Not everyone who takes painkillers for fun is an addict; some have just found a different way to cope

Apr 19, 2016 04:52 am UTC| Insights & Views Health Law

The misuse or abuse of pharmaceutical pain medications usually opioids has received increasing media attention recently. The focus of such news items has largely been on people who transition from oral use of medication...

The argumentum ad whingeum: an idea whose time can't pass quick enough

Apr 19, 2016 04:39 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics

The marketplace of ideas is usually less a showroom for shiny new models and more of a cheery Op Shop. So its a big deal when a genuinely new argument is spotted in the wild even, or perhaps especially, when it comes from...

A precarious geological bargain

Apr 18, 2016 14:21 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

The landscapes of the Xinjiang province of western China are very special. It is here the ancient trade routes of the Silk Roads skirt the great mountains and deserts of central Asia, weaving a magic thread through a...

Catholicism's multi-billion dollar brand is struggling despite Pope Francis

Apr 18, 2016 13:20 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life

When the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, told a newspaper the firm was doing Gods work, his appeal on behalf of higher powers was an attempt to rescue the tainted reputation not only of his own...

With Dilma Rousseff impeached, Brazil is set for years of political turmoil

Apr 18, 2016 13:15 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics

The lower house of Brazils National Congress has voted overwhelmingly to impeach President Dilma Rousseff for allegedly covering up the scale of the countrys budget deficit, sending the case to the upper house. As the vote...

Positive inflation numbers take pressure off the RBNZ to act at April 28th meeting

Apr 18, 2016 12:09 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is scheduled to review its OCR on 28th April. Falling commodity prices and a recently stronger NZD have meant continued or increasing downward risks for New Zealand inflation. In the final...

Briferendum Series

Government pro-Europe leaflet didn't swing voters in 1975 – and probably won't in 2016

Apr 18, 2016 11:49 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics

Back in 1975, when Harold Wilsons Labour government wanted to persuade voters of the merits of staying in the European Economic Community (EEC), they sent out a pamphlet Britains New Deal in Europe to every household in...