It’s been a long time since a princess wore a heavenward reaching conical hat with a gauzy veil streaming from on high. Yet how we conceive of princesses today owes more to our collective cultural fantasies…
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Getting research money, especially the no-strings-attached kind that government agencies give out, is difficult. Researchers spend months on each proposal with only a small chance of getting funded. Winning…
According to a recent report in the Canberra Times, Thomas Barry Moore, a former air force serviceman, has been in a persistent vegetative in a Chinese hospital for 118 days. He suffered a stroke on December…
The idea of Hamas and Fatah burying the hatchet and uniting in their struggle for Palestinian self-determination will generate many reactions amongst their people, their neighbours and those concerned…
For some time, there has been growing disquiet that using GDP to measure our national progress does not capture what is most worthwhile in our lives. In a speech in September last year, former Treasury…
If your child were diagnosed with a taste disorder, you’d be forgiven for welcoming an impending disinterest in sweets and salty chips. But for the one in ten Australian children who can’t perceive sweet…
Quantum teleportation has been in the news before but last week Japanese and Australian scientists went one better, managing to teleport every physicist’s favourite feline: Schrödinger’s cat. Before you…
Why do we insist on “balance” when we talk about climate change, but ignore the other side of the story entirely on so many other issues? Societies rely on “frames” to conduct and understand conversations…
The looming confrontation between Qantas and its pilots, engineers and baggage handlers could easily become Australia’s most dramatic industrial conflict since the waterfront dispute of 1998. But it seems…
Another attack on Fraser Island - the flashpoint for dingo management issues - has highlighted our complex relationship with these animals once again. But when we shoot and trap dingos, do we really know…
Can Prime Minister Julia Gillard lecture China on its human rights record given the many failings observers see in Australia’s own treatment of vulnerable groups? Australia generally has a good human rights…
Spending on health is the most rapidly expanding part of federal and state budgets, driven by chronic diseases, an ageing population and unrealistic expectations. The $100 billion spent this year on health…
Carbon tax or not, Australia’s emissions will keep rising, driven by rapid rates of population growth and increasing affluence. Most of the carbon is domestic but we also own the carbon that China and…
Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, hit back at reports yesterday that the company’s iPhones track the movements of its 100 million users. The charge was that Apple was storing a database of this information, to which…
This morning Fairfax newspapers delivered a savage hit to the reputation of Paul Howes, National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union (AWU) and the country’s best-known union leader. The story carried…
Cities are shaped by flows of people, money and goods.Tourists flock to their most famous sights, but guiding them through the city to their less obvious attractions can be lucrative for the locals. The…
The Anzac Day clash between Essendon and Collingwood has come and gone yet again, as well as the inevitable publicity surrounding the most hyped home-and-away match of the season. You could be forgiven…
Fraser Island dingoes, a population facing extinction, are back in the news again, but for all the wrong reasons. The latest? Australian rangers have killed two dingoes believed to have mauled a three-year-old…
Both Ross Garnaut and Ken Henry have spoken out against the Fringe Benefits Tax concession for company cars, pointing to it as an incentive for us to drive more. Indeed some would say that it is just one…
A recent application to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) requested alcohol be rescheduled as a prohibited substance “unfit for human consumption”. The application quickly got the thumbs down…
You may have heard that a male black swan was widowed by rock-throwing children in Melbourne recently. The event caused ripples of public concern, but also revealed how little we know about these iconic…
It seems a simple question: “Why don’t women just leave violent relationships?” But many victims can’t simply walk away. There are many barriers to ending an abusive relationship, and financial worries…
Recent polls have shown a rise in public support for former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd returning to The Lodge. After an appearance on the ABC’s Q&A television show widely seen as possibly preparing…
Every year we are bombarded by messages about the importance of road safety as holidays approach and regaled every night with state-specific road toll statistics. But we know roads are not the only places…
We may not know it, but psychometrics has shaped the way we understand intelligence. We’re all familiar with the idea of an IQ test, and we might know where we stand on the IQ scale - but what about the…