|
|
|
Editor's note
|
|
Virtual reality games are much more immersive than the kind you play on your TV or laptop, because they engage your sight, sound, touch, and potentially even smell. This can lead to a sense of “embodiment”, or connection between you and your virtual avatar. As Thuong Hoang and Guy Wood-Bradley write, this lets you explore a virtual world from a different point of view by choosing an avatar with a different personality, gender or physicality.
And studies have shown that experiencing a different perspective in the virtual world can change your behaviour in the real one.
What happens in the first three years of life sets us up for the future, and not always in a good way. Children exposed to violence and family breakdown develop lower IQs and do worse in life, becoming less likely to work and more likely to engage in crime. But what if there was a way to reverse those effects in the first three years, gifting the kids better IQs and better life chances? The Melbourne Institute’s Jeff Borland and Yi-Ping Tseng
suggest there is.
Oh, and Woolworths is getting out of pubs and pokies. Jason Pallant writes that for a firm so obsessed about being sen to do the right thing that it banned single-use plastic bags, it’s about time.
Enjoy your day.
|
Shelley Hepworth
Section Editor: Technology
|
|
|
Top story
|
VR gives the user a sense of body ownership over a virtual avatar.
Deakin University Asset Bank
Thuong Hoang, Deakin University; Guy Wood-Bradley, Deakin University
In VR you can explore the world from a different point of view. And studies have shown that experiencing new perspectives in the virtual world can alter your behaviour in real life.
|
It’s looking as if it’s possible to fix brokenness before it goes too far.
Shutterstock
Jeff Borland, University of Melbourne; Yi-Ping Tseng, University of Melbourne
An economic evaluation of a program of interventions for Australia's most vunerable children has produced startiling results.
|
The ‘gothic’ genre was once thought to be inapplicable to Australia. But there is a strong gothic tradition in Australian literature and film, seen in examples like Picnic at Hanging Rock.
IMDB
Emma Doolan, Southern Cross University
Gothic texts are not all bloodsucking vampires and howling werewolves. An Australian Gothic tradition took root alongside colonisation, influencing writers from Marcus Clarke to Alexis Wright.
|
Business + Economy
|
-
Jason Pallant, Swinburne University of Technology
Losing revenue from hotels and liquor retail outlets will hurt Woolworths Group, but not too much. The long-term reputational benefits are considerable.
-
Nicholas Borroz, University of Auckland
Australia needs more friends, particularly in China and India, to be a force in the international space economy.
|
|
Politics + Society
|
-
Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
"Yet to arrive at a final position," Senator Jacqui Lambie presses the federal government to forgive Tasmania's housing debt in exchange for support of the government's tax cuts.
-
Denis Muller, University of Melbourne
A parliamentary inquiry into press freedom is merely a public relations exercise designed to buy time until the public anger over last month's police raids dies down.
-
Pablo de Orellana, King's College London; Nicholas Michelsen, King's College London
We are living through the latest battle in a 300-year long ideological war over the meaning of humanity itself.
-
Benjamin Habib, La Trobe University
Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un have very different objectives from their on-again, off-again negotiations. More work needs to be done to build trust and align the leaders on a basic common goal.
-
Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Expert for the Turnbull-era Religious Freedom Review, Father Frank Brennan, discusses the way forward on the "wicked problem" of ensuring religious freedoms in Australia.
|
|
Cities
|
-
Benjamin Kaufman, Griffith University; Abraham Leung, Griffith University
From Apple Music to Netflix, subscription services are on the rise. It's time transport followed suit.
|
|
Health + Medicine
|
-
Heather Douglas, The University of Queensland
This week, Victoria has joined several other states and committed to introducing a non-fatal strangulation offence. This move will change the way domestic abusers are prosecuted.
-
Graham Meadows, Monash University; Anthony Cichello; Anton Neville Isaacs, Monash University; Frances Shawyer, Monash University
In Australia, the highest rates of mental illness can be found in the poorest sections of society. But poor people with mental disorders often struggle to access the care they need.
-
Simon Chapman, University of Sydney
Smoking-related cardiovascular disease like heart attack and stroke results in 11,400 people being sent to hospital and 6,400 people dying in Australia each year, new research shows.
|
|
Environment + Energy
|
-
Martino Malerba, Monash University; Craig White, Monash University; Dustin Marshall, Monash University; Liz Morris, Monash University
When we build marinas, ports, jetties and coastal defences we introduce hard structures that weren’t there before, and which reduce the amount of sunlight hitting the water.
-
Scott Heron, James Cook University; Jon C. Day, James Cook University
World Heritage globally is threatened by climate change, in all sorts of ways. A new tool identifies the key risks and best strategies for both natural and cultural wonders.
-
Dustin Marshall, Monash University; Liz Morris, Monash University
Strictly enforced no-take marine areas benefit everyone, from the fish to fishers.
|
|
| |
Featured jobs
|
|
Literacy for Life Foundation — Sydney, New South Wales
|
|
The University of Wollongong — Wollongong, New South Wales
|
|
Australian Catholic University — North Sydney, New South Wales
|
|
University of Western Australia — North Lakes, Queensland
|
|
|
|
Featured events
|
|
Swinburne University, AGSE Building, Lecture Theatre AGSE202, 50 Wakefield Street, Hawthorn, Victoria, 3122, Australia — Swinburne University of Technology
|
|
124 LaTrobe Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia — RMIT University
|
|
The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia — University of Sydney
|
|
Level 12, Tower 2, 727 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia — Deakin University
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
