while many people on the outside think that making life as uncomfortable as possible for prisoners is a harsh but necessary lesson, it does nothing for the prisoners and only makes life harder for prison staff. Not that he's saying prisoners should be mollycoddled. But some creature comforts, within reason, can make life inside a prison's walls easier for all concerned. "To be over the top in your strictness, it doesn't produce any results, and in the meantime, it produces a reaction that you don't have to live with. "I mean, the number of riots that some prisons have is incredible... we might have the odd uprising (in Victoria), but we don't have any riots to speak of." John was appointed Director General of Correctional Services in Victoria in 1992 and served as Commissioner from July 1995 to the end of 1999. He had previously served as Superintendent of Pentridge Prison. In that time, he successfully pushed for a number of reforms, including the decommissioning of older prisons in favour of more modern facilities, and giving prisoners access to better food and more education and work opportunities. John interacted with some colourful characters in his time working in the prison system and was never afraid to take a less conventional approach. In the 1990s, while John was serving as Director General, Mark "Chopper" Read scaled the A-Division roof at Pentridge Prison, refusing to come down unless he could speak to a journalist. John was informed of the situation and asked if prison officers should scale the roof to bring him down. Being aware that Read had nowhere to go, and that there was a helicopter exclusion zone over the prison, ensuring the media would not catch wind of the situation, John decided the best course of action was to leave him there until he decided to come down by himself. "I said, 'How long can he stay?' ' How long can you be up on the roof?' He's not causing any trouble. "Of course, some prison officer's idea was, 'He's disobeying an order. I said, 'Well, we can charge him with disobeying an order when he comes down." Eventually, Read did come back down. It was the second instance of him scaling a roof at the prison. He had previously climbed a roof with two other prisoners in 1978. Prior to moving to Australia, John worked in the prison system in the USA. He said there are some major differences between the two countries' prison systems, with the USA taking a much more punitive approach to justice. "The biggest difference is, I think we have much better facilities. We're probably more generous with the creature comforts that we let prisoners have and be involved with." One anecdote from his time as a corrections officer at the California Men's Colony highlights just how aggressive inmates can become when denied creature comforts. At one point, the prison started serving the inmates strawberries and cream in order to get rid of an abundance of overripe strawberries. A prisoner wrote a humorous note to the local newspaper saying inmates were now being served strawberries and cream and suggesting this was not good for rehabilitation because they were being treated too well. This angered many of his fellow prisoners, who felt he was putting their privileges in jeopardy in a place where privileges were extremely rare. "We had to put him in protection for a while... obviously, he became very unpopular." John tells all about his 50-plus-year career in the prison system in his autobiography, Prisons: The Good, The Bad, The Mad and the Sad. The book is available now through Hybrid Publishers. Share your thoughts in the comments below, or send a Letter to the Editor by CLICKING HERE. A lot of people think life inside a prison's walls should be made as difficult as possible for the inmates, but it's not a view shared by former Victorian prison boss John Van Groningen. "People on the outside feel that we should make things tougher, and the question is, who's that for? Is that for the prisoner or for... the people on the outside?" He said. "There's no evidence that a harsh system deters people. There's none at all, Zero." Read more from The Senior The 85-year-old former Commissioner of Corrections in Victoria has more than 50 years' worth of experience working in the criminal justice system. He has worked as a prison officer and juvenile corrections officer and has held supervisory, management, and executive positions in the United States and Australia. He also holds a Master's Degree in Sociology and Criminology, has published a number of widely read papers and has lectured at Monash and RMIT universities as an Adjunct Professor. John said that while many people on the outside think that making life as uncomfortable as possible for prisoners is a harsh but necessary lesson, it does nothing for the prisoners and only makes life harder for prison staff. Not that he's saying prisoners should be mollycoddled. But some creature comforts, within reason, can make life inside a prison's walls easier for all concerned. "To be over the top in your strictness, it doesn't produce any results, and in the meantime, it produces a reaction that you don't have to live with. "I mean, the number of riots that some prisons have is incredible... we might have the odd uprising (in Victoria), but we don't have any riots to speak of." John was appointed Director General of Correctional Services in Victoria in 1992 and served as Commissioner from July 1995 to the end of 1999. He had previously served as Superintendent of Pentridge Prison. In that time, he successfully pushed for a number of reforms, including the decommissioning of older prisons in favour of more modern facilities, and giving prisoners access to better food and more education and work opportunities. John interacted with some colourful characters in his time working in the prison system and was never afraid to take a less conventional approach. In the 1990s, while John was serving as Director General, Mark "Chopper" Read scaled the A-Division roof at Pentridge Prison, refusing to come down unless he could speak to a journalist. John was informed of the situation and asked if prison officers should scale the roof to bring him down. Being aware that Read had nowhere to go, and that there was a helicopter exclusion zone over the prison, ensuring the media would not catch wind of the situation, John decided the best course of action was to leave him there until he decided to come down by himself. "I said, 'How long can he stay?' ' How long can you be up on the roof?' He's not causing any trouble. "Of course, some prison officer's idea was, 'He's disobeying an order. I said, 'Well, we can charge him with disobeying an order when he comes down." Eventually, Read did come back down. It was the second instance of him scaling a roof at the prison. He had previously climbed a roof with two other prisoners in 1978. Prior to moving to Australia, John worked in the prison system in the USA. He said there are some major differences between the two countries' prison systems, with the USA taking a much more punitive approach to justice. "The biggest difference is, I think we have much better facilities. We're probably more generous with the creature comforts that we let prisoners have and be involved with." One anecdote from his time as a corrections officer at the California Men's Colony highlights just how aggressive inmates can become when denied creature comforts. At one point, the prison started serving the inmates strawberries and cream in order to get rid of an abundance of overripe strawberries. A prisoner wrote a humorous note to the local newspaper saying inmates were now being served strawberries and cream and suggesting this was not good for rehabilitation because they were being treated too well. This angered many of his fellow prisoners, who felt he was putting their privileges in jeopardy in a place where privileges were extremely rare. "We had to put him in protection for a while... obviously, he became very unpopular." John tells all about his 50-plus-year career in the prison system in his autobiography, Prisons: The Good, The Bad, The Mad and the Sad. The book is available now through Hybrid Publishers. Share your thoughts in the comments below, or send a Letter to the Editor by CLICKING HERE. A lot of people think life inside a prison's walls should be made as difficult as possible for the inmates, but it's not a view shared by former Victorian prison boss John Van Groningen. "People on the outside feel that we should make things tougher, and the question is, who's that for? Is that for the prisoner or for... the people on the outside?" He said. "There's no evidence that a harsh system deters people. There's none at all, Zero." Read more from The Senior The 85-year-old former Commissioner of Corrections in Victoria has more than 50 years' worth of experience working in the criminal justice system. He has worked as a prison officer and juvenile corrections officer and has held supervisory, management, and executive positions in the United States and Australia. He also holds a Master's Degree in Sociology and Criminology, has published a number of widely read papers and has lectured at Monash and RMIT universities as an Adjunct Professor. John said that while many people on the outside think that making life as uncomfortable as possible for prisoners is a harsh but necessary lesson, it does nothing for the prisoners and only makes life harder for prison staff. Not that he's saying prisoners should be mollycoddled. But some creature comforts, within reason, can make life inside a prison's walls easier for all concerned. "To be over the top in your strictness, it doesn't produce any results, and in the meantime, it produces a reaction that you don't have to live with. "I mean, the number of riots that some prisons have is incredible... we might have the odd uprising (in Victoria), but we don't have any riots to speak of." John was appointed Director General of Correctional Services in Victoria in 1992 and served as Commissioner from July 1995 to the end of 1999. He had previously served as Superintendent of Pentridge Prison. In that time, he successfully pushed for a number of reforms, including the decommissioning of older prisons in favour of more modern facilities, and giving prisoners access to better food and more education and work opportunities. John interacted with some colourful characters in his time working in the prison system and was never afraid to take a less conventional approach. In the 1990s, while John was serving as Director General, Mark "Chopper" Read scaled the A-Division roof at Pentridge Prison, refusing to come down unless he could speak to a journalist. John was informed of the situation and asked if prison officers should scale the roof to bring him down. Being aware that Read had nowhere to go, and that there was a helicopter exclusion zone over the prison, ensuring the media would not catch wind of the situation, John decided the best course of action was to leave him there until he decided to come down by himself. "I said, 'How long can he stay?' ' How long can you be up on the roof?' He's not causing any trouble. "Of course, some prison officer's idea was, 'He's disobeying an order. I said, 'Well, we can charge him with disobeying an order when he comes down." Eventually, Read did come back down. It was the second instance of him scaling a roof at the prison. He had previously climbed a roof with two other prisoners in 1978. Prior to moving to Australia, John worked in the prison system in the USA. He said there are some major differences between the two countries' prison systems, with the USA taking a much more punitive approach to justice. "The biggest difference is, I think we have much better facilities. We're probably more generous with the creature comforts that we let prisoners have and be involved with." One anecdote from his time as a corrections officer at the California Men's Colony highlights just how aggressive inmates can become when denied creature comforts. At one point, the prison started serving the inmates strawberries and cream in order to get rid of an abundance of overripe strawberries. A prisoner wrote a humorous note to the local newspaper saying inmates were now being served strawberries and cream and suggesting this was not good for rehabilitation because they were being treated too well. This angered many of his fellow prisoners, who felt he was putting their privileges in jeopardy in a place where privileges were extremely rare. "We had to put him in protection for a while... obviously, he became very unpopular." John tells all about his 50-plus-year career in the prison system in his autobiography, Prisons: The Good, The Bad, The Mad and the Sad. The book is available now through Hybrid Publishers. Share your thoughts in the comments below, or send a Letter to the Editor by CLICKING HERE.
ABC News
7 days ago
- Science
- ABC News
Amid Heart Morass revival in Gippsland, RMIT reveals wetlands climate benefits
Almost 20 years after restoration efforts began, the Heart Morass wetland near Sale, eastern Victoria, is flourishing — a rare success story in a region where many freshwater wetlands are degraded. Gippsland local and duck-hunting enthusiast Gary Howard began restoring the large wetland wedged between the Thomson and Latrobe rivers in 2006. So began the journey for Mr Howard and his friends to conserve the ecosystem at Heart Morass. "The Heart wasn't in a very good condition," he said. "It was just coming out of the millennium drought, which was very severe." A new study by RMIT supports what people like Mr Howard have seen firsthand. RMIT's Centre for Nature Positive Solutions has found that restored floodplain wetlands, including the Heart Morass, can slash carbon emissions by 39 per cent within a year and without the methane spike in other types of wetland restoration. By comparison, net carbon emissions from unrestored control wetlands increased by 169 per cent in the same period. The report's lead author, Lukas Schuster, says wetlands are emerging as unlikely climate allies. "That's how we can actually mitigate climate change, by taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locking it away. "Basically, within one year we see massive benefits of carbon emissions reduction, which we don't usually see in other wetlands." But carbon is just part of the story. The research at 12 degraded sites along the Loddon River in Kerang, north-central Victoria, also showed restored wetlands retained more water — 55 per cent more than before. The higher soil moisture levels, even after drying, increased drought resilience in the wetlands and associated areas. "If the wetlands are staying wetter much longer to retain more moisture during summer, you don't have dry vegetation and the dry soil that can promote fires," Dr Schuster said. At the same time, healthy wetlands also help reduce flooding by absorbing water more easily. While the Heart Morass is thriving, Mr Howard fears for other wetlands across Gippsland. "In the near future, some of these wetlands with salt intrusion are going to become desert," he said. "Once we lose the vegetation, the next thing that we experience, particularly around the lake shore, is erosion." He's seen the damage — growing up, he often visited Marlay Point near Lake Wellington in Gippsland, where he could climb from the shore into a big tree on the water's edge. "That tree is now probably 200 metres in the lake, that is how much it has eroded in my time," he said. Dr Schuster says that's why this research is so important. "Australia has a lot of freshwater wetlands," he said. "Most wetlands are degraded, which means they don't have this flood and drought mitigation potential at the moment, because they can't really take up water or release it during droughts." One challenge is the cost of making this research a widespread tool. "The [restoration] may need government funding or some incentives to restore and get the water into the property and maintaining that water flow," Dr Schuster said. And sourcing water for the restoration is not difficult. "Luckily, a floodplain or a wetland means they are connected to a river, so it's about reopening those channels."
