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An Australian university recently censured marine scientist Paul Ridd for “failing to act in a collegial way and in the academic spirit of the institution,” because he questioned popular claims among environmentalists about coral reefs and global warming. What was Ridd’s crime? He found out two of the world’s leading organizations studying coral reefs were using misleading photographs to make the case that global warming was causing a mass reef die-off. Ridd wasn’t rewarded for checking the facts and blowing the whistle on misleading science. Instead, James Cook University censured Ridd and threatened to fire him for questioning global warming...

Why is America so alarmed by Brexit? Lest the reader be in doubt, remind yourself of this. Never before has a sitting US president visited a fellow democracy in a bid to sway an election. Nor, until now, have 13 former US secretaries of state and defence risked addressing a letter to a foreign electorate with the same motive. Ditto eight former Treasury secretaries and five former supreme commanders of NATO. Not only has the US establishment broken its non-interference rule over Brexit, it is stamping on its smithereens. If we did not know better, it might seem the UK...

Feminist theorist and author Germaine Greer said that the concept of motherhood has been “emptied out” and is “gone” in a lecture on women’s progress at the Hay Literary Festival in Wales on May 23. The outspoken Australian feminist, who once compared motherhood to captivity, critiqued the “concept” of motherhood at a time in which in vitro fertilization (IVF) has become increasingly popular. […] Greer also voiced her disapproval of singer/songwriter Elton John naming his same-sex “wife” David Furnish as the “mother” on their sons’ birth certificates. “Sir Elton John and his ‘wife,’ David Furnish, have entered on the birth...

The massive structure - almost a mile long - contains a spiral design, with several rectangular spirals that form a giant structure, archaeologists say. "This structure, which has dimensions of more than 1,500 m × 600 m (about 1 mile by 1,970 feet) is the most striking discovery associated with Angkor Wat to date. Its function remains unknown and, as yet, it has no known equivalent in the Angkorian world," Roland Fletcher, a University of Sydney professor, said in a statement put out by the university. Today, the spiral structure is hard to make out on the ground, having been...

Jean-Baptiste Chevance senses that we’re closing in on our target. Paused in a jungle clearing in northwestern Cambodia, the French archaeologist studies his GPS and mops the sweat from his forehead with a bandanna. The temperature is pushing 95, and the equatorial sun beats down through the forest canopy. For two hours, Chevance, known to everyone as JB, has been leading me, along with a two-man Cambodian research team, on a grueling trek. We’ve ripped our arms and faces on six-foot shrubs studded with thorns, been savaged by red biting ants, and stumbled over vines that stretch at ankle height...

Mary Beth Day, University of Cambridge Bayon temple, constructed by Angkorian King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. The faces may be representations of Buddha, the bodhisattva Lokesvara, Jayavarman VII, or a combination. The ancient city of Angkor — the most famous monument of which is the breathtaking ruined temple of Angkor Wat — might have collapsed due to valiant but ultimately failed efforts to battle drought, scientists find. The great city of Angkor in Cambodia, first established in the ninth century, was the capital of the Khmer Empire, the major player in southeast Asia for nearly five centuries....

The researchers disovered at least 74 new temples The great medieval temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia was once at the centre of a sprawling urban settlement, according to a new, detailed map of the area.Using Nasa satellites, an international team have discovered at least 74 new temples and complex irrigation systems. The map, published in the journal PNAS, extends the known settlement by 1000 sq km, about the size of Los Angeles. Analysis also lends weight to the theory that Angkor's residents were architects of the city's demise. "The large-scale city engineered its own downfall by disrupting its...

CHICAGO (AFP) - Archaeologists using radar imagery have shown that an ancient Cambodian settlement centered on the celebrated temple of Angkor Wat was far more extensive than previously thought, a study released Monday said. The medieval settlement surrounding Angkor, the one-time capital of the illustrious Khmer empire which flourished between the ninth and 14th centuries, covered a 3,000 square kilometer area (1,158 square miles). The urban complex was at least three times larger than archaeologists had previously suspected and easily the largest pre-industrial urban area of its kind, eclipsing comparable developments such as Tikal a Classic Maya "city" in Guatemala....

Jungle-Covered Ruins May Hold Surprising Hints by Brian Thomas, M.S. The ancient and elaborate temple at Angkor Wat is not the only interesting site to see when visiting Cambodia. Archaeologists have been discovering hundreds of temples, many still buried beneath thick jungle growth, strewn across the whole surrounding area. A picture is emerging of buildings that connected a thriving society across a broad region. Could soon-to-be uncovered stone carvings somehow intersect with biblical history? Australian archaeologist Damian Evans employed "lidar" technology to find new temples far faster than the old way—that of hacking through jungle and hoping to hit some...

Archaeologists in Cambodia have found multiple, previously undocumented medieval cities not far from the ancient temple city of Angkor Wat, the Guardian can reveal, in groundbreaking discoveries that promise to upend key assumptions about south-east Asia’s history. The Australian archaeologist Dr Damian Evans, whose findings will be published in the Journal of Archaeological Science on Monday, will announce that cutting-edge airborne laser scanning technology has revealed multiple cities between 900 and 1,400 years old beneath the tropical forest floor, some of which rival the size of Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.

The vast majority of Australian Defence Force personnel believes the Muslim religion promotes ­violence and terrorism, despite “cultural sensitivity training” by the ADF to have its soldiers take the view that Islam is a religion of peace. The bombshell new study sponsored by the army finds that such “anti-Muslim sentiments” are “probably quite widespread” among Australian frontline troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that the military’s efforts to reverse this trend are counter-productive. ..... “The best estimate … for the proportion of soldiers who have received cultural sensitivity training and who believe that the Muslim religion promotes violence and terrorism...

Anti-Muslim sentiment is “strong” and “probably quite widespread” among Australian defence force members and was higher among those who had undergone cultural sensitivity training, according to research commissioned by the army. Soldiers from four special operations units based at Holsworthy army base were asked whether they believed “the Muslim religion promotes violence and terrorism”. Of the 182 people who took part, an estimated 80% agreed with the sentiment, according to lead researcher Charles Miller from the Australian National University. The survey was conducted as a “list experiment” to grant anonymity to the participants and reduce concerns that agreeing with the...

A frog hit by a lawn mower in Mount Isa owes its life to animal lovers who worked to fly it across Queensland for life-saving treatment at a special Cairns frog hospital. The common green frog was run over in April by a woman who was "very distraught", FrogSafe president Deborah Pergolotti told 9NEWS. The frog suffered a "deep gash" to his back and the woman called a relative for help, who in turn contacted FrogSafe's Cairns Frog Hospital. The group then coordinated a rescue effort, enlisting the help of a regional airline and an animal transport company to fly...

Like tens of thousands of other Australians, I am a volunteer firefighter - bush fire is a constant threat in Australia, especially during the summer months, and the nation's sheer size and relatively low population means volunteer fire fighters are critical to public safety - the professionals do a fine job in the big cities but on the edges of those cities and out of them, it's the volunteers that are most critical. As a Victorian, I am a volunteer with the CFA - the Country Fire Authority - which has about 60,000 volunteers and about 1,000 professional employed firefighters...

FOUR people have been injured in a shooting outside a shopping centre in Sydney’s northwest after police opened fire on a 23-year-old man carrying a knife. The man, who went missing from a psychiatric hospital yesterday, was seen brandishing a kitchen knife as he wandered around the mall “babbling incoherently”, before he was shot three times by officers. The man reportedly lunged at a female officer after he was told to drop the knife, before she and a male officer opened fire, leaving him with injuries to his arm, thigh and abdomen. Fragments from police gunfire also injured three female...

Tom Elliott says there's three main reasons why Donald Trump is in the running to be the next president of America. The 3AW Drive host has been saying for months he believes Trump will win the US election and "the sky won't fall in" if it happens. He said Trump ticked a few boxes other candidates did not, which your average American was drawn to. "He's not a professional politician, which Americans have become sick of. He has done other things with his life," Tom Elliott said. "He wants secure America's borders. It appeals to the middle-class, and lower-class people...

People are spending less time on social media apps, in some cases substantially less, a new study from marketing intelligence firm SimilarWeb found. The company compared Android users' daily time spent on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat from January to March 2016 with the same period in 2015. The firm looked at data from the U.S, UK, Germany, Spain, Australia, India, South Africa, Brazil and Spain. Facebook's Instagram saw the biggest year-over-year drop — usage was down 23.7 percent this year, closely followed by Twitter (down 23.4 percent), Snapchat (down 15.7 percent) and Facebook (down 8 percent), the study found.

Never mind the doubters, Hillary Clinton has two weapons to attack Donald Trump with. 1) Barack Obama. 2) Her ability to surgically dissect his lack of foreign policy credentials. Bruce Wolpe writes. Many - if not most - Democrats have been very worried, even as Hillary Clinton steadily closes on the nomination, that she was not withstanding the headwinds that have been hitting her campaign. There's been lethargy among her supporters; young voters going overwhelmingly to Sanders; women unenthusiastic; Sanders with a bigger lead over Trump in head-to-head polls than Clinton; and the prospect she could lose the last big...

A nation has come before my courts attention, Its leader creating his own ascension, The cries of the innocent brought before me, Torture and murder with blasphemy, Turning his back to My very Throne(Jeremiah 17:13), Creating a temporal one of his own, Causing his subjects through fear to give him fame, Trying his best to erase My Name("Jesus Christ"), No fear of The Creator has he, So now he shall meet the angel of death and catastrophe, A boy attempting to become a man, But very soon will lose his land, The hand "is" writing on the wall, This man's...

A woman has been killed by a shark off the west coast of Australia, the second such death there in less than a week. Police say she was diving in waters near the city of Perth with a man when she was attacked.