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    1. Today (29th April 2020) is the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's landing at Botany Bay (Kamay)

      250 years ago, Captain James Cook and his ship the HMS Endeavour landed at Kamay (Botany Bay) on the eastern coast of Australia. He was in the middle of a months-long exploration of the eastern...

      250 years ago, Captain James Cook and his ship the HMS Endeavour landed at Kamay (Botany Bay) on the eastern coast of Australia. He was in the middle of a months-long exploration of the eastern coast. His crew first spotted the Australian mainland on 11th April 1770, and they left Australian waters after taking possession of the continent in the name of King George III on 22nd August.

      This was not the first visitation of Australia by Europeans. That honour goes to Dutch sailor Willem Janszoon in his ship the Duyfken in 1606. Dutch & Portuguese sailors & traders continued to visit the north and west coasts for the next couple of centuries. They called the continent "New Holland".

      But Cook represented the first European power to assume possession of the continent. 18 years later, the English sent their First Fleet of convict ships to the land of New South Wales.


      250 years since Captain Cook arrived in Australia, his legacy remains fraught

      What Australians often get wrong about our most (in)famous explorer, Captain Cook

      For Indigenous people, Cook's voyage of 'discovery' was a ghostly visitation

      10 votes
    2. Would you go to Mars?

      I've been thinking a lot recently about space exploration and colonization, and the big question that's been running through my head has been this: would I be willing to leave everything on Earth...

      I've been thinking a lot recently about space exploration and colonization, and the big question that's been running through my head has been this: would I be willing to leave everything on Earth behind and go to Mars, even if there was a strong possibility that I would never return home?

      Wondering what everyone here on Tildes thinks about that question.

      32 votes