Rear Vision — How History Shaped Today

Jet streams are narrow bands of strong winds in the upper atmosphere.  This is the story of how they were discovered and what can happen when they behave in unexpected ways.

The strikes and street protests across France in the first months of this year were part of an ultimately failed attempt to stop the French government raising the pension age from 62 to 64. Age pensions were established as a means of preventing poverty in old age and they were originally associated with a compulsory retirement age. The range and diversity of schemes for funding old age evolved during the twentieth century along with the nature of retirement itself.

The story of diet drugs is one full of miracle cures that don't live up to the hype or come with serious side effects.There's a new class of drugs being touted as a revolution in weight loss.But will the future of diet drugs just end up looking a lot like the past?

The Republic of Moldova, a former Soviet republic, is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moldova has wrestled with the attraction of closer ties with the West and its longer, deeper connection with Russia. There’s also Transnistria, a self-proclaimed independent region, a part of Moldova that lies along its border with Ukraine, which hosts Russian troops.

For the first time, a woman will fly to the moon when NASA sends four astronauts on the Artemis 2 lunar orbit mission next year. More than 650 people have journeyed in space since the early sixties and of these nearly ninety percent are men. But the gender divide is slowly changing, and NASA’s lunar mission is a pivotal moment for women, with plans to send humans to Mars in coming decades.

Dozens of political parties have come and gone since Federation, although the three major parties of the post-war period are still with us today. One of those parties—the Liberal Party—is  struggling for support and some see its future in doubt. How do political parties emerge and why do they sometimes disappear?

Former Soviet republic Belarus is a key Moscow ally in the war against Ukraine, facilitating the initial invasion and more recently agreeing to host Russian tactical nuclear weapons. Yet there is little support among Belarusians for the war against their neighbour.  Instead, dictator Alexander Lukashenko is engaged in a high stakes game of cat and mouse with Russia. Has Vladimir Putin silently achieved in Belarus what he seeks to do in Ukraine as part of his grand vision of a Russian Empire?

None of us need to be told that prices are going up or that interest rates are following. We are clearly now in a period of inflation which may or may not lead to a recession. But what exactly is inflation, why does it occur, how does it relate to interest rates and what if anything can we learn from past inflationary periods?

While the newly crowned King Charles has certainly been the focus of attention this weekend, his younger son, Harry, has also been in the media spotlight. Prince Harry’s decision to renounce his royal role was not the first time a member of the British monarchy decided to opt out. Almost a century ago, King Edward VIII gave up the crown to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcée. These two decisions, several generations apart, engulfed the monarchy in turmoil and sent the media into meltdown. What do these two stories tell us about the British monarchy?

They say there are only two certainties in life – death and taxes. While we can’t do much about the former, the latter has been the focus of much attention in the lead-up to the Federal Budget. The Henry Review of Australia’s tax system in 2008 made over one hundred recommendations. What were they and what happened to them?