Counterpoint

Richard Branson started it, Jeff Bezos went further and Elon Musk wants to better them both. Billionaires in space, is it a vanity project or something more? How accurate are press releases based on abstracts, especially science abstracts? Can birds help preserve languages and cultures at risk of extinction and why has the Pangkarlangu returned?

When did inequality begin and why has it stayed? The Antarctic Treaty is 60 years old but is it still fit for purpose? Why do we think think that Africa didn't have scripts and what has it got to do with the fall of Carthage? There were large numbers of visitors to our shores before the arrival of Europeans. Recently found rock art explains who they were and why they came.

China has the world's largest economy and it shares a border with three of the world's least developed economies. What does that mean? Have you read many good stories about the COVID-19 pandemic? The are there even in the midst of the gloom. What happens if the ship you are in the Arctic runs aground and what do you know about Operation Barbarossa?

How do you build peace and have you heard of Jetson? It's a new military laser that can identify people by their heartbeat at a distance of 200 meters. How important are black swans to both European and Indigenous history? We are running out of room to bury the dead so what will happen to the bodies of those who die?

Is America really a white supremacist nation or like almost all other countries does it just have a dominant culture? Are we alone? Do you believe? Are UFO's real or just a trick of clever camera work? What was the Black is Beautiful movement and did it achieve what it wanted to do? How much influence did the Mongol Horde have on Russian civilisation? More than you think.

What if we're wrong about many things such as some aspects of COVID-19? What if what we have all accepted to be true isn't? How would we know unless someone spoke up? Are our lives ruled by the clock and if so why does it seem that sometimes time stands still? The complicated fascinating history of John James Audubon and his birds and why does the Japanese Navy have a Curry Friday?

Lone actor or self-activating terrorism has become a major security threat in Europe and around the world. How are they financed? Why has the argument for free speech shifted from one political view to the other? What happened when the first women in America to become dean of a medical school took her students to a clinical medical lecture and how important was Iceland in the second World War?

Is there a new kind of war, one that doesn't rely on brute force and aggression? Yes it's called land grabs. How did Ancient Rome treat outsiders and the various ethnic tribes surrounding it? Might the need for clothing, and not food, brought about the beginnings of agriculture and what has new research into the trade of whale bon weapons shown us?

Are humans responsible for the extinction of animals on islands? No we are not! What happened at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal? Is there a clear line between being alive and being declared brain dead or is it all just a bit fuzzy? Did you know that each year around 4.5 million people are bitten by venomous snakes resulting in 138,000 deaths? How can we stop that?

What effect will the dispute in Ladakh have on India's long -term strategic competition with China? Is the tragedy of the commons a myth and can we compare previous pandemics with COVID 19? 100 years after its inception is it more than a dream to suggest that Northern is moving ever closer to unification with Ireland?

Just how important is diversity in an organisation and can nostalgia be used to create a better workplace? How do you know what the right thing to do is when there is more than one option? Anyone for a glass of zesty lime green tree ant infused gin?

Globalism or nationalism, does it have to be an either/or or are they inextricably linked? Are high status people more likely to lie to protect their position and are the rest of us more likely to believe them? Better go and get yourselves a big cold glass of milk...or maybe not...perhaps a kidney transplant instead.

Over the last 12 months or so the relationship between China and Australia has been turbulent. Is this because of China's aggressive 'wolf warrior' diplomacy and how has the region responded? Why don't we hear about African terrorism and was the decline of the Roman Empire a very good thing for humanity? We can learn a lot about a population by what they flush down their toilets. Why are Americans...

What happened to social democracy? Individuals today are being seen by the colour of their skin and not the content of their character, but at what cost? Should we be planting more and more trees wherever there is a space or should we be thinking more carefully about where to put them?

In recent years it had seemed that democracy was being embraced in Southeast Asia. What happened? How have cities changed over the last year and after the abolition of slavery what happened in Africa, particularly in West Africa? Can miners and geologists work together to preserve and protect fossils? In New Zealand they .

As we slowly begin to emerge from the COVID_19 pandemic, what kind of shape is Australia in? How effective has the internet and social media been in the Myanmar coup? Very, if you're one of the ruling generals. Normally, if a cow has a disease that effects its ability to reproduce it's put down but what happens in India where cows are sacred? A species of bird is forgetting how to sing, can it be...

Is democracy under threat and if it is what can we do to reverse the trend and secure it into the future? Government rorts are infuriating. Why do they happen and why does there seem to be nothing can be done to stop them? Have you ever walked out of one room and into another and forgotten why you were there? Can there be some good news from fake news, especially for vulnerable wildlife? Yes there...

Can maps be racist? Specifically, is the Mercator Projection, conceived in 1569 to help sailors navigate the oceans, racist? What, if anything, can bankers learn from pastoralists and what can nature teach us to avoid network collapse? Is your bunker ready for the apocalypse? Do you have food, water and medicine stashed away?

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused world-wide disruption but does this mean that Australia needs to change its strategies, particularly in Asia? In an age of fake news and polarizing political debate do we need to teach students more about, and have them practise, critical thinking? Was there ever really ancient environmental wisdom or is it a myth and are sulpher-crested cockatoos loveable larrikin...

What has been happening in Tigray, Ethiopia's most northern region, over recent months? Why don't we know more about this conflict and how might it end? In an attempt to overcome racism have we become more racist, however unintentionally? Did you know that in the early 1900's Thomas Edison drove an electric car driven by a nickel-iron battery? 100 years later this battery has come into it's own. A...

Is Alexei Navalny a serious threat to Vladimir Putin? How innovative is language and just how and why does it change? Have we confused knowledge with critical thinking and what's the difference between them? Scientist are looking to the past to predict the future, so where does a Spruce that was thought to be extinct fit in?

What is grey-zone aggression and why is it being used? Angela Merkel has a few months left as Chancellor, what can she achieve or what should be achieved before she does? Did countries in East Asia, with a focus on Japan, accept westernization when it came? Not as much as wight think they did. We hear a lot about England, Scotland and Northern Ireland but what about the other country in the United...

Can the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) withstand China's increased activities in the region, and what, if anything, should Australia do about it? Have we reached 'conceptual overreach' when it comes to human rights, health and the law? It would seem so. Why do cognitive scientists and corporations see our minds as predictive machines and the story of Ham, the first chimp in space.

Why did the military takeover in Myanmar on the first day in February? Was it a coup, or was it just a kind of ministerial reshuffle? Can there be peace in the South China Sea? Perhaps a technocratic peace might work. Who funds NGO's? It's probably not who you think and Wikipedia has turned 20 so lets celebrate.

The Economist Intelligence Unity has just released its 2020 Democracy Index. Where does Australia rank and how do we compare with New Zealand? A map showing the sites of Indigenous massacres will hopefully be finalised by the end of the year. What does the map look like and what will it be used for? Have you heard of seafood slavery? Right now thousands of men are stuck on boats at seas, what will...