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Green light to work up a sweat
Parks and bushland are not just a soothing escape from the city grind - they also encourage people to exercise harder and more often. A new study of more than 200,000 Australians aged over 45 confirms that the grey-versus-green ratio in neighbourhoods can influence residents' health. It shows the more green space you have within one kilometre of your home, the more likely you are to walk, ...
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Wired for pain may be all gain
Imagine feeling pain and not being upset by it, or running a marathon and not feeling tired. It sounds like science fiction, but a group of researchers at the University of Canberra are at the cutting edge of research into how people can be made to feel differently about what happens to their bodies. Transcranial direct current stimulation, which is being tested at a number of universities ...
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So bad its good plain cig pack wins design plaudits
Cigarette packaging is deliberately unappealing. They are hated by smokers, show graphic pictures of rotting limbs and diseased eyeballs and have been the subject of a High Court challenge. But Australia's controversial olive-green plain cigarette packages have been shortlisted for a prestigious British design award. A panel of judges at the London Design Museum nominated the packaging ...
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Private schools foster prejudice ex-judge
Some non-government schools foster outdated prejudices about homosexuality, while Australia's public education system provides greater equality for gay and lesbian students, according to former High Court Justice Michael Kirby. In an address to Canberra's National Press Club, Mr Kirby said the increasingly disproportionate number of senior politicians and judges who were privately ...
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Mums the word but bureaucracy isnt listening
How to prove your mother is indeed your mother without a birth certificate or an old family snapshot - items lost when fleeing a bitter conflict that left thousands dead? Perhaps turn to a priest to lend support. Or better still, you will soon join the clergy and so swear an oath to God this is the woman who brought you into the world. But the word of Ladu Yanga, a deacon at Holy Spirit ...
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$5.5b indigenous reforms at risk
The promise of $5.5 billion to narrow the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students will be at risk if the states do not sign up to the Gillard government's plan for school improvement, Schools Minister Peter Garrett has warned. More than $200 million is earmarked to improve the results of about 11,500 indigenous students in more than 1500 Victorian schools under the plan that so ...
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Battle not over for women returning home
Life-changing: Iraq veteran Karen Edwards, with daughter Lauren, 6, has endured the turmoil of PTSD. They are exposed to all the trauma of the front line and are employed in key peacekeeping roles. As medics they undertake some of the most horrifying tasks of war, treating the injured and coping with the dead. But recognition of returned servicewomen is scant compared with that afforded their ...
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Fighting cancer with a body of knowledge
A woman lies on an operating table, her breasts exposed. A surgeon uses a scalpel to pierce her skin with a scalpel, removing a small, hard lump of tissue - a tumour - and places it in a sterile tray. This clump of unruly cells has probably caused its owner unimaginable grief and worry, but its work is not done yet. A small laboratory in the corridors of Westmead Hospital awaits its arrival. ...
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Union fails to meet expectations
At the request of the happy couple, the guests were told bring envelopes containing donations rather than gifts. The Royal Children's Hospital, beyondblue, the Lighthouse Foundation - the list of charities set to benefit from the 2009 nuptials read like a roll call of Australia's top philanthropic bodies. But more than three years later, some of the charities say they are yet to ...
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More travellers taking a trip theyd rather forget
Behind bars: Number of Australians imprisoned overseas. Four Australian travellers a day are arrested for crimes around the world and statistics show a jump of almost 50 per cent from previous years. Figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade revealed that 1507 Australians were arrested or jailed for various crimes in the 2011-2012 financial year, up from 1067 in 2010-2011. ...
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Female veterans lack support study
Struggle: Karen Edwards. Former servicewomen have spoken of a lack of post-deployment support, with extreme trauma and sexual harassment raised as concerns in a three-year study. The in-depth report into the health and wellbeing of Australian female veterans has provided a stark insight into the support they receive after leaving the forces. The study commissioned by the Department of ...
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Capsized boat details mired in secrecy and difference in accounts
Secrecy still surrounds the events before an asylum seeker boat capsized, leaving 17 men drowned and another 73 missing, presumed dead, as the federal government keeps an official review of the incident under wraps. Widespread concerns were raised about the incident on June 21, after people on the boat rang authorities for help at least four times before the tragedy. On one occasion, they ...
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A race to drive you butternuts
Lake Burley Griffin is well known as the training ground for Australian Olympic rowers but the hollowed-out pumpkins racing on its waters are no challenge in the lead-up to the 2016 games. The inaugural pumpkin canoe race had only one starter on Saturday, a 202.5-kilogram monster, from the NSW town of Collector. Two pumpkins, both place-getters in the town's pumpkin competition, made ...
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Chinas rich pay way to new home
Wealthy Chinese immigrants are buying their way into Australia with 90 per cent of the 435 applications for a $5 million minimum investment visa taken up by Chinese nationals. So far two visas have been granted. The first was to a Chinese national. The Department of Immigration refused to reveal the nationality of the second. A spokesman from the department said there was an expectation ...
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Public sector better for gay students Kirby
Australia's public education system provides greater equality for gay and lesbian students while some non-government schools foster outdated prejudices about homosexuality, according to former High Court justice Michael Kirby. Speaking at Canberra's National Press Club on Friday, Mr Kirby said the increasingly disproportionate number of senior politicians and judges who were privately ...
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Natures gift is not yet history
series was watched by 500 million viewers), and the responsibility that brings is not lost on the veteran broadcaster. ''If you appear as frequently on television as I do, at least in Britain, that puts a bit of a responsibility on you. If I continually appear making natural history programs, people think I know something about it … but that's a heck of a lot of people who ...
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Three boats intercepted near Christmas Is
THREE boats carrying a total of 208 suspected asylum seekers have been intercepted in a 24-hour period near Christmas Island, including one close enough to be spotted by police on the ...
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The $600000 job no one wants
WA's Health Department has been without a director-general for almost six months after Kim Snowball quit in December, blaming the relentless nature of the job and health problems that forced him to take months off.The recruitment bill for a new health boss has now cost taxpayers almost $100,000 without a result. And it's not through lack of trying, with the Public Sector Commission ...
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Maccas fine for roaches
Stirling environmental officers had inspected the store on September 5 last year.City of Stirling lawyer David Nadebaum said conditions were so bad that inspectors even saw cockroaches in the building in broad daylight indicating a "substantial infestation" of the pests.He also said since June 2011, McDonalds had been fined four times in circumstances similar to the Innaloo breach, ...
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Perth climbers historic Mt Everest double
MARGARET Watroba has revealed she had to overcome injuries from a cycling accident that left her fearing she might not walk again properly - before she could climb to the top of Mt Everest this ...
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Older people urged to protect their eyes
OLDER people should reduce their risk of blindness by eating healthy food, says Australian of the Year Ita Buttrose. Marking the start of Macular Degeneration Awareness Week, she said the health of older Australians must be a priority for both the community and government. Macular degeneration causes more than half of blindness and severe vision loss in Australia and primarily affects older ...
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Survey shows Adelaides major arterial roads are hooning hotspots
ADELAIDE'S worst hoon spots have been revealed as some of the city's busiest arterial roads. South Australia police data obtained by the Sunday Mail shows reckless motorists are regularly speeding at more than 30km/h above the limit on busy roads, seriously jeopardising their safety and that of other road users. The most notorious hoon spot is Main North Rd, at Para Hills West, where 29 ...
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Australians now using social media in bedrooms and toilet cubicles
A GROWING number of the Australians are using social networks wherever they can: workplaces, schools, bedrooms, and even the toilet cubicle. A new study of Australian internet users found more than three in five now use social media, with almost half of users logging on daily and some more than five times a day. Australian Facebook users are spending more than seven hours on the site every week, ...
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Adelaide Ovals Ultimate Membership row over equal access to cricket and footy
ADELAIDE Oval's Ultimate Membership offer, marketed as the state's platinum sport season ticket, is a dead duck. About 6500 applicants for the package will learn on Sunday morning that the vision of a South Australian version of the Melbourne Cricket Club - where members have access to all sport events at one arena - has been taken off the table as cracks begin to show again in the ...
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AFL Essendon returns to top three with Dreamtime win over Richmond Carlton edges Brisbane Lions
In the evening's other match, Carlton edged the Brisbane Lions by 13 points at the Gabba.The Bombers' win was marred by an ankle injury to Michael Hurley, who rolled his foot after landing awkwardly while attempting a mark in the second quarter.The game started in tight fashion with Essendon leading by just a point after the first quarter, but the lead grew unerringly in the ...
Perth Focus
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Major redevelopment plans for Perth eyesoars
The City of Perth has major projects in the works to redevelop the city’s CBD in-line with the aims of broader projects like Green City and Populate Perth, but some residents remain wary of red tape, while others fear for the future of historical sites such as Langley.
Perth is the commercial, transport and cultural backbone of Western Australia. This city of almost 2 million people is the fourth largest in Australia, but has grown consistently faster than many other cities, outstripping the national average and was ranked by The Economist in 2010 as the eighth ‘most livable city’ in the world, which means we have some of the best living conditions on the planet. Read more
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