Emma Wynne, writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC): When Perth mother Lisa Taylor’s 11-year-old daughter slipped one arm out of her seatbelt, the family had been on the road for over two hours, returning from a holiday in Dunsborough over the Christmas period. The transgression was picked up by...

People unfortunate enough to have one, or more, toxic people in their lives, are more likely to experience accelerated biological ageing, according to research published by PNAS. This is, no doubt, something anyone subjected to the malevolence of a toxic person could have told you, even though biological age is not...

Libraries, letters, street magazines, and face-to-face social networking. This is how I saw a world without the internet sixteen years ago. Most very serious.

The new tool will look after some aspects of the design and maintenance of a WordPress.com blog. As I understand it, the AI assistant will not write content, though it can “edit and refine” posts if asked. The assistant however can create custom images upon prompt. Anything you like — within reason — by the sounds...

Kali Hays, Regan Morris, and Peter Bowes, writing for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC): The head of Instagram has defended his platform against claims it caused mental health damage to minors, arguing in a California court that even seemingly excessive use of social media does not equal an addiction. Adam...

Jacinta Bowler writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC): The condition, known as tattoo-associated uveitis, can lead to permanent vision loss, glaucoma, and patients requiring immunosuppressants for the rest of their life. While rare, the condition can set in several years after getting a tattoo. In...

The Australian literary journal closed late last year after then publisher, Melbourne University Press (MUP), said the long running publication was no longer financially viable. Earlier this week, the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) said it had taken ownership of the magazine, and quarterly publication...

Developers of Linux Mint (LM), the operating system (OS) I now use, are considering increasing the time between major updates, writes Brian Fagioli, at NERDS.xyz. Presently major updates roll out at leisurely six month intervals. To be honest, I had even noticed. I’m just grateful for an unobtrusive OS that simply...

Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye, writing for Harvard Business Review: In our in-progress research, we discovered that AI tools didn’t reduce work, they consistently intensified it. In an eight-month study of how generative AI changed work habits at a U.S.-based technology company with about 200 employees, we...

Elon Musk, in his capacity as CEO of SpaceX, wants to build a “self-growing” city on the Moon. He thinks the task will take about ten years to complete. Establishing a permanent base on the Moon seems like a worthwhile goal, but is not without significant challenges, as Aakash Gupta writes: The unsolved problems are...

Applications are open until 17 March 2026, for the role of Australian National Poet Laureate: The National Poet Laureate is a three‑year appointment that recognises an outstanding Australian poet whose work and cultural contribution have shaped contemporary poetry and its readership. The Laureate serves as a...

Jonathan Morton, at Statcounter: We have seen a significant rise in bot traffic to websites in recent months. These bots are adopting new methods to avoid detection and when they flood your stats with fake visits, they can make it very difficult to get an accurate view of the real visitors on your website. I’ve been...