From the category archives:

Politics & Environment

Shark Attack Fears Irrational – Death from Defective Toaster More Likely

If sharks could write they would have complained long ago to the Press Council about having their reputation maligned by sensational, unbalanced, media over-coverage of a tiny number of human deaths caused by sharks each year compared to the mass slaughter of sharks by humans worldwide. Photo Credit: WWF According to the Taronga Zoo Shark [...]

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Force Of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie (Canadian Film Festival)

I watched the documentary “Force Of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie” yesterday at the Possible Worlds Canadian Film Festival held in Sydney (using a press pass from sponsors RIM, a Canadian company which created the Blackberry smartphone). My first few years of primary school eduction were experienced in Toronto, Canada and I remember watching David [...]

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My Thoughts on BBC World Service: Olympic Legacies for Sydney 2000 and London 2012

I was planning a quiet meal at home yesterday when I got a call from BBC World Service Radio. The producer of World Have Your Say had just read my article Olympics and World Cup Big Events Waste of Tax Payers Money and wanted me to contribute to the program.. I rushed to ABC Ultimo [...]

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Growing Human Population Could Lead to Soylent Green Future

The 1973 Film Soylent Green predicts a future world in the year 2022 where the stark landscape has been cleared of vegetation, temperatures are sweltering, mass extinction of flora and fauna means there’s no fresh food and the masses inhabiting overpopulated cities are fed energy concentrate wafers by the Soylent Corporation. The new Soylent Green [...]

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Future of Business, Holiday and Military Aviation

The world has recently been focused on the last NASA Space Shuttle flight STS-135. Back on Earth the combination of cost cutting airlines and government obsession with security theatre is making flying frustrating and uncomfortable with pat downs and scans by customs agents and shrinking legroom on aircraft causing leg cramps. We are at a [...]

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X Media Lab – Imagination, Science Fiction and Planning for the Future

X Media Lab is an internationally acclaimed digital media think-tank and creative workshop which has a strong presence in emerging powerhouse creative and business markets like China and the Middle East. They organise conferences bringing people from creative industries together around the world including Sydney, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur and Sweden. “Future or Bust” – photo [...]

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Electric Cars – The Future of Australian Motoring? (GEARE #64)

With all the buzz surrounding cars like the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Roadster, not to mention hybrid petrol-electrics like the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid, you’d think that electricity-powered cars were a relatively recent innovation. But you’d be wrong. They may be touted as the future of personal transport, but electric [...]

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Electricity Usage Meter Cuts Electricity Bills and Helps Environment

GUEST ARTICLE: Imagine if your grocery shop had no prices marked on the shelves and they simply billed you with a lump-sum statement every quarter. Yet, this is how most households and businesses pay for their electricity consumption. Using Power Meters can help you gain control and cut your power bill. If you’re the one [...]

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Surveillance Society: CCTV Cameras Everywhere Dont Make Us Safe

Cameras are fast becoming commonplace fixtures on our streets, our public transport and even in our workplaces. Some argue that these cameras are a necessary and effective crime reduction tool. But are they actually as effective as people claim? Or do they infringe on our privacy with no real gain for society? Debaters gathered at [...]

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Crude: The Incredible Journey of Oil (ABC TV DVD Review)

Ever thought about where the petrol in your car’s fuel tank comes from? That’s where the story of “Crude: The Incredible Journey of Oil” begins around 160 million years ago in the area now known as the Middle East, which was then covered by sea. The key players in this story are the plentiful microscopic [...]

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How To Think Like a Futurist (Craig Rispin at Gartner Symposium)

I had a press pass to the 2010 Gartner Symposium/ITxpo and specifically made time to attend Craig Rispin’s session “How To Think Like a Futurist as I’d heard he had some thought provoking ideas to share. He made a lot of good points including his first one which was that futurists need to read lots [...]

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Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives (Book Review)

I recently read a very interesting book Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives as part of background research into a feature article I was writing about Electric Cars for GEARE magazine. Black and his team of researchers painstakingly and thouroughly researched the history of fossil fuels [...]

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Life as a Political Editorial Cartoonist: Jon Kudelka and First Dog On The Moon Interviewed

Political cartoons (also known as editorial cartoons) are one of the most powerful parts of the news media because they’re capable of dissecting complex issues, pointing out the elephant in the room and ridiculing powerful figures in society far more succinctly than a political journalist can using hundreds or even thousands of words. According to [...]

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Political Journalist Failure and Stockholm Syndrome

Trapped on a bus or plane with friends and colleagues for hours on end, deprived of sleep, not told where they’re going until the very last minute, given minimal information which is carefully managed and controlled. What does this sound like? Hostages of a terrorist organisation? Its actually the experience of many political journalists during [...]

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Climate Change, Lack of Political Vision and Tragedy Of The Commons

Climate change tops the bill as the #1 election issue for Australians online according to new research from Experian Hitwise but the major parties aren’t willing to address it because for Labor it’s easier to ignore the problem for the short term and the Liberals have a individualistic market forces driven approach which doesn’t like [...]

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