Unless you’ve been chained to a fax machine for the past seven years, you’ll have noticed that Facebook is immensely popular. Users numbered 641 million by February of this year. Making and maintaining…
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Last night on the popular interactive current affairs program, Q&A, Kevin Rudd admitted that he isn’t perfect. Rudd told viewers and studio audience members that he was “wrong” to shelve the Emissions…
Australians expect paper-based elections to provide privacy, integrity and transparency. Why should we abandon these principles just because the election uses a magical device called a computer? The iVote…
News of a new bus route will most likely be greeted with indifferent silence, but lobbying for a new train line can keep thousands of potential commuters busy for years on end. It seems that everyone loves…
New laws in Victoria have introduced fines for childcare providers who send children to “time out” or a “naughty step”. So was the super nanny wrong? Is the “naughty corner” really that bad for a child’s…
Foundation Essay – Universities are still often known as ivory towers, other-worldly spaces of solitude where privileged elites known as academics seek refuge from the harsh realities of the world. Although…
On March 20, the day after NATO and US air and naval forces began the implementation of a no-fly zone over Libya authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 1973, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the…
In 1973, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) first aired The Six Million Dollar Man, a made-for-television movie in which Steve Austin, an astronaut test-piloting a prototype aeroplane, experienced…
This year 17,000 Australians will be diagnosed with bowel cancer and every week 80 people will die from this disease. Meanwhile Australia’s National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) has run out of…
Before the Fukushima reactor was swamped by a tsunami, there had been a wave of enthusiasm for nuclear power. The problems in Japan have probably ended the risk of Australia going down the nuclear path…
Do-it-yourself bloggers, video diarists (vloggers), artists with their pixel-palettes of innumerable hues, sounds and images – the explosion of online content creation is one of the contemporary wonders…
If we talk of ‘two cultures’ today, it’s not the divide between arts and sciences that we should have in mind. The crucial issue is the gulf between commerce and higher education - especially between business…
If you’re the sort of person who relies on the internet every day, you’ll maybe have twitched slightly on hearing rumours that the world is running out of internet addresses. Is this true? Well, yes and…
The intense public interest in protective headgear following recent cases of high-profile AFL players sustaining concussion and other head or face injuries, is understandable. Unfortunately we have limited…
GREENHOUSE 2011 - People’s belief or scepticism when it comes to climate change may not be as important as we think. What matters is how we behave. A lot of fuss has been made about whether people believe…
My family has just come home from a barbeque, the second we’ve attended this weekend. That’s been quite a common occurrence for us in the last couple of months. Our house in Fairfield, a residential suburb…
There are two main fears about the possible implications for Australia in China’s latest five-year economic plan, but in reality, we have little to worry about. In fact, Australia has much to gain from…
There are several reasons why Australians should welcome the imminent demise of Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean. But none of them relate to the triumphal claims recently expressed by the likes of…
Throughout history and across many cultures, changes in mood, thinking and emotional responses have been related to hormone changes in women. Unfortunately, the connection between hormones and mood have…
Objective analysis of good microdata on students can yield results that are highly relevant to educational policy. This should come as no surprise, since it is the case in most other disciplines. To learn…
In the late 1980s, when I was a young whipper-snapper just starting out as an astronomer, it was quite obvious some fields had an incredibly high profile and others were outré. The sexy ideas at the time…
Bashing planning has become a national sport, and in NSW, we’re the best at it. Stuck in traffic? Blame the planners. Housing stress? Planners are too slow and too stingy with land release. In the perception…
The behaviour of credit rating agencies is back in the spotlight, as Portugal struggles with its large debt burden. Credit rating agency Fitch has copped some criticism for cutting Portugal’s credit rating…
If you’re in politics, population matters. Rival studies on what constitutes a sustainable Australian population project wildly different statistics. But behind the figures are real people whose lives…
Australians worry about the environment but they do little to protect it. Psychological research offers one possible solution: stop worrying! Feeling happy is in fact the best way to encourage environmentally…