Councillors are pushing for a ban on short-term rentals, particularly in inner-city suburbs – where vacancy rates can be as low as 1%
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At 10am on High Street in Millers Point, it’s checkout time. Departing guests have left laundry bags on their verandas for cleaners, who have laid out fresh towels on beds in neighbouring rooms. Other guests are heading out sightseeing in “I love Sydney” T-shirts.
Although it boasts enviable harbour views, this is not a tourist resort. It’s a street of Federation-era houses – formerly some of the oldest public housing in Australia – overtaken by short-term rentals, many of them managed through Airbnb.
Continue reading...It took 10 years for Naseby to achieve its DarkSky International certification. Now, a night out in the tiny Otago town is like ‘a tour through the history of the universe’
As the last strip of pink on the horizon fades to indigo on the Maniototo Plain in Otago, every word I speak arrives in a puff of condensation. Six hundred metres above sea level, in winter the temperature here can drop to -15C. Spring isn’t much warmer. But the chill is worth it. Standing in the dark in what feels like the middle of nowhere, I’ve come to a paddock not far from the historic mining town of Naseby to stargaze.
Even in a country where there’s about 20km of space per person, the Maniototo Plain is sparsely populated. During the 1860s gold rush about 20,000 fortune seekers descended on Otago, but when they eventually moved on, towns like Naseby were left to a sleepy future. Now home to just 140 people, it’s not even a place you drive through. “We’re not on the way to anywhere,” says local Jill Wolff. “You’ve got to choose to go to Naseby.”
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Continue reading...Substituting the petrochemicals that underpin everyday life is challenging, but there are ways to produce what we need without fossil fuels
The standoff in the strait of Hormuz has shown just how dependent the world’s economy is on fossil fuels. From petrochemicals to plastics and fertiliser, they all begin life as oil or gas – but are there alternatives? Can we loosen the grip that fossil fuels have on our lives?
While solutions to wean the transport system off imported oil are well understood – albeit not fully implemented – substituting the plethora of petrochemicals that underpin everyday life is a much more challenging task.
Continue reading...After embarking on a trial of CAR T-cell therapy, actor Sam Neill announced he is cancer-free. Researchers are enthusiastic the therapies could be a major weapon in the battle against cancer
“Game-changer.” That’s how Prof Misty Jenkins, an immunologist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, describes CAR T-cell therapy, an emerging but still costly cancer treatment that supercharges the body’s immune system to fight disease.
Late last month, Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill put the treatment in the spotlight, revealing his stage three cancer was in remission after undergoing CAR T-cell therapy as part of a clinical trial in Sydney. He stopped short of describing his remission as a miracle – the success, he said, was “science at its best”.
Continue reading...She delights in pretty dresses and homegrown roses. I am the boisterous daughter who despises rules. Despite all the differences, our bond is strong
Among the myriad things I doubt my mother realises reminds me of her is the embroidered coat hanger.
The hangers with the delicate, lace cloth, designed to protect. The ones handmade with personal touches no global chain would bother with because, just like a lifetime of maternal love, if you are lucky, it is sewn with the same kind of slow, attentive care.
Continue reading...When Mitch Cairns met Agatha Gothe-Snape, he was instantly charmed. Then an absurd exchange shifted their relationship into something more than friendship
The first time I saw Agatha she was saturated, standing in a knee-high bucket wearing a knitted woollen jumper that said Ho Ho Ho on it. Whatever I’d expected to see at the Christmas group show at MOP Projects – an artist-run gallery in Redfern, Sydney – this vision transcended it. As I walked into the hall-like space, it was devoid of any artwork aside from this absolutely beautiful woman standing there with water dripping on to her head.
It was 2007 and I was a graduate of the National Art School. People weren’t making this type of work there, so it’s no exaggeration to say the whole image was completely new and arresting for me. She was silent and stationary but so alive.
Continue reading...Per the report, seven million Americans bought their health insurance through state exchanges in 2026, and many of them may have had personal information shared with companies, including Meta, TikTok, Snap, Google, Nextdoor, and LinkedIn, among others. Some of the data collected and shared with those companies included ZIP codes, a person's sex and citizenship status, and race.
In addition to potentially sensitive biographical details about a person, the trackers also may reveal additional details about their life based on the sites they visit. For instance, Bloomberg found trackers on Medicaid-related web pages in Rhode Island, which could reveal information about a person's financial status and need for assistance. In Maryland, a Spanish-language page titled "Good News for Noncitizen Pregnant Marylanders" and a page designed to help DACA recipients navigate their healthcare options were found to be transmitting data to Big Tech firms...
Per Bloomberg, several states have already removed some trackers from their exchange websites following the report.
Thanks to Slashdot reader JoeyRox for sharing the news.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
SergioQ79 - Osanpo Photographer - has added a photo to the pool:
Takamatsu non è Tokyo e non è Osaka.
Qui la sera non significa caos o frenesia.
Le biciclette passano lente, le insegne restano accese ancora un po’, ma la giornata sta già finendo davvero.
La notte qui è ancora a portata di essere umano.
高松は東京でも大阪でもない。
ここでは夜が騒がしくなりすぎない。
自転車がゆっくり通り、看板はまだ光っている。でも一日はもう終わりに向かっている。
ここの夜は、人の感覚にちゃんと収まっている。
Takamatsu is not Tokyo, and it’s not Osaka.
Here, night doesn’t mean chaos or constant rush.
Bicycles move slowly, the signs stay lit a little longer, but the day is already coming to an end.
Night here still feels human-sized.
SergioQ79 - Osanpo Photographer - posted a photo:
Takamatsu non è Tokyo e non è Osaka.
Qui la sera non significa caos o frenesia.
Le biciclette passano lente, le insegne restano accese ancora un po’, ma la giornata sta già finendo davvero.
La notte qui è ancora a portata di essere umano.
高松は東京でも大阪でもない。
ここでは夜が騒がしくなりすぎない。
自転車がゆっくり通り、看板はまだ光っている。でも一日はもう終わりに向かっている。
ここの夜は、人の感覚にちゃんと収まっている。
Takamatsu is not Tokyo, and it’s not Osaka.
Here, night doesn’t mean chaos or constant rush.
Bicycles move slowly, the signs stay lit a little longer, but the day is already coming to an end.
Night here still feels human-sized.