
‘Shoddy dropping’: how the 1920s cost-of-living crisis fuelled a black market in menswear
With almost all menswear bought off the rack or online today, the shoddy dropper has long passed into obscurity. This 1920s slang term, used only in Australia and New Zealand, referred to roving sellers of cloth. Most...

Aussie film Take My Hand is a sweet love story – but it misses the mark in depicting chronic illness
Laura (Radha Mitchell) is an ambitious investment banker living in London with her husband and three children, at the peak of her career. When she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) and, in quick succession, her...

What’s going on with TikTok in the US, and what will this mean for Australia?
According to the latest reports, TikTok has restored services in the United States after going dark on Saturday evening US time. The company turned off its services ahead of a nationwide ban that was set to take effect on...

The US has exposed the World Anti-Doping Agency’s precarious funding model
Warren Buffet once famously said: you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out. In this context, the US governments decision this month to withhold its annual funding to the World Anti-Doping Agency...

Around the world, humans routinely kill carnivores to protect livestock and game, increase human safety and conserve native wildlife. Unfortunately, killing carnivores often creates new problems including population booms...

Antibacterials are everywhere: for the sake of our microbiome, we need to control their use
In a world increasingly obsessed with cleanliness, antimicrobial chemicals have become a staple in everyday life. From soaps and cosmetics to cleaning sprays and period products, they promise to protect us by killing 99.9%...

David Lynch’s musical creations were as visionary as his filmmaking
The dark, surrealistic artistic vision of David Lynch, whose death was announced on January 16, was shown through films like Eraserhead (1977), Mulholland Drive (2001) and Blue Velvet (1986), and his TV show Twin Peaks...