Research about the impact of marriage between first cousins on rates of birth defects garnered much media attention when it was published late last week. Sadly, most of the coverage worked to alarm rather…
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Cyclists in this year’s Tour de France – currently underway – will cover more than 3,300km over 21 stages in 23 days. Of course, due to the extreme physical exertion required to do this at speed, many…
With the end of each parliament there inevitably comes a series of announcements that particular parliamentarians will not be contesting the next election. Usually, these decisions are justified by the…
A column of light shines from Hobart’s Queen’s Domain, where Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda’s Spectra reaches up to the looming clouds, visible across the city. The normally empty streets are crowded, the…
It would seem that the US quantitative easing policy has had a positive effect. New figures show US jobs creation has strengthened, while consumers’ confidence has hit a five year high, home prices have…
The term of the new Australian government – whether finally led by Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott or Malcolm Turnbull – will be shaped by one dominant economic reality: the end of the mining boom. The immediate…
When discussing how to embed Indigenous Australian knowledge and practices into the Australian national curriculum effectively - particularly the maths curriculum - there’s no better place to start than…
The Victorian state parliament is currently considering the Open Courts Bill (2013) after questions have been raised about just how much transparency is needed in the justice system. The bill, proposed…
Passive pastimes such as watching television and playing video games are often the easy option for parents but not necessarily good for their children. But is the solution “active” video games that the…
“Just to get the regulatory approvals [to start a mine] takes more than three years. Six years ago it took less than 12 months… Australian investors are fleeing this country to invest in more stable countries…
“The Americans are screaming blue murder because WalMart and their competitor have now reached about 23% market share. Here we have two supermarkets with a market share of over 80%, so if they decide to…
“The Australian Federal Police takes [red notices] very seriously but knows it must examine the veracity or otherwise of those claims because quite often claims, even against Australian citizens who’ve…
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is the cause of delays at the very airport at which he now wants a second runway to proceed… “Kevin Rudd ran a damaging campaign against a second runway in the late ‘90s and since…
Why shouldn’t you, Mr Greenwald, be charged with a crime? The question was directed at Glenn Greenwald, the American journalist who broke the story of NSA surveillance using material provided by on-the-lam…
The modern Western university has five major historical trajectories, four of which were dominant for more than 400 years. But the fifth, while spanning no more than 50 years, has been a crucial driver…
Today we worry that cow farts are destroying the environment with methane; back in the Proterozoic, it’s certain that algae farts ruined it with oxygen. As an evolutionary biologist and conservationist…
An Australian prime minister visiting Indonesia is nothing new, but Kevin Rudd’s current visit is generating more than the usual amount of attention, coinciding with the DFAT release of its Indonesia Country…
Rhetoric designed to persuade and influence is applied in the political, corporate and sporting worlds as part of every change strategy. But it is just that: rhetoric. When newly-minted treasurer Chris…
Dispatches from The Hague: Tony Press, CEO of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre at the University of Tasmania, is in The Hague for four weeks of hearings at the International…
There is still a great deal of anger, frustration and confusion among investors and savers as to why there has been so few high-profile prosecutions and convictions since the start of the global financial…
This week saw the passing of Doug Engelbart, one of the giants in the history of computing. Today he is mostly known for his invention of the computer mouse in 1963. Many of his other big ideas lay waiting…
While governments and nations are deadlocked in negotiations to reduce carbon emissions and prevent catastrophic warming, some cities are quietly turning over to renewable energy. Sydney was the first…
This week, the powerful American Petroleum Institute (API), along with a coalition of trade organisations, won a significant battle against increased corporate transparency. In a lawsuit lodged against…
We all possess a unique set of personality traits that make us who we are. These are the usual ways we perceive, think, feel, behave and relate to others, and they tend to be consistent across time and…
When it comes to organised crime and corruption, there are events that inspire TV shows: Bikie Wars and Underbelly, for instance. There are those that attract big headlines: “Customs officers arrested…