How even the young Pablo Picasso was already foreshadowing cubism
Catedrático de Historia del Arte Moderno; director del Centre d'Art d'Època Moderna (CAEM) de la UdL, Universitat de Lleida At the end of the 19th century, long before starting to speak, Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881-1973) was already drawing – and he grew up “capturing” everything he saw with a pencil. Continued here |
How does the Liberal Party's Voice policy stack up against the proposed referendum?
Despite the political acrimony over the Voice referendum, what’s most striking is the similarities between the positions of the Coalition and the Labor government. Both agree Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be recognised in the Constitution. Both agree practical outcomes are needed to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. Both agree parliament and the executive government need to be better informed about the laws and policies they make, and that they need to hear the voices of those on the ground who are affected by those laws and policies. Continued here |
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I've created a monstera! How to care for the 'Swiss cheese plant' in your life
When I was growing up monsteras (sometimes known as monsteria) were not all that common, but neither were indoor plants. In fact, monsteras were out of fashion back then – but now monsteras are back and, appropriately, in a big way.The plants that we know as monsteras, fruit salad plant or Swiss cheese plants (due to their holey leaves) are a rainforest plant called Monstera deliciosa. Continued here |
Here's why having chocolate can make you feel great or a bit sick - plus 4 tips for better eating
Dr Khalesi is supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship (Award No. 102584) from the National Heart Foundation of Australia.Australians are predicted to spend around A$1.7 billion on chocolates, hot cross buns and other special foods this Easter season. Continued here |
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One hundred years of Vegemite
Vegemite has inspired national pride – and outrage – since its invention a century ago in Melbourne. The salty spread was once so popular that it was found in nine out of 10 Aussie homes, but its polarising taste has landed it in the Disgusting Food Museum in Sweden, too.The punchy condiment has the dark gloss of a vinyl record, and the intense tang of its boozy power source (brewer's yeast) generates reactions that are as strong as its flavour. American TV host Jimmy Fallon and announcer Steve Higgins comically squirmed after trying it on Fallon's late-night TV show seven years ago – prompting Australian actor Hugh Jackman to school them on Vegemite appreciation (a common mistake is to ferociously slather on the condiment like it's Nutella; Jackman proudly demonstrated how Vegemite should be lightly smeared onto buttered toast, using "the crappiest bread possible").And when Tom Hanks swiped a far-too-thick layer onto toast while quarantining in Australia in March 2020, it became a worldwide scandal that made news in South Africa, Cambodia and India. Continued here |
The untapped power of ocean winds - why New Zealand is looking offshore for future renewable energy
The latest synthesis report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes it clear we need to prepare for intensifying impacts, while also cutting emissions dramatically. One beacon of hope is the global growth in renewable energy, with offshore wind in particular with new installations increasing almost six-fold in 2021 compared to 2020. Continued here |
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Pastoral ponderings and settler politics: how a colonial judge and poet wrote terra nullius into law
Governor Richard Bourke’s written proclamation of terra nullius was made on October 10, 1835. The original document now resides in the National Archives of the United Kingdom. The proclamation was enacted to invalidate the treaty struck between John Batman and the Wurundjeri and Woi Wurrung people, who owned the land on which Melbourne now stands. Though the term “terra nullius” does not appear anywhere in its two pages, its claim of ownership over the entire continent would become the legal justification for the dispossession and inhumane treatment of First Nations people in Australia. Continued here |
Victim or victor? How the Easter story still resonates today
At a March 2023 public talk, journalist Greg Sheridan argued that 40 years ago, the press was friendly to church leaders. Then, it became neutral, and now it is hostile. Sheridan is not alone in holding this view. Numerous Christians on the conservative side of politics claim the world is now anti-Christian, or that their freedoms are being curtailed. That is, they present themselves as a persecuted minority fighting for the right to sing Christmas carols in schools, prayer in government bodies, crucifixes in hospitals, or the ability to discriminate on matters of sexuality or gender. Continued here |
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Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter
Striving to increase workplace diversity is not an empty slogan — it is a good business decision. A 2015 McKinsey report on 366 public companies found that those in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean, and those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely to have returns above the industry mean. Continued here |
Since the late 19th century, adventurous female 'eclipse chasers' have contributed to science in Australia
Honorary history affiliate in the School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney A total solar eclipse is a remarkable alignment of our Sun, Earth and the Moon, as the latter casts a perfect shadow across the former. Continued here |
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Does exercise help you lose weight?
It’s no surprise exercise is one of the first things we turn to when we decide it’s time to lose weight.We readily sign up for that gym membership and commit to extra walks with the dog, believing if we exercise enough, the number on the scales will drop. Continued here |
120 hours of supervised learner driving: our research suggests it may be too many
During the Easter school holidays, scores of learner drivers will hit the roads, with parents carefully logging all their driving hours. Many of us have experienced this process, whether as a learner, a supervisor, or both. The requirement is particularly high in New South Wales and Victoria, where learners must complete a minimum of 120 hours of supervised driving before they can drive without supervision. This one of the highest requirements for learner drivers in the world. Continued here |
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A mammoth meatball hints at a future of exotic lab-grown meats, but the reality will be far more boring, and rife with problems
Last week, an Australian “cultured meat” company called Vow made headlines with a meatball made from the flesh of a woolly mammoth – or something very much like it. Combining the technologies of lab-based cell culture and “de-extinction,” Vow scientists grew muscle proteins based on DNA sequences from the long-dead proboscideans.The meatball was not intended for human consumption, but Vow hoped the gimmick would highlight the lighter environmental footprint of lab-grown meats, using the mammoth as a “a symbol of diversity loss and a symbol of climate change”. The meatball also hinted at a possible new variety and playfulness in meat consumption. Continued here |
Sydney Theatre Company's Julia powerfully imagines the life and emotions of the woman behind the 'misogyny speech'
Just over 10 years ago, then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard stood up in the House of Representatives to deliver one of the most unforgettable political speeches in recent memory. Office workers shared it at the water cooler and over coffee cups. Mothers shared it with their daughters. The speech went viral on the internet. And was watched by women around the world. Continued here |
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The Great War: The WW1 video game that's eerily accurate
There are many images of World War One sewn into the popular imagination, but now video gamers are able to experience the conflict's Earth-churning intensity as if first-hand. Released on 30 March, The Great War: Western Front turns players into generals, mixing grand strategy with the slog of the trenches. Responsible for everything from organising troops to launching observation balloons, gamers can lead the fight from both sides of the wire – either as the Allies or Germany – using an aerial view of the battlefield and a large map of Belgium and France. More like this:- Why Tetris is the 'perfect' video game- Super Mario Bros: The ultimate video game icon- The 1991 video game that packs a punch Continued here |
Buttery miso Vegemite noodles
There are some recipes that I have carried around in my head for years. This is one of them. It's not your everyday noodle dish, but once you have tasted it, you will likely want to eat it often. The noodles feature umami to the highest degree, with an unlikely combination of Vegemite, miso paste and butter creating an impossibly addictive noodle dish.Like many Australians, I have a deep affection for Vegemite. As a kid, a Vegemite sandwich (made by my mum with not quite the right ratio of Vegemite to margarine) represented assimilation and acceptance. I felt infinitely more Australian as I chowed down on a squashed Vegemite sandwich in the playground. While Vegemite is virtually the national dish of Australia, people around the world have a love/hate (mostly hate in my experience) relationship with the rich, yeasty sandwich spread. This recipe might be the one that finally converts doubters, but if not, just leave the Vegemite out and double the amount of miso. Continued here |
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Picking mushrooms can go horribly wrong. Here's what can happen, according to a toxicologist
It’s mushroom season in many parts of Australia. Between now and about June, the cooler and wetter weather are the perfect conditions for mushrooms to grow in the wild. In Tasmania and parts of Victoria, mushrooms can grow all year round.At the New South Wales Poisons Information Centre, where I’m the medical director, we receive 300–500 calls a year about mushrooms. Most are from people concerned about what they or others have eaten. Others are from health workers seeking advice on how to treat poisonings. Continued here |
We can never truly separate our work and personal lives - and that isn't necessarily bad
Acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, the Apple TV series Severance, released last year, centred around a group of employees working at a firm called Lumon Industries who are truly able to split their work and personal lives. When they are at the office, employees do not remember anything about the outside world and when they are at home, they don’t remember anything about work. In the series, employees undergo a mind-wiping medical procedure called “severance”. In the work-family literature it’s less literal but is called “separation”. Separation is a boundary management technique that sees us split our work and family roles without any overlap. Continued here |
Eros, beauty and friction: what happened when Susan Johnson took her 85-year-old mother to live on a Greek island
Have you ever dreamed of fleeing your current life and spending weeks or months or even a year living on an island in the Mediterranean? This is what Susan Johnson longed for and did, taking her mother with her to the Greek island of Kythera.Reading Johnson’s new memoir Aphrodite’s Breath while taking myself off for a month of writing near Naples was my second experience of living in a synchronicity of sorts with Johnson. Johnson is just a few years older than me; a writer, mother and divorcee who has always – from a distance as we’re yet to meet – been well ahead of me with books, success and family. For a while we had the same literary agent and I’d hear of her latest publications and wish that I too had the tenacity and grit to finish my own books with such (deceptive) ease. Continued here |
Downshifting: why people are quitting their corporate careers for craft jobs
Long coveted by job centres and PowerPoint presenters, the old image of moving up the career ladder makes less and less sense by the day. In France and other Western societies, it is increasingly common to see interior designers become bakers, ex-bankers opening up cheese shops, and marketing officers taking up electricians’ tools. In January 2022, 21% of French working people were in the course of changing career, while 26% were reported to be considering a career switch in the long term. As part of this trend, executives or the highly educated are increasingly drawn to the world of craft. The practice is sometimes referred to as downshifting in English, which, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is “the practice of leaving a job that is well paid and difficult in order to do something that gives you more time and satisfaction but less money”. Continued here |
Gabriele Amorth conducted over 60,000 exorcisms and believed Hitler was possessed. Meet the man who inspired The Pope's Exorcist
Father Gabriele Amorth (1925-2016) was undoubtedly the most famous Catholic exorcist of the modern era. By his account, Amorth performed at least 60,000 exorcisms during the course of his ministry, sparking a renewed interest for exorcism within Catholicism.He claimed Hitler and Stalin were possessed by the Devil. In 2012 he made headlines for asserting paedophilic cults operated within the Vatican. Continued here |
Can a 'nature repair market' really save Australia's environment? It's not perfect, but it's worth a shot
Australia has embarked on an experiment to create a market for biodiversity. No, we’re not talking about buying and selling wildlife, although, sadly, there is a black market for that. This is about repairing and restoring landscapes, providing habitat for threatened species and getting business and philanthropy to help pay for it.When Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek introduced the Nature Repair Market Bill to parliament last week, she said: Continued here |
How can we make the space sector more sustainable?
Chercheur post-doctorant en stratégie, innovation et entrepreneuriat, Chaire Sirius, TBS Education Professeur associé en management de l'innovation et stratégie, Chaire Sirius, TBS Education Continued here |
I met 60 suspects of war crimes committed in Rwanda and Yugoslavia: what they had to say reveal cracks in our international justice system
Professeur en droit international pénal, Études empiriques du droit, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) Since the Nuremberg trials (1945-1946), criminal jurisdictions such as those for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda have aimed to judge the world’s most serious offenses: war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocides. Continued here |
The crucifixion gap: why it took hundreds of years for art to depict Jesus dying on the cross
What’s the difference between the two? A cross is just that - an empty cross. It stands as a statement that Jesus is no longer on the cross and thus symbolises his resurrection. A crucifix, on the other hand, includes the body of Jesus, to more vividly remind viewers of his death. Continued here |
Dingo attacks are rare - but here's what you need to know about dingo safety
Australia has an ambivalent relationship with dingoes – to some they are almost magical representations of our arid landscapes, responsible for holding back a tide of foxes and feral cats, as found in some studies.To others they are pests, dangerous marauders of our cattle and sheep. We even argue about what to call them. They also loom large in our national conscience as potential killers of children, as shown by a recent dingo attack on a child on K'gari (Fraser Island). Continued here |
Don't fret about students using ChatGPT to cheat - AI is a bigger threat to educational equality
Schools and universities are panicking about artificial intelligence (AI) and cheating. But AI presents far more significant threats to equity in education. Fears of cheating typically arise from concerns about fairness. How is it fair that one student spends weeks labouring over an essay, while another asks ChatGPT to write the same thing in just a few minutes? Fretting about giving each student a “fair go” is essential to maintaining the idea of New Zealand as an egalitarian country. Continued here |
How the Online Streaming Act will support Canadian content
After two-and-a-half years of debate in Canada’s Parliament, two proposed versions of the bill (C-10 and C-11) and careful scrutiny by the Senate, the Online Streaming Act is close to becoming law. Once it receives royal assent, the bill will trigger significant — and for some, long-awaited — changes to Canada’s Broadcasting Act, which was last updated in 1991. Continued here |
The Liberal Party's 'no' position on Voice signals it's primarily interested in speaking to a nation that no longer exists
The Liberal Party’s decision to formally oppose the federal government’s model for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to parliament amounts to a resounding “no” position – but perhaps not in the way party leader Peter Dutton thinks. It’s a “no” to the proposed Voice model, obviously, but it’s also a “no” to the Australia we live in today. This position bets against Australia and its First Peoples. Continued here |
Holiday help! An art expert suggests screen-free things to do in every room of the house
School holidays can feel like a marathon if all the kids want to do is watch TV, play Minecraft or repeatedly ask you for the iPad.There are lots of things you can do inside the house that do not involve a screen. And will help ward off any whines along the lines of: “I’m booooooored”. Continued here |
How to Seed Organic Marketing in a Video-First World
Early direct-to-consumer companies relied on plentiful capital and low-cost digital marketing to power growth. But as this sector has matured, capital is more constrained, social media is more cluttered, and customer acquisition costs are rising. DTC companies need new marketing techniques to find customers today, and the 4Cs — content, consumers, creators, and celebrities — can help. Continued here |
Experiencing trauma can change some people's outlook on life - sometimes for the better
Traumatic experiences are surprisingly common, with about three-quarters of the population dealing with some form of trauma at least once in their lives. This might mean experiencing things like abuse, violence or natural disasters. Experiencing a traumatic event alone is not enough to cause traumatic stress (a “trauma”). The person experiencing the trauma needs to view the event as highly distressing or life-threatening. Continued here |
What I Learned from a Year Without Business Trips
Before the pandemic, the author considered herself something of a road warrior. She was on the road around 80 days a year, while raising two young kids at home. Traveling for work was a non-negotiable, or so she thought. This past year, as the author was grounded and forced to take a break from traveling due to the pandemic, she was inspired to rethink her home and work lives. Three key lessons the author recommends carrying forward are to (1) maximize wellness on the road, (2) reimagine family rituals, and (3) travel less and smarter. As we’re getting ready to travel again, practicing these lessons will help us evaluate and balance quality time with family and the value of being at an event in-person. Continued here |
Russia's alleged deportation of Ukrainian children has caused a UN standoff - what international law says and why it matters
The New Zealand government’s sanctioning of Russian commissioner for children’s rights Maria Lvova-Belova is a further demonstration of its concern over alleged war crimes in Ukraine. But it is only a small step in what will likely be a very long road to justice.In March, the reported removal of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territory to Russia itself triggered the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Russian president Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova. Continued here |
What The Jetsons got right, and very wrong, about the future of work
Sixty years ago the animated series The Jetsons finished its first and only season before being cancelled. Just 24 episodes were broadcast between September 1962 and March 1963. Despite this the cartoon has achieved huge influence in popular culture, with countless reruns, a reboot in the mid-1980s (51 episodes over two seasons) and a feature-length movie in 1990.The Jetsons was created by the Hanna-Barbara animation studio in Los Angeles as a futuristic version of the studio’s hit series The Flintstones, the first cartoon series to gain a prime-time slot. Continued here |
What science can tell us about the experience of unexplainable presence
If you’ve ever had the eerie sensation there’s a presence in the room when you were sure you were alone, you may be reluctant to admit it. Perhaps it was a profound experience that you are happy to share with others. Or – more likely – it was something in between the two. In 1886, the SPR (which numbered former UK prime minister William Gladstone and poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson among its patrons) published Phantasms of the Living. This collection included 701 cases of telepathy, premonitions and other unusual phenomena. For instance, the Reverend P H Newnham, of Devonport in Plymouth, told the story of a visit to New Zealand, where a night-time presence warned him away from joining a boat trip at dawn the next morning. He later learnt that all on the voyage had drowned. Continued here |
9 Trends That Will Shape Work in 2023 and Beyond
Last year was another tumultuous year in the workplace, with continued high employee turnover rates, evolving return-to-office policies, inflation, and more. In 2023, amid a looming economic downturn, organizations will continue to face significant challenges — and how they respond could determine whether they are an employer of choice. Several authors from Gartner’s HR practice predict nine trends that organizations will have to confront this year. Continued here |
Pragmatism versus idealism? Behind the split between environmental groups and the Greens on the safeguard mechanism
Old tensions emerged between green groups en route to the hard-fought Labor-Greens deal over the safeguard mechanism industrial emissions policy. At the height of negotiations, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) started lobbying the Greens to accept a deal. Greens Senator Nick McKim accused the ACF of undermining the Greens’ negotiating strategy and ultimately the legislative outcome, saying: Continued here |
Research: How Price Changes Influence Consumers' Buying Decisions
Whether on retailers’ own platforms or through third-party price tracking services, today’s consumers often have access to detailed information regarding changes in a product’s price over time. But how does this visibility influence their purchasing decisions? Through a series of studies, the authors found that buyers are more likely to buy now if they see a single large price decrease or a series of smaller price increases, because they’ll assume that the price will go up if they wait. Conversely, they’re more likely to hold off on buying if they see a single large price increase or a series of smaller decreases, because they’ll assume the price will fall. As such, they argue that sellers should consider this effect when pricing their products, while buyers should recognize and question this natural tendency — to expect price streaks to continue and single large changes to reverse — before acting on it. Continued here |
Many local councils still officially pray to God. Here's why this may be unlawful and should be abandoned
There’s a good chance your local council starts each official council meeting with a religious prayer – and it’s almost always a Christian prayer.Around one-third of Australian local governments have a prayer, with the figure rising to more than half of councils in New South Wales and Victoria. Continued here |
Does GPT-4 Really Understand What We're Saying?
Yes and no,” is the answer to that. In my new paper with computer scientist Melanie Mitchell, we surveyed AI researchers on the idea that large pretrained language models, like GPT-4, can understand language. When they say these models understand us, or that they don’t, it’s not clear that we’re agreeing on our concept of understanding. When Claude Shannon was inventing information theory, he made it very clear that the part of information he was interested in was communication, not meaning: You can have two messages that are equally informative, with one having loads of meaning and the other none. There’s a kind of understanding which is just coordination. For example, I could say, “Can you pass me the spoon?” And you’d say, “Here it is.” And I say, “Well, you understood me!” Because we coordinated. That’s not the same as generative or constructive understanding, where I say to you, “I’m going to teach you some calculus, and you get to use that knowledge on a problem that I haven’t yet told you about.” That goes beyond coordination. It’s like: Here’s the math—now apply it in your life. Continued here |
You Don't Need to Be "the Boss" to Be a Leader
Most people don’t identify as a “leader” unless it’s written into their role, despite the fact that leadership is a skill, not a title. Over the years, through my work as a leadership consultant working in the trenches with companies in nearly every sector, I’ve seen hundreds of early career professionals and individual contributors project more influence than their own managers. The best leaders don’t wait for a promotion to step up. They begin practicing long before then. Continued here
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