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How prevalent is the use of lethal force by police in Australia, and is a disturbing trend developing in Queensland? AAP/Dave Hunt

Shoot to kill: the use of lethal force by police in Australia

Over the weekend, Queensland police shot and killed a 51-year-old man who was allegedly armed with a knife. On Monday night, another man was shot and killed on the Gold Coast. It was the sixth Queensland…
Artist’s impression of a sunset on the planet Gliese 667Cc. While that planet is likely not an ideal target, we will discover planets far more like our own. ESO/L. Calçada

Exo-Earths and the search for life elsewhere: a brief history

The criteria for life on other planets is the focus of the 4th Australian Exoplanet Workshop, hosted by the University of Southern Queensland this week. The first in this series on exoplanets looks at…
Alice Springs has been prone to severe flooding. NT Police/AAP

Will the Territory Insurance Office sale push up premiums?

The announcement yesterday by the Northern Territory government that it is selling the Territory Insurance Office’s insurance assets to Allianz Australia for A$236 million has many worried their premiums…
Diversity is listed at the bottom of priorities for human resources professionals in large firms yet many mangers still feel threatened by diversity policies. www.shutterstock.com

Diversity fatigue: why business still struggles to close the gender gap

Many large organisations are now on their second or third wave of diversity and inclusion programs. A good number of them are still struggling to identify obvious improvements in the metrics they hoped…
ABC boss Mark Scott is strengthening the broadcaster’s digital offerings in response to budget cuts – a template established by the BBC. AAP/Alan Porritt

Is this the beginning of the end of the ABC as we know it?

While Australia’s elected representatives argue over what then-opposition leader Tony Abbott meant when he promised “no cuts to the ABC, or SBS” the night before the last election, directly to the electorate…
Stutters are much harder to shake in adulthood, when they cause more anxiety. Flickr/Jessica Lucia

The most important thing for a stutter is to get in early

Most speech and language disorders of early childhood are obvious right from the start. If a child is having difficulty producing sounds or using language, the problem is noticed when speech development…
Honeybees pollinate a third of Australia’s food crops. Losing them due varroa might would cost the economy billions of dollars. David McClenaghan

Australian farmers face increasing threat of new diseases: report

A nationwide outbreak of foot and mouth disease; an invasion of a devastating wheat disease; our honeybees completely wiped out. These are just three possible disastrous scenarios facing Australia; they’re…
When the sun sets on Patriot, what will spy agencies do? Roving Eye 365/Flickr

Freedom Act denied … so what happens when Patriot expires?

Last week a proposal called the Freedom Act was defeated in the US Senate. The Freedom Act was to restrict whole-of-population collection of communications data which is currently permitted under the Patriot…
Tractors may have revolutionised farming but to protect biosecurity, farmers could do with some extra help. Ben McLeod/Flickr

Go with the grain: technology to help farmers protect crops

New technology to tackle biosecurity challenges down the track is one of the five megatrends identified in today’s CSIRO report Australia’s Biosecurity Future: preparing for future biological challenges…
Website blocking always fails – audiences will always find a way to watch Game of Thrones. Foxtel

Blocking piracy websites is bad for Australia’s digital future

Rumours are flying that the government will introduce legislation before Christmas aimed at blocking certain websites, such as The Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents, as part of a range of efforts to reduce…
Despite the loss of car manufacturing in Geelong, manufacturing is expected to grow in the broader Barwon region. David Crosling/AAP

Victoria votes: where will the growth and jobs of the future be?

Victorians will soon go to the polls to decide who will be responsible for the management of the state for the next four years. Voters are confronted with many issues on which they must pass judgement…
Do selfies belong at funerals? Daniel Incandela

Death and the selfie: welcome to a grave new world

Funerals increasingly employ digital media; and a growing body of research addresses the intersection of digital culture and traditional memorialising practices. Commonly-used digital media include PowerPoint…
The insolvency industry is facing criticism of over-servicing, excessive fee charging and self-interest. www.shutterstock.com

Chasing money: why the insolvency industry needs reform

Proposed laws to reform the insolvency industry are long overdue. Under the changes, liquidators will require a licence and creditors will be able to remove poorly performing practitioners. The reforms…
By cutting back in regional and remote areas, the ABC risks sending a message that some parts of Australia are more important to our national conversations than others. AAP/Joel Carrett

ABC cuts a tale of two Australias: Sydney-Melbourne and also-rans

ABC managing director Mark Scott undertook the unenviable task on Monday of wielding the axe to meet the Abbott government’s cut to the broadcaster’s funding. Government cutbacks to Australia’s publicly…
John Howard made sure he was facing the same way as other world leaders on climate policy, unlike the current Prime Minister. AAP Image/David Crosling

How John Howard could help turn Tony Abbott around on climate

Throughout his prime-ministership, which ran from 1996 to 2007, John Howard’s perspective on climate change was informed by geopolitics more than science. The Kyoto Protocol, the key international climate…
No longer restricted to elite athletes, personal fitness data can be collected from people jogging, going to the gym – even sleeping. Josh Janssen/Flickr

Fitness tracking data in courts – persuasive, but not conclusive

Beyond simply counting steps, fitness tracking technology creates personal black boxes that archive everything we do – even sleeping. So it’s not surprising to see that a Calgary law firm, representing…
ABC Radio plans to cut back on the number of concerts recorded on Classic FM. Ryan Egan/Flickr

ABC’s Classic FM faces cuts: it’s time to change the tune

Today, in a statement to his staff, ABC Managing Director Mark Scott said: ABC Radio plans to cut back on the number of concerts recorded on Classic FM. This is a prudent efficiency measure that still…
Studies that deliberately exclude older adults from their samples render older adults’ sexuality invisible. shutterstock

Invisible sexuality: older adults missing in sexual health research

The Australian Study of Health and Relationships (ASHR), the latest findings of which were released recently, has much to commend it. Like its counterpart, the British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes…
Comfortably ahead in the polls, Labor’s Daniel Andrews leads Coalition leader Denis Napthine into their pre-election debate. AAP/Tracey Nearmy

Victorians look set to elect unlikely premier no. 3

Anyone in search of a prime example of the dictum that a functioning democracy is nothing short of a minor miracle need look no further than the state of Victoria. In the past 15 years, what has been the…
Three Australian IS fighters may have been killed in the last month, including Mohammad Ali Baryalei. AAP Image/YouTube

Foreign fighters test the state’s monopoly on violence

Estimates are that there are more than 60 Australian citizens in the ranks of the Islamic State (IS) armies sweeping through Syria and Iraq. In a recent case, reported by the Sydney Morning Herald last…
New age ways of teaching where the children guide their learning rather than the teacher are perhaps not as effective. Shutterstock

‘Chalk and talk’ teaching might be the best way after all

Seventy teachers from the UK were sent to Shanghai to study classroom methods to investigate why Chinese students perform so well. Upon their return, the teachers reported that much of China’s success…
Listening in to a conversation can be easy if you have the right code in place. A. Strakey/Flickr

Sound advice – a new way to eavesdrop on Nexus phones

You don’t have to look far to see how many ways criminals can exploit mobile devices for nefarious purposes. From simple phishing scams to creating fake Wi-Fi networks, the methods in which data can be…