
From Elizabeth I to high fashion, the tales behind Game of Thrones' costumes
Jul 18, 2017 14:10 pm UTC| Insights & Views Entertainment
Game of Thrones, which returns today for its seventh season, offers fantasy, horror and intrigue, and, as Sarah Mower has put it, shines a light on our cynical, sophisticated, brutal, hopeless new Dark Ages. It is also...
We need more than just laws to ensure responsible alcohol service
Jul 18, 2017 14:07 pm UTC| Insights & Views Law
Australian law prohibits the sale of alcohol to drunk people. Despite the shifting sands of alcohol policy, Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) legislation has remained a stalwart figure. In Australia, RSA imposes...

Taxing empty homes: a step towards affordable housing, but much more can be done
Jul 18, 2017 14:06 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy
Vacant housing rates are rising in our major cities. Across Australia on census night, 11.2% of housing was recorded as unoccupied a total of 1,089,165 dwellings. With housing affordability stress also intensifying, the...

Smart or dumb? The real impact of India's proposal to build 100 smart cities
Jul 18, 2017 13:56 pm UTC| Insights & Views Technology
In 2014, the new Indian government declared its intention to achieve 100 smart cities. In promoting this objective, it gave the example of a large development in the island city of Mumbai, Bhendi Bazaar. There, 3-5...

Death toll mounts in Rio de Janeiro as police lose control of the city -- and of themselves
Jul 18, 2017 13:53 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy Life
On June 30, a baby was shot in his mothers belly in Rio de Janeiro. After the rifle fire hit 29-year-old Claudinéia in the hip in the Favela do Lixão neighbourhood, her son Arthur was delivered via emergency...

The Islamic State is on its knees, but its legacy will long haunt the Middle East
Jul 18, 2017 13:51 pm UTC| Insights & Views
After three years of violence, Islamic State has encountered a major defeat that could mean that its end is near. On July 10 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, after a successful nine-month military offensive to...
The future of artificial intelligence: two experts disagree
Jul 18, 2017 13:49 pm UTC| Insights & Views Technology
Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to revolutionise our lives, drive our cars, diagnose our health problems, and lead us into a new future where thinking machines do things that were yet to imagine. Or does it? Not...