INSANE: 7 | Rare Historical Photos

Wikipedia Middle East editors ban shows risks for creators

BEIRUT: Rights groups have accused the Saudi Arabian government of "infiltrating" and seeking to control Wikipedia, after the Wikimedia Foundation banned 16 users for engaging in "conflict of interest editing" in the Middle East and North Africa.

Bangkok Post · Jan 26, 2023

Where did the new year's resolution come from? Well, we've been making them for 4,000 years

As we welcome in the new year, a common activity across many cultures is the setting of new year resolutions. New year represents a significant temporal milestone in the calendar when many people set new goals for the year ahead. Here in Australia, over 70% of men and women (over…

The Conversation · Jan 1, 2023

4 creepy crawlies you'll see more of this wet summer – and one iconic beetle you'll probably miss

For Australians, memories of childhood Christmas often include gifts, prawns and shooing uninvited buzzing guests away from the pavlova.

The Conversation · Dec 26, 2022

Three Impressionist paintings that give an insight into the complicated history of breastfeeding in the 19th century

The history of breastfeeding reveals uncomfortable truths about women, work and money. An unlikely place where the history of nursing is clearly visible is in Impressionist paintings.

The Conversation · Oct 11, 2022

How news of the death of Elizabeth I in the 17th century was communicated in ballads and proclamations

When Queen Elizabeth II passed away on September 8, 2022, there can’t have been many people in the UK who hadn’t heard about it within hours of her death. The media was on high alert from around midday, when an announcement from Buckingham Palace made clear that the monarch’s health…

The Conversation · Sep 16, 2022

Queen Elizabeth II: the history of royal funerals and how this one will be different

Great royal events in the United Kingdom are often a mix of old and new, and the commemoration and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II will be no exception. While there will be several strikingly new features, the seemingly traditional elements are not as old as they may appear. While some…

The Conversation · Sep 16, 2022

Ghost islands of the Arctic: The world’s ‘northern-most island’ isn’t the first to be erased from the map

In 2021, an expedition off the icy northern Greenland coast spotted what appeared to be a previously uncharted island. It was small and gravelly, and it was declared a contender for the title of the most northerly known land mass in the world. The discoverers named it Qeqertaq Avannarleq –…

The Conversation · Sep 8, 2022

How crime fiction went global, embracing themes from decolonisation to climate change

Once seen as the purview of British and American writers, crime fiction is very much a global phenomenon. Fictional investigators such as Lisbeth Salander, Kurt Wallander and Jules Maigret are now perhaps as well known as Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.

The Conversation · Aug 30, 2022

Madness, miscarriages and incest: as in House of the Dragon, real-life royal families have seen it all throughout history

House of the Dragon chronicles the fall of the Targaryen dynasty some two centuries before life on the continent of Westeros is upended by war and a mini ice age – the events dramatised in HBO’s Game of Thrones.

The Conversation · Aug 25, 2022

Look up this spring – you might see little ravens build soft, cosy nests from your garden trees

Spring is nearing and birds will soon start nesting in trees in backyards across Australia. The trees in our garden are now 40 years old – not old by tree standards, but old enough to be among the tallest in our suburb, offering refuge for local native birds.

The Conversation · Aug 23, 2022