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Editor's note
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Latest shark-horror flick The Meg arrived in cinemas this week and is chewing through box offices. While it lacks somewhat in the science department (Megalodon becoming extinct 2.6 million years ago), the film does raise some pertinent questions about how we portray sharks on screen. As Vivienne Westbrook told us, sharks have been part of human culture for thousands of years, but it’s their portrayal as bloodthirsty monsters in movies that has done some of the worst damage to these creatures.
Catch up on this, and other long reads from the past month below.
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James Whitmore
Deputy Editor: Arts + Culture
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Sharks!
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The Meg: Jaws, but considerably larger.
IMDB
Vivienne Westbrook, University of Western Australia
The latest scary shark film, The Meg, opens this week. But fictionalised tales of monster fish blind us to the important role sharks play in maintaining the health of our oceans.
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More Friday essays
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Anna Clark, University of Technology Sydney
It is 50 years since anthropologist WEH Stanner gave the Boyer Lectures in which he coined the phrase 'the great Australian silence'. How far have we come since?
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Michael Halliwell, University of Sydney
Australian operas have been written about many pressing topics - from the Stolen Generations to the Lindy Chamberlain case - but few have been staged a second time. What is going wrong?
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Farewell Fairfax
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In 1988, The Age was ranked the most influential institution in Melbourne.
ELAINE TO
Jo Chandler, University of Melbourne
The Age Charter of Editorial Independence – the first document of its type in Australia – first emerged in 1988. It was defended time and again over the following three decades.
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Emily Brontë's 200th
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Kaya Scodelario as Catherine Earnshaw in the 2011 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
Film 4 and UK Film Council/IMDB
Sophie Alexandra Frazer, University of Sydney
This week is the 200th anniversary of Emily Bronte's birth. If reading Wuthering Heights - her only published novel - feels like a suspension in a state of waking nightmare, what a richly-hued vision of the fantastical it is.
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More classics
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Anne Maxwell, University of Melbourne
To Kill a Mockingbird is no sermon. Its lessons are presented in effortless style, tackling the complexity of race issues with startling clarity and a strong sense of reality.
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Rebecca Hausler, The University of Queensland; Tomoko Aoyama, The University of Queensland
Murasaki Shikibu, the author of The Tale of Genji, served in the Japanese imperial court. She transformed her experiences into an intricate narrative fusing fiction, history, and poetry.
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Something to ponder
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Felicity Burke/The Conversation
Cris Brack, Australian National University
Urban trees are literally made with the help of human breath – they turn the carbon dioxide we breathe out into the building blocks of plant growth. So your local trees have a piece of you inside them.
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More good reads
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Michael Keating, Australian National University
Governments can't undo the technological changes behind frozen wages and rising inequality. The best policy is to invest in education and training to give workers skills of value in the new economy.
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Sarah Barns, Western Sydney University; Phillip Mar, Western Sydney University
Sydney's Parramatta is developing fast, building over a rich archaeological history. Finding ways to retain it can help visitors and residents feel a sense of physical connection with those who came before.
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Featured jobs
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The Conversation AU — Melbourne, Victoria
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University of Melbourne — Parkville, Victoria
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Australian Institute of Family Studies — Melbourne, Victoria
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Swinburne University of Technology — Hawthorn, Victoria
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Featured events
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221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria, 3125, Australia — Deakin University
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C/O Blacktown Clinical & Research School, Blacktown, New South Wales, 2148, Australia — Western Sydney University
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900 Dandenong Road, Caulfield East, Victoria, 3800, Australia — Monash University
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GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, South Australia, 5001, Australia — University of South Australia
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