We are bombarded with health messages on an almost daily basis. Many of these encourage us to monitor ourselves for worrying signs that might be signals of an underlying problem. Ovarian cancer is the…
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Climate science has now thoroughly outlined the risk associated with increasing greenhouse gases. Significant and rapid warming of the climate system is now expected to occur over the next century and…
The carbon tax will have a relatively small impact on household incomes, in most cases for those who are worse off, just a few dollars a week. So why is it so hard to sell? The posing of this question…
The last Federal Government budget announcement revealed funds dedicated to “early intervention” mental health services for youth. But whether this intervention takes place in a timely manner for optimal…
As Margaret Thatcher’s trade minister in the 1980s, Norman Tebbit devoted much of his time to dealing with the European Community – the precursor to the European Union. Routinely, at meetings in Brussels…
The handwritten sign hanging on the bereaved family’s door says: “No media”. As a reporter, do you knock? Most journalism students yell back a resounding “No”. Okay then, what if the family has a high…
With the momentum of his Inconvenient Truth gradually fading, Al Gore has launched a new climate change action campaign - the Climate Reality Project. The centrepiece of the campaign is a day of action…
The hacking stories just keep on coming. Of course, The News of the World is the big one at the moment, matched, for the moment at least, by the hacking of The Sun’s website by celebrity – and proficient…
News outlets recently reported a new paper in Nature Geoscience from a Japanese team documenting very large amounts of Rare Earth Elements (REE) in the mud at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. REE are essential…
Ever since the global financial crisis, “value for money” has become the slogan of choice for international aid. The Americans have been in the lead, changing the rhetoric and practice of how they give…
Does Australia have strategic interests in Antarctica? Do we really think of the region as the “common heritage of mankind”? The Antarctic Treaty states that it is “in the interest of all mankind that…
As international outrage increases with each new revelation in the News International phone hacking scandal, serious questions are being raised about whether Rupert Murdoch’s empire can be considered a…
Australia’s prison population is decreasing. But it’s a little too early to break out the champagne. The huge regional differences reveal that imprisonment is not based on the crime you commit, but the…
China’s relations with its Pacific neighbours are nothing if not complex. Its trade in the region quadrupled between 1999 and 2006. And if it delivers all of the promised resources, it will become second…
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has announced that the government will provide the competition watchdog with almost $13 million in extra funding to tackle carbon tax-related price-gouging. In this context…
Social media sites are at war for your opinion. Why? Targeted advertising. The weapons in this war are the “share, "Like”, and “+1” buttons beside searches, video, news articles and blog posts. They seem…
A study published today in the Medical Journal of Australia concludes that more prison inmates in Australia die in the year after they’ve been released than the annual number of deaths in custody. A disproportionate…
How much can you believe about claims made on food packaging? For any mention of the word “light” or “lite”, feel free to add your own definition – that will have about as much credibility as any claim…
Born and bred in the UK, I have spent my entire adult life in the company of News International newspapers. And as a media scholar by profession, I have been critical of the Murdoch titles for decades…
Q: How do you confuse an Irishman? A: Put him in front of two shovels and ask him to take his pick Q: How do you get an Irishman on the roof? A: Tell him drinks are on the house. Q: Why did the Irishman…
Almost 15 years have passed since Rupert Murdoch declared that “sport absolutely overpowers film and everything else in the entertainment genre,” yet the media mogul’s words still capture the reality of…
For the first time ever, the number of overweight people on Earth outweighs the number that are undernourished. From the obesity crisis flows a cascade of health and social problems: it burdens healthcare…
The rhetoric of participation has long been the mainstay of modern health policy. But to what extent are efforts to give people a voice in health-care policy successful, or even appropriate? The idea of…
This year marks the 50th year of the Antarctic Treaty, a visionary document that for the first time set out a vision for an entire continent based on peace, science and co-operation. So how does it hold…
Schadenfreude is the tough-sounding word that wins my vote for describing accurately how millions of people around the world are feeling about Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. For those who were long resigned…