Aussie-Chinese Girl Reflects on Her Med Practitioner Journey

 As the Melb Weather Goddess has finally decided to grace us w/ more summer-like temp and weather cond (here and there 😅😭), everyone I know who is not otherwise (forcibly) tied indoors (i.e. effing exam season pour moi 💀) is rushing to beaches, parks, and outdoor dining seats. But as everyone knows, Australian nature is out to get us, from the hole in our ozone layer to our deadly animals, so now is as good a time as any to raise some sun protection awareness.  A newly published study by Canadian researchers discovered a phenomenon they're dubbing the "sunscreen paradox", which is basically when people feel invincible after applying sunscreen so they are more inclined to engage in dangerous sun-exposure activities such as  going to the beaches when the UV index is dees as being extreme   not taking other sun-protective measures e.g. wearing a hat, UV outer layers only applying sunscreen once and never reapplying inadequate amount and/or covereage of sunscree...

The Bureau of Meteorology has officially declared an El Nino year yesterday, but what the heck is an El Nino and what does it mean for us Aussies?  "Official" definition: El Nino is part of a natural cycle termed ENSO (El Nino-Southern Oscillation), along w El Nina and "neutral". It is one of the most influential natural phenomena that affects yearly climate variability in Australia. Dummy 101 definition: El Nino = warm spells i.e. we gonn melt more than usual this summer  Significance: El Nino years typically mean ↑ fire risk in SE Aus Reduced rainfall Warmer temp Shift in temp extremes  (n.b. some places will have both higher one-day avg temp and longer warm spells, whilst elsewhere e.g. Melb more likely to have higher one-day avg temp but shorter overall warm spells) Increased frost risk (due to reduced cloud coverage, can get colder-than-avg night-time temps) Reduced tropical cyclone numbers Later monsoon onset Decreased alpine snow depths Time to stock up on ...