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australia

Education

A dad's hilarious letter to school asks them to explain why they're living in 1968

"I look forward to this being rectified and my daughter and other girls at the school being returned to this millennium."

Earlier in the week, Stephen Callaghan's daughter Ruby came home from school. When he asked her how her day was, her answer made him raise an eyebrow.

Ruby, who's in the sixth grade at her school in Australia, told her dad that the boys would soon be taken on a field trip to Bunnings (a hardware chain in the area) to learn about construction.

The girls, on the other hand? While the boys were out learning, they would be sent to the library to have their hair and makeup done.

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An Australian woman takes a call from work.

Nothing can ruin your weekend quite like a text or an email from the boss while you’re enjoying your time off. Having a job where your boss can contact you all hours of the day, can create a constant feeling of stress that makes you feel like you’re never really off the clock.

That’s why Australia, the country with the 4th-best work-life balance in the world, is set to enact a new law that gives its employees the “right to disconnect.”

A parliamentary bill with the majority of support in the Senate and the blessing of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gives workers the right to ignore unreasonable calls or messages from work without penalty. Employers that violate their employee's right to disconnect can be fined.

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Science

Time to add 'horrifying giant beach worms' to Australia's list of WTF wildlife

They can grow up to 9 feet long and live all along Australia's populated eastern coasts.

Australia's giant beach worms are often collected for bait.

In many ways, Australia is an ideal place to live. Its comfortable climate with plentiful sunshine, beautiful natural attractions, high standard of living and people-centered policies give the land down under a leg up on many other countries.

As long as you're willing to put up with its long list of "WTF is that thing?!" wildlife, that is.

Australia's wildlife is the "Florida man" of the animal kingdom, with countless examples of exceptionally terrifying creatures showing up where you least expect them to. Sure, there are cuddly koalas and cute kangaroos as well, but those don't outweigh the spiders the size of your face, the massive saltwater crocodiles, 100 species of venomous snakes, the nonvenomous but equally as scary pythons that can eat said crocodiles, the tiny but potentially deadly irukandji jellyfish, etc., etc., etc.

And thanks to people sharing on the internet, we now have one more reason we can never go live in Australia: Giant Beach Worms.

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A robber and his victim have a bizarre reunion.

An unusual story out of Australia shows that even though someone may be a hardened criminal, they may still have feelings of remorse. It also shows that even their victims can forgive and forget if they don’t take things too personally.

The Daily Mail reports that Christopher Howard Gordon, 35, knocked on the door of a home in the Victorian town of Traralgon in Australia last March, holding a fake gun. When a man opened the door, Gordon demanded that he be allowed in the home and that the owner give him cash.

The man led him into a room where his daughter and partner slept. After seeing the sleeping child, Gordon was startled and immediately fled the home after receiving a box of cash.

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