Australia's obsession with opinion polls is eroding political leadership
Oct 04, 2018 15:45 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
In its early days, political opinion pollings leading advocate, George Gallup, sold it as an essential tool for democracy. He believed polling made for better representation because it allowed politicians to take the...

Rome: City + Empire contains wonderful objects but elides the bloody cost of imperialism
Oct 04, 2018 15:44 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
What have the Romans ever done for us? asks Reg from the Peoples Front of Judaea in Monty Pythons comedy classic, Life of Brian. Rome: City + Empire, now showing at the National Museum of Australia, offers visitors a clear...
The vocational education sector needs a plan and action, not more talk
Oct 04, 2018 15:44 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
This article is part of a series on the Future of VET exploring issues within the sector and how to improve the decline in enrolments and shortages of qualified people in vocational jobs. Read the other articles in the...
Why Indonesia's tsunamis are so deadly
Oct 04, 2018 15:43 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
The magnitude 7.5 earthquake, and subsequent tsunami, that struck Indonesia days ago has resulted in at least 1,200 deaths. Authorities are still gauging the extent of the damage, but its clear the earthquake and...
2018 Nobel Prize for physics goes to tools made from light beams – a particle physicist explains
Oct 04, 2018 15:43 pm UTC| Insights & Views Science
Arthur Ashkin. Niklas Elmehed. Nobel Media, CC BY-SA Gerard Mourou. Niklas Elmehed. Nobel Media, CC BY-SA Our world is full of light and we depend upon it to power life on our planet. So it is appropriate to...
What a widely attacked experiment got right on the harmful effects of prisons
Oct 04, 2018 15:43 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
The Stanford Prison Experiment is one of the few scientific studies to enter the public consciousness through mainstream news, documentaries, popular books, a TED talk and a major motion picture. Recently, it has been...

AI's first pop album ushers in a new musical era
Oct 04, 2018 15:42 pm UTC| Insights & Views Entertainment
Last December, the world ushered in a new era of popular music: human and artificial intelligence (AI) collaboration. Musical eras are often defined by their dominant modes of production analog, electronic, digital ...