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Willis's Walkabouts Newsletter 102, May 2019 — Super Sale

Every June departure is now on sale. Amazingly, we now have more definite departures from October through December than we have in July and August.

My choice of the three most interesting articles are the first two in the Thinking About Thinking section and the Visiting China article in the section on China, America and Australia.

Can this newsletter continue? See Big News About this Newsletter at the end.

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In this issue

Willis's Walkabouts Super Sale

As mentioned in the last newsletter, it's proving to be a strange year. July is our normal peak but, other than the second section of one of the trips below, we will have only one July departure. June, on the other hand, has six confirmed departures. Every trip has space available. Every space is on sale.

No other trips are available before 28 July.

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Thinking About Thinking

If you want to take this further, try the Insight Quiz to find out how self-aware you actually are.

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WW 28 July Onwards

Our advance purchase discounts remain available on all these trips.

Cassie's NVC Retreats

We gave a description of these special trips in our February newsletter. Both are now definite departures. Both still have space available.

Special note. While we hope to be able to offer these again next year, we can't yet be sure that it will be possible. Get in this year if you want to make sure you can do one.

Other Trips With Bookings

Every trip listed in our regularly updated PDF trip list remains available. Here are the ones that have bookings but not yet enough to guarantee departure.

Aboriginal Cultural Festivals

Two of our easiest trips include time at local Aboriginal cultural festivals.

Too Late, Alas

Over the past year and a half, we managed to include three airboat trips on Carmor Plains. As happens all too often, some things are too good to last. NT cattle property Carmor Plains sold to Malaysia's Sarawak Economic Development Corporation for $20m

There are a number of trips in our program where access could disappear. Put them off long enough and you might miss out forever.

We've now got bookings as far out as May 2020. Check our regularly updated Availability and Specials page for the latest.

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The Next Generation

Are We Destroying It?

In the real world, people have to cope with things like failure. Many people's good intentions lead them to do their absolute best to ensure their children will never be able to cope.

Children and Tech

Universities in Crisis?

I sent the following article to two of my American friends. One reply began, "It reads like pure opinion, supported by very little data. It's probably written by someone who has been reading stories about problems with universities in the Wall Street Journal and National Review but has not set foot on a college campus in 25 years and does not know any current students personally. It is full of stereotypes and oversimplifications." My other friend still has one child in Uni and has two others who recently graduated, one from Princeton mentioned toward the bottom of this section. He thought there was a bit of truth in it. Have a look and see what you think.

American Universities in Crisis
The article says that universities are seeking social conformity more than anything else.
"They teach those outside elite circles the manners and customs of power. They allow them to meet others who will form the networks of authority that are indispensable to society. If you go to Harvard, you likely won't learn any more about biology in your freshman year than you would at a state school. But you will learn something that isn't taught by professors but is still vitally important: how to fit into the structure and customs of influence"

I was inspired to do some digging. It was harder than it seems. Eventually, I settled for a look at two of America's top universities.

The article above refers to Harvard. A Harvard publication ran an article on, Harvard's Economic Diversity Problem and noted that "Harvard College has almost as many students from the nation's top 0.1 percent highest-income families as from the bottom 20 percent. More than half of Harvard students come from the top 10 percent of the income distribution, and the vast majority — more than two-thirds — come from families in the top 20 percent."

It was interesting to compare the situation at Harvard with one of America's other top universities, Princeton. The article, Princeton is pleased to offer admission to 1,895 students for Class of 2023 notes that "26 percent of students admitted to the Class of 2023 are from lower-income backgrounds. The percentage of low-income college students attending Princeton has tripled over the last decade."

Taken together, it appears that some universities are doing much better than others when it comes to enrolling a diverse group of students.

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WW Overseas — Big Changes

The biggest news is that our Hokkaido trip is now a definite departure.

2020 — Spain?

On our recent trip to Europe, we collected a fair bit of information which could be used to create a trip to Spain, half of which would be based around visits to rock art sites. The other half would be based on hut to hut walking. We had a couple of expressions of interest after the last newsletter, but need more before we start doing all the work to create a detailed proposal. If you think there is any chance you might be interested in a trip like that, please please send us an email and let us know so we can begin working on a detailed itinerary.

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Are You Fit Enough To Do One Of Our Trips?

I've been thinking about this one for a long time. Some people greatly underestimate their fitness. Others greatly overestimate theirs. In the past two years, we've had more people drop out of trips because they weren't fit enough than in the previous ten put together. What's going on?

Most people these days are not particularly fit. Someone of 'average fitness' would find it impossible to do a level 4 or 5 trip and might struggle with level 3.

We try and spell things out. Our registration form requires people to sign something saying that they have read our Bushwalking Guide and that they have seen our General Information sheet. The latter explains exactly how we decide which level a trip should be.

I thought I needed to put more emphasis on the fact that, "The absolute minimum level of fitness you need for our easiest trips is to be able to comfortably walk 10 km (6 miles) in two and a half hours while carrying an 8 kg (18 lb) pack. You will never have to walk this fast on any of our trips, but your ability to do so is a good indicator of whether or not you are fit enough to cope with the conditions you will encounter." I've now put it near the top of the first page of the Bushwalking Guide.

I'm not sure how to change the General Info sheet, or even if it needs changing. Suggestions welcome. I am sure that the Bushwalking Guide needs to be written in a more web-friendly format with a lot more pictures, probably videos as well. If you'd like to help with the revision, please let me know. If you are interested in doing one of our trips, I can make it worth your while.

Interestingly, many people perceive themselves as less fit than they really are. Someone who did our hardest trip, the Kimberley Coast, does lots of bushwalking, does a mix of trail running, swimming, cycling and/or weights during the week describes herself as 'average'. I'd say well above.

What Is Average Fitness?

I think it is a good question. I haven't been able to find an answer.

The best I could do was an Australian government report, Australia's health 2018 which states that "56% of all adults in 2014–15 were not sufficiently physically active."
The link above will give you some details. It has links to a wealth of other health statistics. It's all very interesting (to me at least) but I couldn't find anything that suggests what most people are physically capable of doing. If you know where I can find something like that, please let me know.

But, whatever we do, there will always be a few who ignore our advice. The story at the bottom of the Bushwalking Info section below says is all. Bushwalker who died at Cradle Mountain was just 1.2km from end of Overland Track.

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Today's Reality

Bit Sad, But True

The Good Old Days

The good old days? In many ways, yes.
"Less-educated Americans born in the 1960s fare much worse than those born 20 years earlier due to wage changes, shorter life expectancy, and higher medical costs."

In many ways, Australia follows the American lead. Are we going to let this happen here?

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China, America and Australia

I had a big section on China, America and Australia in my last newsletter. Here are a few more interesting stories.

Inequality

The World inequality database shows that the top 1% in US gets bigger percent than the top 1% in China. I think that shows we are on an unsustainable path. Something has got to change. I'm not sure how it will change, but change it will.

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Amazing Science

Crocodiles

If you've ever read my local newspaper, the NT News, you'll understand why I needed to give this one a subsection of its own. What do crocs eat?
Surprise! in the dry season they provide an important service.

Technology

How the Internet Travels Across Oceans *
Hundreds of thousands of miles of cable connect continents to support our insatiable demand for communication and entertainment. Companies have typically pooled their resources. Now Google is going its own way.

This one is worth a look just for the graphic at the beginning.

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Politics — But Not As Usual

Labor just lost the 'unlosable' election just as John Hewson did back in 1993. Three of the four closest elections since WWII have been three of the four most recent elections. The last time either major party had a majority in the Senate was 1977 (Liberal + National — the last election where Labor got an absolute majority in the Senate was 1949). An ever increasing number of people are giving their first preference to independents or minor parties. What's going on?

Here are a collection of stories from Australia and overseas which try to make sense of what's happening.

Opinion Polls

The Australian election is one of many recent examples where polls got it wrong. They will continue to get things wrong unless the pollsters make major changes. Here's why.Here's how to make opinion polls more representative and honest.

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Surprising Social Commentary

These stories are all from America but to some extent, they apply in Australia as well.

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Bushwalking Ideas

Places to Go

Gear

Being Prepared

Bushwalking History

Be Prepared

No matter what people are told, sometimes they pay no attention. Bushwalker who died at Cradle Mountain was just 1.2km from end of Overland Track.
"In succumbing to hypothermia and death on the Overland Track, Mr Tolputt, tragically, brought about his own demise by a series of poor decisions," Ms McTaggart (the coroner) said. "To walk alone with inadequate clothing and equipment, to fail to plan for delays, to try and press on in extreme conditions instead of remaining at Windy Ridge to recover, and finally, to reject the assistance offered by other walkers that would likely have seen him safe."

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Immigration

Rare voices for common sense?

Interesting Question?

I dislike giving my first preference to one of the major parties. I actually waded through most of the minor party policy documents I found even slightly interesting. While I did not like much of what the Rise Up Australia Party stood for, I think their take on immigration deserves to be heard.

Multi Ethnic with One Culture vs. Multicultural
"A 'multi-ethnic nation with one culture' means that we have a melting pot that draws its richness from a blend of many ethnic groups. These groups may introduce a diverse range of cultural elements from their homelands but they are assimilated into Australian society as a whole. They don't try to override Australian cultural traditions but strive to merely complement them."

Some of what follows is a bit far out, but whether or not you agree with the above, you need to understand that it reflects the beliefs of many Australians. Societies evolve over time. Everyone living in this country needs to understand that some things which may have been acceptable in their original culture (and that culture may have even been in Australia many years ago) are not acceptable in this country today. If you disagree with that, send me an email and I'll explain two of the things I saw in Australia long ago that would get people sent to gaol today.

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Photos, Videos & Just for Fun

Video

Saving Valentina — A Humpback's Story
If you like whales and want a good news story, this is a must.

The deadliest hiking trail in the world
Totally insane! No way would I ever do it. But maybe you have a better head for heights than I do.

Photos

Africa. It's the little things, not just the big game. This short photo essay shows you some of the kinds of things we make a point of stopping to see on our southern Africa trips.

A New Way To See The World

This new world map is a more accurate Earth and shows Africa's (and Australia's and South America's) true size compared to areas closer to the poles.

Just For Fun

If you missed it above, have a look at Today's Reality Enjoy.

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Big News About This Newsletter

Could this be the last one? I hope not, but there have been some BIG changes since the last one. MailChimp no longer allows me to choose my own format on a free list. SendPulse, which I was using for the overflow, loses a fair bit of the formatting. I wanted to get this out in time to give people a chance to look at our June trips so I bit the bullet and upgraded my MailChimp subscription. I don't know if it's worth continuing to pay that much for so few newsletters.

What do you see? I sent test emails to three different addresses. The links seemed to work in all of them, but in gmail, the alternating section colours (white and blue) turned entirely to white. Some of the other formatting disappeared as well.

Please Help. If some of the links, particularly the links that go to different parts of the newsletter, don't work for you, please let me know. If you see a plain white newsletter, please let me know what email program you are using. If you get strange symbols instead of sensible characters, please let me know that. Finally, if you know a better, more economical way for me to send these newsletters, please let me know.

Restricted websites. The NY Times and Bloomberg Business Week both allow non-subscribers to look at ten free articles each month. I've got more links than that in this newsletter so I've marked them with a red asterisk (*) so that you can choose which are of most interest to you. Several other sites have limits. I've marked the ones I'm aware of with a double red asterisk (**).

Next Newsletter — if there is one. July or August. there's far too much happening for me to do one before then.

As always, I've already got a few things ready. Hopefully, I can get a bit of feedback about some of the things in this newsletter to include in the next one. As I've often said, Suggestions welcome.

Sending the newsletter

I used MailChimp to send out the entire list. This is the first time I've done that. The newsletters are sent from walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au. This is the contact address on our website. If you would like to continue to receive these newsletters, please include this address in your "friends list" so that it isn't blocked.

Emails sent to walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au are currently automatically forwarded to rrwillis at internode.on.net. If you want to send an email to that address, replace the word "at" with the symbol @. I am trying not to put that address any place where it can be harvested by spam bots.

We don't want to add to the mass of email spam. If you don't want our newsletter, please send us an email and let us know. We'll then delete your name from our newsletter list.

Our email address is walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au.

Note. MailChimp has an automatic delete at the bottom. Clicking that link will delete you from the mailing list on the server but it will not delete you from our main database. If you want to be completely sure that you are removed from all further mailings, please send an email to walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au

If you know someone you think would enjoy this newsletter, please forward it to them. The more people who get it, the more likely it is that I'll be able to run the trips which might interest you.

Best wishes to all.
I hope you enjoy reading the newsletter as much as I enjoyed writing it. And I hope someone will be able to give me some advice so I can work out the best way to continue.
Russell Willis

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