Melburnians cycle for transport twice as much as Sydneysiders and are taking to cycling at three times the rate of their northern neighbours. Alan Davies asks: why?
Culture / People & Ideas
10 words for relationships that don’t translate into English
How do you describe the euphoria in early love or the feeling of running your hands through someone’s hair? It sounds cheesy, but Pamela Haag shows just where English fails when it comes to describing relationships.
An extract from Us and Them: on the importance of animals
2011 was a big year for animals: live exports, Sarbi the bomb detection dog, chimpanzees seeing sunshine for the first time. Anna Krien penned the latest Quarterly Essay on the relationship between humans and animals.
What can US sun belt cities teach us about housing?
Why have US sun-belt cities like Phoenix, Dallas, Houston and Raleigh-Durham grown so much faster than old and established places? What can we learn from them? asks Alan Davies.
The neighbourhood: is it the centre of the world?
One of the most enduring and pervasive ideas in urban policy is that cities should consist of numerous self-contained and self-sufficient neighbourhoods.But are neighbourhoods harmful to city planning? asks Alan Davies.
Meet the new high-res iPad
Apple announces its new 4G iPad with high-resolution retina display, to launch in Australia on March 16. Patrick Stafford previews the iPad 3 (although Apple seems to have ditched the numerical updates for a generic “iPad”).
Are women even people?
Jessica Winter had always assumed that women were competent and autonomous people. But recent actions by others — ie. Rush Limbaugh — have made her question if women are even fully functioning human beings…
Animals can be gay, but can they be homophobic?
We know many species of animals engage in gay sex, but what about homophobia? Does anti-gay discrimination exist in the animal kingdom? asks Will Oremus.
Is there more to architecture than sustainability?
it’s time to stop treating sustainability in architecture like it’s the precocious child that needs to be singled out and lavished with constant attention, writes Alan Davies.
An evening with author Alan Hollinghurst
Gay sex wins booker! Those were the words splashed across a British tabloid after Alan Hollinghurst won the Booker prize in 2004. The man himself is warm and witty, writes W H Chong.
Four wakes and a funeral for Andrew McMillan
“It’s OK, he’s double-bagged and the box is sealed” — Bob Gosford and a mate picked up Andrew McMillan and delivered him to his funeral, where a glass of nice red wine was poured over his colourful coffin. Then they attended his fourth wake.
The 90s in 48 pictures
The 80s is widely known as the decade taste forgot. However, this collection of images from BuzzFeed suggest the 90s may be equally deserving of the title.
Augmented reality coming to an eyeball near you
Google’s top secret lab, Google X, is currently building augmented reality glasses that reportedly resemble Oakley Thumps and are expected to go on sale before the end of the year, reports Mona Zhang.
The Nanny Diaries: from sunshine to snow, from dream to nightmare
Freya Cole thought being a nanny would primarily involve walking polite children to the local park. She was in for a rude shock.
Top 12 tech trends of the next five years
SmartCompany has assembled a team of experts to gaze into the crystal ball and find out what technology will look like in 2017. Patrick Stafford reports.
Happy International Mother Language Day!
International Mother Language Day has been around since 2000 and has a noble sentiment of promoting linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism, writes gamut.
Reach for the sky: should Australian cities embrace density?
Urbanists throughout Australia and the world were startled and amazed to read of the radical 20-50 year vision for expanding Melbourne’s CBD proposed last week by Victoria’s Planning Minister, Matthew Guy, writes Alan Davies.
The importance of sex ed in America
Did you know that more than 90% of pregnancies in the US are unintended and chlamydia among teens has nearly doubled since 2000?
Ian Hickie: on Twitter, The Lancet and my critics
It’s not uncommon in my world to be engaged in very lively academic debates, like the risk versus benefits associated with new antidepressant drugs, writes Professor Ian Hickie.
Media coverage of Whitney Houston’s death: no actual content, but lots of it
Whitney Houston’s far too early death at the age of 48 is terribly sad for her family and friends, but it’s been more surprising to witness the overbold media reaction, writes Neil Walker.
Video The critical art of critical thinking
To promote a set of educational resources funded by the Australian government, Bridge8 created six two minute animations about critical thinking styled in Saul Bass-esque aesthetics, reports Maria Popova.
travel The Swiss wedding survival guide
Weddings are always a cultural minefield. But expat Claudia List didn’t expect that attending a wedding in Switzerland would require hiking boots and the ability to sing in front of a crowd.
Are all green buildings really that green?
Every new public building, it seems, is a wonder of green efficiency, driving the bar of ecological innovation ever higher. But how does that theory convert into reality? asks Alan Davies.
The $28m pantomime of airport body scanners
Airport body scanners have no demonstrated value, but the government is spending $28 million on them.
PHOTO GALLERY Never-before-seen photos from the night MLK died
LIFE photographer Henry Groskinsky was in Alabama on April 4, 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr was shot dead. He rushed to the crime scene and took these incredible photos of grieving civil rights leaders.
