They’re a concrete reminder of the new, heightened terrorist threat — but do the large, oblong bollards popping up at key public places in Australian cities actually work?
TomTom, Baidu to collaborate on maps for computer-assisted driving
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – TomTom NV, the Dutch maker of navigation software for cars, on Wednesday said it had struck a deal with Chinese internet company Baidu to collaborate on digital maps used for computer-assisted driving.
‘A gift for the American bastards’: North Korea’s Kim fires back at Trump
Kim Jong-un saw the opportunity for maximum mischief offered by the most auspicious date in US history to launch a missile, literally and verbally
It is a fair to say that the reporter tasked with working Kim Jong-un’s comments into North Korea’s latest statement on Tuesday’s intercontinental ballistic missile test did their job with even more relish than usual.
As taunts go, Kim’s comments, carried by the state KCNA news agency, raised the insult index several notches from Donald Trump’s suggestion a day earlier that his North Korean counterpart find a more productive use of his time than developing a nuclear deterrent.
A bus powered by formic acid could hit the road this year
Creating sustainable vehicle fuel is rife with challenges, not least in finding the balance between developing a viable solution and putting forward ideas that have mainstream appeal: poo-powered cars sound great in theory, but, y'know… However, s…
Private health insurers must do more to arrest rise in complaints, Senate told
Ombudsman director warns of ‘an increased level of frustration with affordability’ and calls on the industry to address the causes of grievances
Private health insurers are being told they need to deal better with unhappy customers as complaints to the government continue to rise.
The commonwealth ombudsman reported a nearly 40% increase in complaints between January and March, compared with the same period in 2016.
China’s Tencent shrugs off impact of play-time limits; shares rise
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Tencent Holdings Ltd has shrugged off concerns that a move to limit play time for some users of its top-grossing “Honour of Kings” game could hurt its bottom line, saying those targeted make up only a small portion of its overall user base.
Tony Abbott says Turnbull government ‘at a low ebb’ and rejects colleagues’ calls to stop division
Abbott labels budget ‘second best’ but denies he wants prime minister’s job back as National party senator warns criticisms endanger marginal seats
Tony Abbott has rejected National party calls to stop creating division, describing Malcolm Turnbull’s government as at a low ebb and denying that he wants the prime minister’s job again.
Abbott spoke to his local newspaper, the Manly Daily, on Wednesday as there was growing disquiet among government MPs about his increasingly combative behaviour.
Billionaires dream of immortality. The rest of us worry about healthcare | Jill Abramson
Trump’s attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare leaves Baby Boomers approaching retirement with nervous jitters
Last week, as the Senate was still trying to deny health care to 22 million fellow Americans, a friend asked me whether I would choose to live forever if I could. We were discussing Silicon Valley billionaires and their investments in new bio-technologies that they hope will enable them to do what no human has ever done: cheat death. The technology includes some dubious treatments, like being pumped with the blood of much younger people.
Both of us agreed we do not wish for immortality, though we are both extremely happy with our lives and healthy. Wanting to live forever is fundamentally selfish. It’s obvious why immortality appeals to billionaires like Peter Thiel. It obviously wouldn’t to the millions in the US who won’t have health insurance if the Republicans pull out the vote on their bill.
Newsagents urged to refuse to sell Daily Telegraph over fictional attack on Labor
Popular news agency industry blog condemns Telegraph’s front page featuring a Bill Shorten-led government for having ‘no facts’
Newsagents should refuse to sell Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph – which has a fictional front page featuring a Bill Shorten-led government – because it is pure political propaganda, according to the Australian Newsagency Blog.
Victorian newsagent and software businessman Mark Fletcher, who runs the popular industry blog, condemned the unusual front page, saying it had nothing to do with the news and was not journalism. If his two newsagencies were in New South Wales, he would not sell it, he said.
The Medicare breach proves the government can’t be trusted with our data | Ellen Broad
Data could help improve the quality of healthcare but the government’s refusal to take responsibility for technology failures means this is a hopeless dream
- Ellen Broad is an associate for the Open Data Institute Australia
I believe in digital healthcare. I would like a future in which my medical history is much more accessible to the people who need it to treat me, and to me. I’d like to stop having those conversations with doctors when I move to new cities which typically involve me pointing at bits of my body and having conversations like:
Me: “I think last time I broke it … here. Around the knuckle maybe? Between the knuckle and top of my finger?”