Khartoum has resumed its bombardment of South Sudan despite the passing of a UN Security Council Resolution calling for a ceasefire. With military action escalating over the past few days, the two nations are now on the brink of all-out war. The rhetoric of both nations' leaders is becoming increasingly strident. While the immediate causes of this conflict are control of oilfields and territorial disputes, the tension is rooted in a deeper clash of culture, religion and politics. A history of oil, division and conflict In 1978, Chevron discovered oil in the Bentu and Heglig districts of…
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Most Topular Stories
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Oil fuels the conflict between Sudan and South Sudan – and it keeps getting hotter
The Conversation16 May 2012 | 12:40 am -
When it comes to solving the euro's woes, it's the same gold story
The Conversation - Business + Economy15 May 2012 | 11:08 pmAre the tragedies of the 1920s repeating themselves in the twenty-first century? In the 1920s, an irrational attachment to the gold standard helped cause the Great Depression, as European fears of inflation acted as a deadweight on growth. By the 1930s, economic collapse facilitated the rise of fascism, Nazism and World War II. While the Great Depression eventually broke the gold standard, enabling economic recovery, this would come too late for central Europe. In the current day, a similar attachment to the euro – again as a bulwark against inflation – risks a similar tragedy. Once… -
New standards could make consumers choose between the chicken and the egg
The Conversation - Health + Medicine16 May 2012 | 12:23 amThe RSPCA has spoken out against the increased density of free-range chickens being proposed by the Australian Egg Corporation today, saying it doesn’t “meet animal welfare standards or consumer expectations.” Proposed new accreditation standards for free-range eggs aim to drastically increase the density of laying birds. The Greens intend to raise this issue in parliament this week to address animal welfare concerns, but guidance for consumers remains unaddressed. Little is known about how and why consumers make purchases in this area, but what we do know is that people tend to misread… -
Oil fuels the conflict between Sudan and South Sudan – and it keeps getting hotter
The Conversation - Politics + Society16 May 2012 | 12:40 amKhartoum has resumed its bombardment of South Sudan despite the passing of a UN Security Council Resolution calling for a ceasefire. With military action escalating over the past few days, the two nations are now on the brink of all-out war. The rhetoric of both nations' leaders is becoming increasingly strident. While the immediate causes of this conflict are control of oilfields and territorial disputes, the tension is rooted in a deeper clash of culture, religion and politics. A history of oil, division and conflict In 1978, Chevron discovered oil in the Bentu and Heglig districts of… -
Learning experience: let's take consciousness in from the cold
The Conversation - Science + Technology15 May 2012 | 10:27 pmUntil 20 years ago, scientists interested in empirical work on consciousness – our private subjective experiences – hid it by minimising or eliminating the “c-word”, the use of which was a career-limiting (or at least fund-limiting) move. Consciousness defied scientific characterisation until, at the very beginning of the decade of the brain (1990-2000), the late Nobel Laureate Francis Crick and others began a dialogue that made an empirical science of consciousness viable. For 20 years, the mainstream science of consciousness could be generically called the ABC-correlates of…
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The Conversation
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Oil fuels the conflict between Sudan and South Sudan – and it keeps getting hotter
16 May 2012 | 12:40 amKhartoum has resumed its bombardment of South Sudan despite the passing of a UN Security Council Resolution calling for a ceasefire. With military action escalating over the past few days, the two nations are now on the brink of all-out war. The rhetoric of both nations' leaders is becoming increasingly strident. While the immediate causes of this conflict are control of oilfields and territorial disputes, the tension is rooted in a deeper clash of culture, religion and politics. A history of oil, division and conflict In 1978, Chevron discovered oil in the Bentu and Heglig districts of… -
New standards could make consumers choose between the chicken and the egg
16 May 2012 | 12:23 amThe RSPCA has spoken out against the increased density of free-range chickens being proposed by the Australian Egg Corporation today, saying it doesn’t “meet animal welfare standards or consumer expectations.” Proposed new accreditation standards for free-range eggs aim to drastically increase the density of laying birds. The Greens intend to raise this issue in parliament this week to address animal welfare concerns, but guidance for consumers remains unaddressed. Little is known about how and why consumers make purchases in this area, but what we do know is that people tend to misread… -
Fewer hens doesn't always mean happier hens
15 May 2012 | 11:17 pmThe Australian egg industry has seen a large shift in the proportion of chicken eggs coming from non-cage systems, especially free range. There is little doubt that some of this has been driven by consumer and retail demand. But some has been the result of new cage regulations introduced in 2008, which led producers to modify their cage facilities to free range and barn production. By removing cages, they avoided the high costs associated with new cage refurbishment. This has left the industry with a wide range of very different facilities designated as “free range production units”. In… -
When it comes to solving the euro's woes, it's the same gold story
15 May 2012 | 11:08 pmAre the tragedies of the 1920s repeating themselves in the twenty-first century? In the 1920s, an irrational attachment to the gold standard helped cause the Great Depression, as European fears of inflation acted as a deadweight on growth. By the 1930s, economic collapse facilitated the rise of fascism, Nazism and World War II. While the Great Depression eventually broke the gold standard, enabling economic recovery, this would come too late for central Europe. In the current day, a similar attachment to the euro – again as a bulwark against inflation – risks a similar tragedy. Once… -
Learning experience: let's take consciousness in from the cold
15 May 2012 | 10:27 pmUntil 20 years ago, scientists interested in empirical work on consciousness – our private subjective experiences – hid it by minimising or eliminating the “c-word”, the use of which was a career-limiting (or at least fund-limiting) move. Consciousness defied scientific characterisation until, at the very beginning of the decade of the brain (1990-2000), the late Nobel Laureate Francis Crick and others began a dialogue that made an empirical science of consciousness viable. For 20 years, the mainstream science of consciousness could be generically called the ABC-correlates of…
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The Conversation - Business + Economy
-
When it comes to solving the euro's woes, it's the same gold story
15 May 2012 | 11:08 pmAre the tragedies of the 1920s repeating themselves in the twenty-first century? In the 1920s, an irrational attachment to the gold standard helped cause the Great Depression, as European fears of inflation acted as a deadweight on growth. By the 1930s, economic collapse facilitated the rise of fascism, Nazism and World War II. While the Great Depression eventually broke the gold standard, enabling economic recovery, this would come too late for central Europe. In the current day, a similar attachment to the euro – again as a bulwark against inflation – risks a similar tragedy. Once… -
Greeks to go back to the polls - and back on the edge
15 May 2012 | 10:13 pm“I don’t envisage, not even for one second, Greece leaving the euro area. This is nonsense; this is propaganda.” That’s Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, chairman of the Eurogroup, speaking after Monday’s EU finance ministers' meeting. Not given to half-measures, Juncker added: “The exit of Greece out of the euro was not the subject of our debate today. Absolutely no one, absolutely no one, argued in that sense.” The global media is agog with speculation about what appears to be Greece’s Eurozone death throes. Like a car crash about to happen, one can’t… -
Hollande and Merkel: breaking up is hard to do
15 May 2012 | 8:30 pmEurope is in economic dire straits and the two most powerful economies on the continent are, at least on paper, led by individuals with considerable differences. The previous French President Nicolas Sarkozy was not merely regarded as a man of austerity, but a man who Chancellor Angela Merkel could do business with. The Sarkozy-Merkel imprint marks the entire bailout strategy that is now being employed against the Greeks. It is a model that has ushered in technocratic governments whose loyalties lie less to the citizen than the budget. Balancing accounts and paying creditors is considered the… -
Wicked problems and business strategy: is design thinking an answer?
15 May 2012 | 3:02 pmObesity. Climate change. Brain drain. Tax havens. War in Afghanistan. All have been described as “wicked problems”. UC Berkeley scholars, Rittel and Webber, coined the term in 1973 when they were reacting to urban planning challenges, a frustrating process that was attempting to find scientific bases to social problems. Wicked problems were described by systems scientist and philosopher C. West Churchman as “a class of social system problems, which are ill-formulated; where the information is confusing; where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values; and where… -
Scientific research spending lags behind smaller countries
15 May 2012 | 10:20 amNations half the size of Australia spend more on scientific research, have higher employment levels for scientists, and greater appeal to foreign investors, according to a report on Australia’s global standing in science. Although Australia’s rate of spending on research and development is greater than in France, Canada and Britain, it remains well below the rate in smaller Scandinavian nations, according to the report, commissioned by Australia’s chief scientist, Ian Chubb, and released today. The author, Alan Pettigrew, an Adjunct Professor at the College of Medicine, Biology and…
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The Conversation - Health + Medicine
-
New standards could make consumers choose between the chicken and the egg
16 May 2012 | 12:23 amThe RSPCA has spoken out against the increased density of free-range chickens being proposed by the Australian Egg Corporation today, saying it doesn’t “meet animal welfare standards or consumer expectations.” Proposed new accreditation standards for free-range eggs aim to drastically increase the density of laying birds. The Greens intend to raise this issue in parliament this week to address animal welfare concerns, but guidance for consumers remains unaddressed. Little is known about how and why consumers make purchases in this area, but what we do know is that people tend to misread… -
Reframing climate change could deliver health benefits
15 May 2012 | 9:18 pmClimate change is a complex problem but appears to many people as lacking immediate impact on their lives. Reconceptualising it as a health issue may allow for both better understanding of the issue and greater scope for changing behaviour. Climate change is often perceived as affecting people far from us in both time and space. And what doctors, psychologists and other health professionals have known for some time is that just providing people with more facts about an issue doesn’t always change their minds or cause them to act in an appropriate manner. In fact, how we say something may be… -
Navigating Australia's bumpy road to aged care reform
15 May 2012 | 3:04 pmMuch of the budget analysis over the past week has concentrated on the shuffling of expenditure for 2012-13 back to this financial year in order to achieve a surplus. It’s true that $17.6bn of such transfers is hardly pocket money, and needs careful assessment, but this focus (together with the media’s preoccupation with the Slipper/Thomson affairs) means the government’s achievements in aged care have largely been ignored. Catalyst for change Australia has fallen far behind most European countries in reshaping its aged care arrangements. This is despite the important Hogan Review of… -
Marriage equality and same-sex parenting in Australia
14 May 2012 | 10:43 pmA group of 150 doctors, called Doctors for the Family, have made a submission to the Senate inquiry into gay marriage which argues that children of same-sex parents suffer poorer health and well-being than children with a mum and dad who are married. This follows Barack Obama coming out last week in support of gay marriage, and local experts urging Prime Minister Julia Gillard to do the same. So what does the evidence say about the health and well-being of kids in same-sex families? And what role should doctors play in the whole debate? The Conversation’s experts examine these issues below. -
Doctors for the Family see some Australians as more equal than others
14 May 2012 | 9:03 pmGeorge Orwell’s mordant satire of politics and bureaucratic doublespeak famously featured the slogan that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. Watching the brouhaha about the Doctors for the Family submission to the Senate Inquiry into legal recognition of same-sex relationships (aka gay marriage), it’s difficult not to wonder whether all Australians are equal, but people with medical degrees and godfearing straight married people are more equal than others. The short, emotive and – in my opinion – academically problematic submission was made by…
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The Conversation - Politics + Society
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Oil fuels the conflict between Sudan and South Sudan – and it keeps getting hotter
16 May 2012 | 12:40 amKhartoum has resumed its bombardment of South Sudan despite the passing of a UN Security Council Resolution calling for a ceasefire. With military action escalating over the past few days, the two nations are now on the brink of all-out war. The rhetoric of both nations' leaders is becoming increasingly strident. While the immediate causes of this conflict are control of oilfields and territorial disputes, the tension is rooted in a deeper clash of culture, religion and politics. A history of oil, division and conflict In 1978, Chevron discovered oil in the Bentu and Heglig districts of… -
Hollande and Merkel: breaking up is hard to do
15 May 2012 | 8:30 pmEurope is in economic dire straits and the two most powerful economies on the continent are, at least on paper, led by individuals with considerable differences. The previous French President Nicolas Sarkozy was not merely regarded as a man of austerity, but a man who Chancellor Angela Merkel could do business with. The Sarkozy-Merkel imprint marks the entire bailout strategy that is now being employed against the Greeks. It is a model that has ushered in technocratic governments whose loyalties lie less to the citizen than the budget. Balancing accounts and paying creditors is considered the… -
Penny Wong, Joe Hockey and the dire state of political punditry
15 May 2012 | 3:03 pmIf there is a turning point in the Australian debate on same-sex marriage it may well be Penny Wong’s remarkable grace and honesty when answering Joe Hockey on last night’s Q&A. Wong was asked by host Tony Jones whether Hockey’s view that children were better off with a mother and father was hurtful to her. “Of course it is,” she said. Then, with a curt nod: “But I know what my family is worth.” For once, a minister spoke on television from her heart, unconstrained by the need to follow whatever script was issued that day from head office. But such honesty is rare in… -
If police and government can't control Sydney gun crime, local communities must
14 May 2012 | 11:54 pmThe spiralling rise in shooting crimes in Sydney’s western suburbs requires strong and sustained political, community and police action to make suburbs safe for families. I happen to live in a suburb that has been ringed by shooting incidents, and recent was just around the corner from my home. Like many of my neighbours, I can see that politicians are seeking, but are not really offering, new strategies or solutions to fight the gun crime that is plaguing Sydney. It’s not just well organised bikie gangs to blame, but a range of criminals and business rivals, all with access to guns. They… -
Age-old question: when should children be responsible for their crimes?
14 May 2012 | 11:35 pmThe age of criminal responsibility acts as the gateway to the criminal justice system – under a certain age you are kept out. Most jurisdictions have this age barrier because it’s widely understood children need sheltering from the criminal law consequences of their behaviour until they are developed enough to understand whether their behaviour is wrong. But what age is the right age? And how do legal systems deal with this difficult question? What is the age of criminal responsibility? The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, requires states to set a minimum age “below…
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The Conversation - Science + Technology
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Learning experience: let's take consciousness in from the cold
15 May 2012 | 10:27 pmUntil 20 years ago, scientists interested in empirical work on consciousness – our private subjective experiences – hid it by minimising or eliminating the “c-word”, the use of which was a career-limiting (or at least fund-limiting) move. Consciousness defied scientific characterisation until, at the very beginning of the decade of the brain (1990-2000), the late Nobel Laureate Francis Crick and others began a dialogue that made an empirical science of consciousness viable. For 20 years, the mainstream science of consciousness could be generically called the ABC-correlates of… -
Crowdsourced crisis mapping: how it works and why it matters
15 May 2012 | 3:04 pmWeb 2.0 tools and mobile technologies have lowered the barriers not just for people to access the internet but to create and share content. Through open-source, collaborative programs such as wikis, the creation and distribution of information has effectively been crowdsourced. But can this democratisation of the production of information and the expansion of networked global communities lead to action in solving real-world problems? As inventor Vinay Gupta of Hexayurt sharply puts it: “Ten years from now there will be 2 billion people with broadband internet access, but no toilet.”… -
Scientific research spending lags behind smaller countries
15 May 2012 | 10:20 amNations half the size of Australia spend more on scientific research, have higher employment levels for scientists, and greater appeal to foreign investors, according to a report on Australia’s global standing in science. Although Australia’s rate of spending on research and development is greater than in France, Canada and Britain, it remains well below the rate in smaller Scandinavian nations, according to the report, commissioned by Australia’s chief scientist, Ian Chubb, and released today. The author, Alan Pettigrew, an Adjunct Professor at the College of Medicine, Biology and… -
Lunar boom: we'll soon be mining the moon
14 May 2012 | 11:57 pmAs history has repeatedly shown, where there are valuable minerals to be unearthed, adventurous humans will arrive in droves – even if it means battling extreme conditions and risking life and limb. So what will happen when the next great “gold rush” in our history is quite literally out of this world? And what kind of technology would be needed for the mining? After many years of trying, I believe a have a workable answer to the second of these questions – but what about the first? Business analysts may poke fun at the “impossibly” expensive cost of mining nearby celestial bodies… -
Sticky and picky: why male orb-web spiders like heavy virgins
14 May 2012 | 3:42 pmWhen it comes to selecting a mate, females are traditionally thought of as the choosy sex; males, meanwhile, aren’t thought to be particularly picky. This makes sense for many species – the sex that invests the most in offspring is expected to take the most care in selecting their mate. A sweeping look at the animal kingdom shows that females generally produce few, large and expensive gametes (eggs) and often engage in extended parental care that can be expensive, both in time and energy. On the other hand, males tend to produce many, cheap gametes (sperm) and have minimal contribution to…
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The Conversation - Environment + Energy
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Fewer hens doesn't always mean happier hens
15 May 2012 | 11:17 pmThe Australian egg industry has seen a large shift in the proportion of chicken eggs coming from non-cage systems, especially free range. There is little doubt that some of this has been driven by consumer and retail demand. But some has been the result of new cage regulations introduced in 2008, which led producers to modify their cage facilities to free range and barn production. By removing cages, they avoided the high costs associated with new cage refurbishment. This has left the industry with a wide range of very different facilities designated as “free range production units”. In… -
There's more to successful revegetation than 'getting trees in the ground'
14 May 2012 | 11:57 pmOne of my most vivid and lasting memories as an ecologist dates back to 1997. I was in the office of the then Environment Minister. I was told by the Minister and his minders that “we already knew everything we needed to know about restoring vegetation on farms” and “all we needed to do now was get the trees in the ground”. Science was a dirty word then – much as it has now become in many areas of so-called environmental “debates” in Australia. Yet, after more a decade of detailed empirical science based on careful studies on hundreds of sites on hundreds of farms in… -
How do you make a dinosaur burp in a bag? Measuring prehistoric methane
14 May 2012 | 8:28 pmLast week my colleagues and I published a paper showing how methane emitted by dinosaurs could have affected the world’s climate. The media response was huge, with 100+ interviews by email and phone, and live radio interviews on three continents. Google news says nearly 600 outlets republished the story. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s an obvious speculation, and one that must have occurred to other people in the past. Indeed, since publishing our paper, we have heard from Simon Brassell (a geology professor at Indiana University, USA) that he made similar speculations in a conference… -
Treasure your metal: why we need to respect embedded energy
14 May 2012 | 3:38 pmThe recent furore about the carbon tax in this country has not been a celebration of enlightened debate. I think much of the debate misses a vital aspect of carbon use, namely, that using carbon to make metal is an effective way of storing energy and that whatever approach we use to move industry to a lower carbon future should reflect this principle. Let me explain. Carbon, in the form or coal or hydrocarbons we recover from underground, is a form of stored energy. Once we recover these materials from the earth’s crust, this stored energy can be used in two major ways. We can use it to… -
Beyond the bottom line: how to reward executives for sustainable practice
13 May 2012 | 11:00 pmAre sustainability-dependent executive bonuses the answer to saving the planet? Research recently conducted by the Centre for Corporate Governance at the University of Technology, Sydney, examined whether a sample of Australia’s leading corporations are rewarding their executives for achieving sustainability targets as well as financial targets. The study was based on annual report disclosures and assessed twelve leading Australian companies in terms of their structures and processes for communication, commitment, leadership and implementation of sustainability. The companies (Rio Tinto,…
