The JSF or Joint Strike Fighter is a massively hyped, much-delayed defence project by which a single type of jet will supposedly defend the US and its allies from baddies. Think of a super duper X-box with wings. It has got everything. Or has it? asks Ben Sandilands.
Columns / Crikey Clarifier
Has Rudd really made it easier for refugees?
How has Australia’s refugee processing system changed recently? And are those changes really significant enough to have invited a “surge” of boat people to our shores?
Why do all these celebrities keep ‘dying’ in New Zealand?
Zach Braff is not the only celebrity to have been the subject of death rumours in recent times. He is also not the only one who has supposedly fallen to their death from the Kauri Cliffs. So what’s going on here? Elly Keating investigates.
Copenhagen. What’s it all about?
Apparently something pretty major is happening in Copenhagen in December. Some big climate change world meeting. Crikey intern Melanie Mahony clarifies what it’s all about.
What’s all the fuss about ‘blackface’?
In light of all the scandal following last night’s Hey Hey it’s Saturday, which featured a blackface skit, Crikey intern Melanie Mahony clarifies the history of blackface. Is it racist?
What’s with all the earthquakes lately?
A magnitude 8.3 earthquake strikes the south of Samoa on Tuesday, triggering a tsunami. Then, 16 hours later, another occurs 30 miles off the east coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. What’s going on?
Penny Wong’s climate change ‘compromise’
As the do-or-die climate change meeting in Copenhagen looms, Penny Wong and Kevin Rudd marched to New York today with their new plan to bring developing countries to the table. But how would it work?
What caused Sydney CBD’s Telstra outage
Thousands of businesses and homes in the northeast of Sydney’s CBD spent a day or more without telephones and the internet yesterday. What happened? And what can you do if it happens to you?
What on earth is structural separation?
Til now, Telstra has exploited its monopoly as the buyer and seller of wholesale services to gouge the public and its struggling rivals. So the government’s forcing it to “structurally separate”. But what does this mean?
How did the 16-year-old sailor collide with a ship?
How did 16-year-old Jessica Watson manage to crash into a container ship? Master Mariner Richard Morris says lay off Jessica, it was actually the ship’s fault.
How to survive on a freezing mountaintop
How did Victoria’s Water and Tourism Minister Tim Holding survive the freezing alpine conditions after he went missing? Ben Sandilands, who has also “done” Mt Feathertop, explains.
Where have all the sun spots gone?
As an unusually spotless sun continues to puzzle scientists, get ready for yet another outbreak of pseudo-scientific man-made global warming denialism.
How did Michael Jackson die?
What was the cause of Michael Jackson’s death and why was it ruled a homicide? Crikey intern Emily Finlay digs for clues.
How do CPRS schemes work?
Joshua Gans answers all the questions you’ve always wanted to know about a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme but felt too dumb to ask…
How media regulation works
Wondering how and where you can complain about the Kyle and Jackie-O rape segment? Bernard Keane has the answers.
How do full polyurethane swimsuits work?
What are these now banned super-fast swim suits and how do they work? Sports equipment engineering design expert Lachlan Thompson has the answer.
UK backpacker: dumb and lucky or faking it?
Did British backpacker Jamie Neale fake his 12-day ordeal in the Blue Mountains or not? Ben Sandilands analyses the evidence.
Crikey Clarifier: phone tapping
Following the News of the World phone-tapping controversy in the UK, Crikey questioned Private Investigator Warren Mallard on just how common phone tapping is, and how it’s done.
Who are the Uighurs and why are they protesting?
Professor & Director at the Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, Dr Marika Vicziany clarifies the conflict in Xinjiang.
Why can’t I use my laptop when the plane is taking off?
A Crikey reader asks: why can’t I use my laptop or mobile phone when the plane is taking off or landing? Ben Sandilands has the answers.
How are Iran’s political leaders different?
What are the key differences between the policies of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi? Dr Sally Totman has the answers.
How do Tasers work?
A Taser gun fires a pair of barbed spikes into the flesh attached by wires to the gun’s battery pack which delivers a 50,000 volt kick to immobilise a person, explains Lionel Elmore.
What is spam and where does it come from?
An estimated 94% of all email is spam: over 100 billion messages every day. Stilgherrian explains where it comes from and why.
Victoria, Swine Flu capital of the world
What is it about Victoria that makes it so prone to the H1N1 virus? Victoria’s chief medical officer Dr Rosemary Lester and child health and vaccinology professor Dr Kim Mulholland explain.
North Korea’s nuclear threat explained
How does North Korea’s threat to the world compare to say, Iran’s? How great is the threat towards South Korea? Craig Snyder answers these questions and more.
