Elevated rail to remove level crossings, done properly, has many benefits – and the alternatives are more disruptive and costly. But announcing projects with little consultation is asking for trouble.
The Crusades evoke a romantic image of medieval knights, chivalry, romance and religious high-mindedness.
David Wise/Flickr
Bad female characters start with bad writing. We compare male and female character descriptions, which are often used as the starting point for casting calls.
There are some simple principles that would strengthen Aboriginal heritage protection.
Monkey Mia, Shark Bay in Western Australia. Grant Matthews
Aboriginal heritage has had significant protections removed in Western Australia. Following principles of respect and consultation would be a huge step forward for Aboriginal cultural management.
Tropical Cyclone Winston nears Fiji on February 20, 2016.
NASA Goddard Rapid Response/NOAA
Nutritional deficiencies are linked to food cravings in certain situations. In general, however, there is no real evidence to link our common food cravings with nutritional deficiencies.
Doctors are often asked to give prognoses, but they can’t be sure of how long patients will survive.
Christine Gleason/Flickr
Predicting how long a patient will survive is critically important for them and their families to guide future planning, yet notoriously difficult for doctors to predict accurately.
Senate elections can give parties other than Labor, Liberal and National a chance of winning a seat.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Those who do understand the Senate voting system have the potential to wield some influence both in its conduct and in debates about how it might be reformed.
In relation to a FactCheck testing Senator Sarah Hanson-Young’s assertion that Indigenous children are ten times as likely to be living in out of home care, her spokesman said by email: The figure came…
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, speaking on Q&A, February 15, 2016.
Q&A
In seeking to link IS to earlier Islamic movements, Western commentators have associated the jihadist group with the medieval Ismailis, made famous in Europe by returning Crusaders as the Assassins.
Imagine if all these people were gathering valuable data for public benefit?
Scott Cresswell/Flickr
If we can solve the privacy issues, placing trackers on people and the things we make can teach us a great deal about ourselves and the world around us.
Casuarina trees were the perfect metaphor for Blumann’s life and the state of the world.
Detail from Elise Blumann, On the Swan, Nedlands, 1942, Oil on composition board, 55.6x66.4cm. University of Western Australia.
Casuarina trees and the tortured forms of the Melaleucas on the foreshore of the Swan River were the perfect metaphor for Blumann’s life and the world before and during the second world war.
More than three in every four Medicare-billed pathology tests are analysed by one of two big corporations: Sonic Healthcare and Primary Health Care.
Soda_O2/Shutterstock
Industry consolidation and technological advances have completely reshaped the pathology industry over recent decades. But the way governments pay for pathology services hasn’t kept up.
The earthquake shattered buildings and communities, with many residents left feeling even more powerless by the government’s approach to recovery.
Reuters/Simon Baker
By removing elected officials and installing a powerful command-and-control agency, the government’s approach to recovery has left many of the city’s people feeling disenfranchised and excluded.
Have the darkest days passed for Fairfax Media?
AAP/Paul Miller
The government should be encouraging informal investors to put their money into start-ups, not barring them from tax offsets that encourage them to do so.