Lead levels in backyard hen eggs are often much higher than in eggs bought in the shops. A new study of soil lead, chickens and eggs locates the high-risk areas in our biggest cities.
As someone who lost pretty much everything in the 2011 Brisbane floods and then led a study on community responses to those floods, I have some insights on what helps – and what doesn’t.
Smart street furniture can do a lot of things at once. Some of these functions offer the public clear benefits, but the data collection and surveillance capabilities raise a number of concerns.
A deep clean involves cleaning objects or surfaces that may not be routinely cleaned, such as walls, ventilation ducts, curtains, carpets, and hard-to-reach places.
It’s all well and good to be able to connect cases through genomic sequencing. But it’s important to be able to connect them epidemiologically as well.
Don’t build new venues when you can re-use what you’re already got such as the Brisbane Aquatic Centre.
Darren England/AAP
Greater Brisbane will spend the next three days in lockdown, although this time around it’s to ensure no further spread from a single known case, rather than to suppress an existing outbreak.
Brisbane City wants to preserve backyards, but they account for much of the open space lost to development under policies that also aim to increase housing density in existing urban areas.
A tidal drain at South Yarra, Melbourne, in 2008. The installation of litter-trapping equipment now prevents access.
Photo: Victoria Kolankiewicz
What was once the stuff of urban legends now spreads virally through social media claims the tunnels beneath our cities are used for child trafficking. The truth is both more mundane and important.
By publishing photos and details of two teenagers who allegedly illegally went into Queensland from Victoria, the media have stripped them of due process and encouraged vigilantism.
The rise of global cities, metropolises that dominate their states, is exposing Australia’s lack of metropolitan governments. It’s time to restart the evolution of our states after a century on hold.
Only the inner suburbs of Melbourne and other capital cities meet the 20-minute neighbourhood test. But we could transform the other suburbs for much less than the cost of current transport projects.
Declining water levels in Warragamba Dam reflect generally falling national levels of stored water.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Australia’s capital cities have collectively lost 30% of their stored water over the last six years. But this loss is not evenly distributed across the country.
Siouxsie Sioux in Edinburgh in 1980: a Goth pioneer she was a big influence on the tribe known as Goth in steamy Brisbane.
Wikimedia Commons
Lakes of kohl in danger of smudging in the humidity. Black clothes soaking up the sun. It took commitment to be a Goth in 80s Brisbane - here are some of the influences that shaped the scene.
A customer waits for the world’s longest flight from Singapore to Newark.
AP Photo/Wong Maye-E
The day and a half it takes to get from New York to Singapore and back offers plenty of time to ponder the economics of ultra-long-haul flights – and wonder why we’d want to make it any longer.
It won’t be long before many cities find life without a car even easier, and possibly even cheaper.
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