• Resilience

    When life gives you lemons


    Open Forum |  February 12, 2025


    Scientists have found that taking a playful approach to life doesn’t mean you don’t take your situation seriously, but it can mean you cope with it better.


  • Environment

    More parks, please


    Open Forum |  February 12, 2025


    New research shows that three-quarters of Australians support the establishment of new national parks to protect natural and cultural values, and only 5% are opposed to establishing new parks.


  • Artificial Intelligence

    A small step for AI…


    Open Forum |  February 12, 2025


    Researchers have developed a new AI algorithm, called Torque Clustering, that is much closer to natural intelligence than current methods. It significantly improves how AI systems independently learn and uncover patterns in data, without human guidance.


Latest Story

  • And then they came for me – why anti-racist Australians must Vote #1 Green and Put Labor Last

    Dr Gideon Polya     |      May 10, 2010




  • The Slow but Sure may not win this race

    foggy     |      May 7, 2010

    I read this article Point:Hypotheses first,by Robert Weinberg,under the caption "Has genomics done a lot to fight cancer?" In Nature published online 31 March 2010.(From Twitter

    RT @NatureNews: Has genomics done a lot to fight cancer? Robert Weinberg argues no http://bit.ly/9leNsW ; Todd Golub argues yes http://b … 1:15 PM Apr 4th via web).

    Robert A. Weinberg is at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and in the Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.

    Email: weinberg@wi.mit.edu

    see also this website:

    http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100412/full/news.2010.178.html?s=news_rss

  • Market Fever Index 2010 – and some thoughts on the mining industry

    patrickcallioni     |      May 5, 2010

    In April, perhaps because of Easter or perhaps because the smart money is now moving towards real estate, the index fell back to cover only 908 items, which gives us a value of just under 47. The new, broader index gave us a total of 374,000 hits for the week in question, which became our baseline or 100. This month, I decided to use only the broader index, because there has been too much fluctuation in the results from the other sample. The number of hits has risen to 972,000 – which is a big change. The Easter week must really have had an impact.

    I am beginning to think that we really need something a little more sophisticated to make this work. Does anyone have any suggestions?

  • Surveying from Space: the infrastructure challenge

    Assoc Prof Linlin Ge     |      May 5, 2010

    Earlier this month when there was an oil spill on the Great Barrier Reef, surveyors were called in to gather important spatial data. This can be an expensive exercise as it requires chartering a plane or helicopter to survey from the air. Funnily enough, these days it is actually much cheaper and quicker if you can survey from space, provided you have the right infrastructure in place.

    In many disaster situations one of the first things you have to do is leave the area and get out of the air space. Ironically this is the time you most need to gather intelligence from that area.

  • W3C Workshop on Privacy for Advanced Web APIs

    Malcolm Crompton     |      May 3, 2010

    W3C and PrimeLife are convening a W3C Workshop on Privacy for Advanced Web APIs on 12-13 July. This is long overdue!

    The Background to the Call for Participation in the Workshop puts it this way:

    "As the Web advances toward becoming an application development platform that addresses needs previously met by native applications, work proceeds on APIs to access information that was previously not available to Web developers. The broad availability of possibly sensitive data collected through location sensors and other facilities in a Web browser is just one example of the broad new privacy challenges that the Web faces today."

  • The People of Australia

    Sue Ellson     |      April 30, 2010

    Some practical responses to the The People of Australia Australian Multicultural Advisory Council Statement on cultural diversity and recommendations to government which was launched in Melbourne on Friday 30 April.

    I attended the Australian Multicultural Advisory Council launch of its Cultural Diversity Statement presented by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans MP, at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne today.

    You can access the document online, it’s titled: The People of Australia Australian Multicultural Advisory Council Statement on cultural diversity and recommendations to government.

  • Living the American dream

    Open Forum     |      April 29, 2010

    Its 4 O’ Clock in the morning when the alarm rings, Piedad’s ride will be coming by 5am, this gives her an hour to leave food ready for her children and get ready for work. By six, she will be arriving for her first shift at the IBM Factory in Palatine, Illinois, a suburb outside Chicago.

    “Life for an illegal Mexican in United States can be rough”, says Piedad Morfin Martinez, now a 73 year-old woman.  She moved to United States when she was  23 years old, back in the early sixities. At 7-months pregnant, she had her two and five year-old daughters, one in each hand. “It was the Nogales border”, she remembers.  After a long day they finally arrived to Tucson, Arizona. They still had a 35 hour bus ride ahead, Chicago was the destination. “My comadre was waiting for us”, she said.   

  • The ANZAC Book

    Les Carlyon     |      April 27, 2010

    On 26 March 2010, I had the honour of giving a speech at the launch of The ANZAC Book at the Australian War Memorial. It’s a great book, and as we all get back to work following the ANZAC day long weekend, I’d like to share this transcript of what I had to say on the day.

    I guess many of you here today would know of the English author Antony Beevor, who’s famous for his account of the battle of Stalingrad.

    I had a yarn to him in Melbourne last year when he was here to promote his new book, which is on D-Day (D-Day: The Battle for Normandy). 

    I made the remark – and I thought it sensible at the time – that he was fortunate that so many survivors of D-Day were still alive and able to tell him things.

    He surprised me by saying that this didn’t count for much.

    Why? I asked.

  • 1918 Year of Victory

    Ashley Ekins     |      April 21, 2010

    On 11 November 1918, after more than four years of continuous warfare, the guns of the Western Front finally ceased firing, bringing to an end the bloodiest conflict the world had then known. An eerie silence descended along the 760-kilometre-length of the Western Front – a silence still recalled each year ‘at the eleventh hour’.

  • Getting up to speed with workplace flexibility in SMEs

    Juliet Bourke     |      April 15, 2010

    As a partner in a business, plus an outspoken advocate on workplace flexibility, I am very conscious of practicing what I preach and maintaining a competitive business edge. 

  • Better Formats for Privacy Notices: Food Safety labels? Symbols?

    Malcolm Crompton     |      April 15, 2010

    Some interesting research has emerged from CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University. 

  • The Spatial Enablement of Society in conjunction with Spatial Data Infrastructures

    Darren Mottolini     |      April 15, 2010

    FIG2010 has provided many insights into all aspects of Surveying and Land related activities.

    Surveying is not only related to cadastral land surveying as it covers all activities involving land as highlighted in my previous post.