Where has the joy of writing gone and how do we get it back for our children?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edwin Creely, Lecturer in literacy and English education, Monash University NAPLAN results indicate a decline in students’ ability to write. Outcomes in literacy, including writing, affect student achievement across multiple subject areas (including maths and science). Read more: NAPLAN writing tests hinder creativity, so what could we […]
Read More →Colonial Australia was surprisingly concerned about Aboriginal deaths in custody
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kristyn Harman, Senior Lecturer in History; Graduate Research Coordinator, School of Humanities; Course Coordinator, Diploma of History, University of Tasmania When the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody’s report was tabled in 1991, it was not the first official inquiry into this tragic phenomenon. The disproportionately […]
Read More →If there’s one thing Pacific nations don’t need, it’s yet another infrastructure investment bank
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Engel, Senior Lecturer, Politics and International Studies, University of Wollongong If Scott Morrison was looking for a way to prove Australia is a good neighbour to Pacific nations, he could hardly have chosen a worse option. Looking for a policy to combat both China and his […]
Read More →Fresh urgency in mapping out ethics of brain organoid research
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Koplin, Resarch Fellow in Biomedical Ethics, Melbourne Law School and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, University of Melbourne Scientists have become increasingly adept at creating brain organoids – which are essentially miniature human brains grown in the laboratory from stem cells. Although brain organoid research might seem […]
Read More →An urgent rethink is needed on the idealised image of the ANZAC digger
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Effie Karageorgos, Academic Tutor, History and Academic Skills, University of Melbourne The 100th anniversary of the truce that ended the first world war has been marked. More than $1 billion is being spent on remembering the dead. Now is the time to become more honest – respectfully […]
Read More →Curious Kids: How do moths eat our clothes?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Zwick, Molecular Systematist, CSIRO Curious Kids is a series for children, where we ask experts to answer questions from kids. All questions are welcome: find out how to enter at the bottom. You might also like the podcast Imagine This, a co-production between ABC KIDS listen […]
Read More →A/B testing: how offline businesses are learning from Google to improve profits
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Sanderson, Professor of Information Retrieval, RMIT University The market testing that helped give us the Google search we know today is being emulated by industries from hospitality to manufacturing to help better focus their products and services and meet customer needs. So what did Google do? […]
Read More →The Greens set to be tested on a number of fronts in the Victorian election
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Narelle Miragliotta, Senior Lecturer in Australian Politics, Monash University Critical times lie ahead for the Greens in Victoria and across the federation more generally. In recent years, the Greens have managed to achieve what most minor parties and independents have failed to do: cut a swathe through […]
Read More →If you’re feeding with formula, here’s what you can do to promote your baby’s healthy growth
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Laws, Senior Lecturer in Public Health Nutrition, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University While breastfeeding is the recommended approach to infant feeding, some mothers may not be able to breastfeed. Others may find themselves moving on from breastfeeding […]
Read More →Getting clean drinking water into remote Indigenous communities means overcoming city thinking
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nina Lansbury Hall, Lecturer, Environmental Health Unit, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland Many people in Australia do not have access to safe drinking water. It’s particularly difficult in Indigenous communities because they are small, remote and challenged by additional issues to secure essential power […]
Read More →How much will voters pay for an early Christmas? Eight charts that explain Victoria’s transport election
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marion Terrill, Transport Program Director, Grattan Institute The most magical time of the year is upon Victorians: election season. The (taxpayer-funded) gifts promised by the major parties far exceed anything Santa could bring. And the multi-billion-dollar toys on everybody’s wish list? Trains, tracks and roads. There’s nothing […]
Read More →Fresh thinking: the carbon tax that would leave households better off
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics and PLuS Alliance Fellow, UNSW Today, as part of the UNSW Grand Challenge on Inequality, we release a study entitled A Climate Dividend for Australians that offers a practical solution to the twin problems of climate change and energy affordability. It’s a […]
Read More →Why we should worry about Victoria’s China memorandum of understanding
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Lloyd, Professor of Economics, University of Melbourne Victoria’s Labor government stole a march on the rest of the country last month becoming the first (and only) state government to sign a memorandum of understanding with China under China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Belt and Road is […]
Read More →Why adult video stars rely on camming
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sophie Pezzutto, PhD Candidate in Anthropology, Australian National University With pirated and amateur pornography widely available online, porn no longer provides a steady income for many working in the adult industry. During my research interviewing transgender porn stars in Las Vegas, the overwhelming majority of those interviewed […]
Read More →Victoria votes: your guide to the 2018 election health promises
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vijaya Sundararajan, Professor and Head of Department, Public Health, La Trobe University With health care spending accounting for 30% of the Victorian budget, or A$20 billion, health is a major policy area for the Victorian election on Saturday. While the Commonwealth pays for general practice, private specialists, […]
Read More →Poll wrap: Labor’s worst polls since Turnbull; chaos likely in Victorian upper house
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne This week’s Fairfax Ipsos poll, conducted November 14-17 from a sample of 1,200, gave Labor just a 52-48 lead, a three-point gain for the Coalition since October. Primary votes were 37% Coalition (up two), 34% […]
Read More →We still live here: public housing tenants fight for their place in the city
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pratichi Chatterjee, PhD Student, Urban Geography, University of Sydney After years of strong housing market growth, Sydney’s property market is slowing. Despite this, housing stress remains a reality for many Sydneysiders, with rents remaining largely untouched. Public housing is a lifeline for those who can’t afford to […]
Read More →Bainimarama wins again in Fiji, helped by muzzling the media, unions and the church
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic O’Sullivan, Associate Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University Former coup leader Josaia Voreqe “Frank” Bainimarama has won re-election in Fiji. But he did so in a country where press freedom is severely limited, and authoritarian rule is used to curb dissent – even from the […]
Read More →Indonesia matters to us, and always has. Why the relationship will survive Morrison’s Jerusalem thought bubble
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, J.W. Nevile Fellow in Economics, UNSW All hell broke loose during the Wentworth by-election when Prime Minister Scott Morrison suddenly announced that he was thinking of moving of Australia’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The main objections came, not on merits of […]
Read More →Cool for cats: that spiny tongue does more than keep a cat well groomed
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Senior Lecturer, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide Have you ever been licked by a cat? If so you’ll know the feline tongue feels more like sandpaper than satin. A cat’s tongue is covered in hundreds of sharp, scoop-shaped spines made of […]
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