GCSE results: why bright, poor students fail to achieve top grades
Aug 23, 2018 23:13 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
The fourth Thursday in August is a day that is anticipated with equal measures of hope and trepidation by hundreds of thousands of young people across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This is when the results of...
Alcohol brewed from trees and other fermented drinks in Australia's Indigenous history
Aug 21, 2018 17:08 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
There is no doubt that Europeans brought a culture of brewing and consuming alcohol during their early migration and colonisation of Australia. But there is also evidence that Aboriginal people were already aware of...
Aug 21, 2018 17:07 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
Sparkly jewellery, expensive shoes, designer watches who doesnt love a bit of bling? In 2017 Australians spent A$28.5 billion on ornamenting themselves with clothing, cosmetics, and accessories. But this obsession...
Charles Blackman's poetic vision contained an undertone of dread
Aug 21, 2018 17:06 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
Earlier this year, I stayed at the Blackman Hotel in Melbourne where I spent the night gazing at a painting of a shrinking Alice glowing on the wall opposite. In Charles Blackmans painting - from his Alice in Wonderland...

Outlander is boosting a renaissance of the Scots language – here's how
Aug 21, 2018 16:17 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
What would ye twa cotters ken o battle, eh? I bet ye Lallybroch tumshies will turn arse and run at first blast o cannon fire… Pithy Scots brogue and throwaway insults punctuate Outlander, the phenomenally...
Hajj: how globalisation transformed the market for pilgrimage to Mecca
Aug 16, 2018 20:14 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
More than 2m Muslims are currently gathering in Mecca ahead of the annual Hajj, which begins on August 19. As long as they are fit and financially able, the pilgrimage is an obligatory act of worship that followers of...

Aboriginal traditions describe the complex motions of planets, the 'wandering stars' of the sky
Aug 16, 2018 20:06 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this story may contain images and voices of people who have died. The five planets we can see by naked eye were known to the ancient Greeks as asteres...