Age journalist Raymond Gill has penned a review, of sorts, of the paper’s new Spencer St home. Former Age employee Michael Vaughan responds.
History
The final chapter in the 747 story
The latest and final version of the Boeing 747 line of jumbo jets, the 747-8, has taken flight in America, heralding the beginning of the end for the 747 story.
North Korea: a nation of racist dwarves
By keeping North Koreans in the dark — both literally and figuratively — Kim Jong Il has created a nation of hysterically nationalistic, xeonophobic, physically stunted slaves, says Christopher Hitchens.
PHOTO GALLERY: Superheroes crash history
Artist Agan Harahap has Photoshopped superheroes into images of famous historical scenes, in an effort to make history “fun”. It’s curiously compelling.
Leonardo da Vinci applies for a job in 1482
A recruitment website has tracked down the original version of a job application written by Leonardo da Vinci, before he was famous, and provided a translation. “I am a strong team player” does not feature once. Must be why he didn’t get the role.
Why Australia Day is historically inaccurate
John Carmody explains why 7 February would make a far more historically accurate — not to mention morally acceptable — date on which to celebrate the nation.
graph pr0n 30 years of elections in 5 charts
The primary vote of both the Labor Party and the Coalition have been, on average, declining since 1977… but that’s only part of the story, reports Possum Comitatus.
Was booze the motivation behind human civilisation?
Man didn’t turn from hunting and gathering to agriculture for bread or a desire to settle down — he did it out of a desire to make more and higher quality beer, according to new research. Nice to see we’ve evolved so far over the past 10,000-odd years.
Haiti needs a friend, not a nanny
The US has a long history of misguided paternalism in Haiti and it has gotten the country precisely nowhere. Haiti needs partnership, cooperation and coordination if it’s going to pull itself out of its current crisis.
How do you “win” a war these days?
Once upon a time, wars had clear-cut beginnings and endings, winners and losers. These days, things aren’t so simple: things start messy, get messier, and end — if they end — in a great big mess.
The worst ideas of the decade
What were we thinking? The Washington Post names some of the dumbest decisions of the 2000s, from broadcasting reality TV dancing competitions, to letting Osama escape in the battle of Tora Bora.
PHOTO GALLERY: 2009 in pictures. Really, really big pictures.
In the first of a three-part series, The Boston Globe’s Big Picture looks back at some of the most beautiful, shocking, inspiring and iconic images of 2009.
Where’s my flying car? Technology we never got
Cities under the sea, food pills, self-driving cars and man-made oceans: this was supposed to be the future! A look at the failed predictions of the 20th Century.
2009: it was no 1776 or 1989
Copenhagen, Obama, Jacko, Twitter, Iran — yep, 2009 was a Big Year, but how does it rank against some of history’s most important years? Will the last 12 months go down as a pivotal period or just another 365 days?
McDonald’s Down Under: from Yagoona to 800 golden arches
Simon Canning was there when Australia’s very first McDonald’s in 1971. As the company raises its 800th set of iconic golden arches, he looks back at the brand Australia loves to hate.
PHOTO GALLERY: Family portraits of China’s 56 ethnic groups
A beautiful gallery of families from China’s many ethnic groups. The project’s title of “Harmonious China” might cause some eye rolling, but it’s a great visual guide to the myriad peoples and cultures currently annexed by the Chinese government, nonetheless.
VIDEO: Booze, blazers and Blanche: Bob Hawke at 80
The flowing silver mane, the dancing, the drinking and the terry toweling robe: the ABC pays tribute to 80 years of Bob Hawke, including a great interview with Andrew Denton.
How the world was saved from orbiting laser battle stations
In the 1970s, the Soviet Union came this close to launching a huge satellite with a giant laser attached to it to take out America’s anti-missile shield. The fascinating and largely untold story of how it all fell to pieces.
VIDEO: An animated journey through 800,000 years of climate data
The BBC’s environment reporter Richard Black narrates an animated journey through 800,000 years of global climate history. In case you missed the news: it’s getting hotter.
15 of the worst predictions ever
From Thatcher’s 1969 prediction that there’d never be a British female PM in her lifetime, to the then-IBM chairman’s estimate that there was a world market for “maybe five computers” in 1943, predictions about the future that failed miserably.
Is Afghanistan another Vietnam?
Obama says it isn’t, but the pundits are divided: is America’s war in Afghanistan just another rehash of its doomed campaign in Vietnam, or are people just drawing parallels where they don’t exist?
What if Gore had won? An alternate history of the last decade
George W. Bush defined so much of the noughties that it’s easy to forget he came so close to losing the 2000 election. So what if Al Gore had been declared the winner? Newsweek imagines how a very different decade might have played out.
Is this the end of the Liberal Party as we know it?
With deep, perhaps irreparable, splits forming between conservatives and liberals within the Liberal Party, we may be witnessing the end of the Menzies era in Australian politics, says Geoffrey Barker.
The 2000s: Worst. Decade. Ever.
TIME’s latest cover story has slightly controversially labeled the Noughties “The Decade From Hell”, with 9/11 at one end, and financial disaster at the other. A look back at a decade of depression, disasters, despots and doom.
Steketee: History isn’t on Turnbull’s side
In the history of the Liberal Party, unsuccessful political challenges like the one Malcolm Turnbull faced yesterday are typically followed by a second, which does succeed, explains Mike Steketee.
