The 10 most expensive cities to live in – 2017

Hong Kong celebrates after winning the title of the world's most expensive city :)))

Financial comfort has a whole lot less to do with ‘what you earn’ than it does with what you have left when your living expenses are paid! There are cities where the vast majority of residents are in a constant battle to stay ahead and there are others where most residents are able to live in […]

America is Regressing into a Developing Nation for Most People

Crowded San Antonio classroom

Income and wealth inequality is accelerating in all Western nations. It’s certainly not a new phenomenon since wealth – and power – has been concentrated throughout history.  But in a brief hiccup in time, the Industrial Revolution lead to a broadening of both the income and asset base of nations. As individual incomes and wealth […]

How to find coffee that doesn’t cost the Earth!

Between 1990 and 2010, the total area of land used to grow coffee reduced from 11.1 million hectares to 10.2 million yet total production increased by 36%. This is the result of the intensification of agricultural practices and the development of sun-hardy varieties. Shading forests are now cleared felled and replaced with these new coffee varieties. As […]

What those expiry dates really mean (and why they are killing your budget)…

Good, spoiled, in-between or none of the above?

Everything you buy has one. Meat, fish, olives, bread, milk, ketchup and even vitamin supplements. Expiry and ‘best before’ dates are ubiquitous but exactly what do they mean and why are they costing us a fortune? Admit it… you check the ‘best before‘ or expiry date on all your prepackaged foods and then try to select the […]

Is there a future for the Great Barrier Reef?

Coral bleaching at Orpheus Island

The Centre for World University Rankings recently rated James Cook University as the world’s # 1 research centre for Marine and Freshwater biology research. That suggests to me that we should ‘listen up’ when the university’s researchers tell us the Great Barrier Reef – comprising some 2,900 individual reefs, 900 islands and stretching over 2,900 kilometres – […]

The Unhappiness Epidemic: Fun vs Contentment

The key to happiness

Most people will tell you that the world is an unhappy place… a place of sadness, dissatisfaction and even, misery. And certainly, if we consider events in Syria, Nigeria and so many other troubled areas, maybe it is. We’ve written about the Happiness Index previously. Not surprisingly, peaceful countries rank highly while war torn nations sink to […]

Why Laissez-Faire Economics Always Fails

The market as a garden

Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer Markets are a type of ecosystem that is complex, adaptive, and subject to the same evolutionary forces as nature. The GFC and it’s aftermath saw giant financial institutions toppled and, in some cases, obliterated. The net worth of most Americans, Irish, Spaniards, Italians and English collapsed. Most of the world’s […]

10 reasons for eating more honey!

Honey is probably the original sweetener. We know that it has been valued throughout recorded history. The ancient Egyptians venerated it as did the Greeks. And since primates will happily put up with a few stings to enjoy a treat of honey, it’s probable that early man did too! But is there more to honey […]

Can tourism save these five animals from extinction?

Earth’s history is broken into geologic epochs. These are time periods defined by distinct changes in rock strata. As you can see from the following infographic, some epochs have lasted hundreds of millions of years, others for mere tens of millions. But it seems that as the earth ages, the timescale is shortening… down to […]

The Dunny-ization of Residences

Dunny – noun, plural dunnies. Australian and NZ Slang. an outside toilet; outhouse. From British dialect dunnekin meaning an ‘earth closet, (outside) privy’ from dung + ken ‘house’. First used Around 1780 – 1790 Opinion by architect and guest blogger, Russell Hall. Who remembers the thunder box at the rear of the back yard — quite […]