Acumen

Caught out by its strategy to bet on COVID-19 vaccines that could be made in Australia, the federal government is now scrambling to manufacture mRNA vaccines locally.

Getting around an Australian city without a car can be a real hassle. Imagine how much easier it would be if you had the option of combining public transport and shared services — be it bus, train, tram, taxi, car share, electric bicycle or e-scooter — and could book and pay for the lot using a single app.

Now that the Olympic buzz has settled, there are a few valuable lessons to be learned from the world’s top athletes that could help the rest of us.

As the COVID19 pandemic has highlighted, digital engagement is crucial in fostering social inclusion. Our research investigates older adults’ perceptions of risk associated with digital engagement.

Money, doughnuts and beer. As high-tech and effective as our COVID vaccines are, getting enough people to take them to achieve herd immunity may come down to some very Homer Simpson-esque tools of persuasion.

The Australian government’s new national vaccination advertisements have been described as exciting as a bowl of leftover cereal, with all the urgency of a stubbed toe. “It will be very difficult for Shaun Micallef to send this ad up,” said Opposition leader Anthony Albanese when asked about them on Sunday morning television.

Personality is not fixed and instead can change across someone’s lifespan. In our earlier posts, we discussed why and how personality can change and in particular, how such change can be driven by our work experiences.

Personality can change, and it can be changed by one’s work experiences. In a previous blog post, Dr. Lena Wang and I discussed why personality can change, how our work experiences can shape personality change, and how we can actively engage in certain activities to shape our personality development journey.

What is ransomware? Ransomware is a form of malware that makes organisations computers or files unusable until they agree to pay an anonymous fee to the attacker usually via a cryptocurrency payment.

For ufologists the US government’s eagerly anticipated report of “unidentified aerial phenomena” may be a major disappointment. It goes further than any previous report in admitting unknowns. But conspiracy theorists will likely dismiss it as a cover-up.

Cyber Security is often linked to state threat actors or criminal cyber gangs trying to harm systems or trying to make financial gains from unsuspecting organisations. But the positive aspects of IT technology are often overlooked, IT technology has the ability to transform individuals life’s, organisations and societies.

The COVID-19 pandemic is both a public health crisis, and a digital technology accelerant. Pre-pandemic, our economic and social activities were done predominantly in cities. We connected and we innovated in these centralised locations.

It took a chance meeting between Cameron van den Dungen, founder of a start-up mattress company, and Madhu Bhaskaran, an engineering professor at RMIT University, to see an opportunity to collaborate and commercialise research.

As Australia’s struggle with the Astra Zeneca vaccination rollout continues in part because of our reluctance to the get the jab, why are we not looking to tobacco, alcohol, confectionary, gambling for guidance? These industries have convinced us to consume their potentially harmful goods and services for years. Their over consumption is regarded as problem behaviour, and the tactics they use may help to inform our government strategy.

Australia is a developed and mature society and is highly dependent on key critical systems at both the national and state level. These systems have become more dominant as the Information Age has developed. We can group these together and describe them as critical infrastructures; infrastructures so vital that if it is incapacity or destroyed it would have a debilitating impact on our defence / national security as well as our daily lives.

Recently, there has been a call by the President of the United States, Joe Biden for greater transparency and co-operation relating to provision of relevant data regarding origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Previously, there was a general dismissal of any indication that the virus leaked from a lab.

What makes a great entrepreneurial city? While many urban planners, policy and business leaders thought in terms of infrastructure, buildings and streets, Jane Jacobs had a very different answer: Empowered people and their vibrant lives.

Queenie Tan is full of financial advice. Whether it is cheap date ideas, buying furniture, saving your first $100,000, doing your tax return or investing in Dogecoin, there is seemingly no topic the 24-year-old Sydney woman can’t confidently tackle.

In this article, the authors (Ahmad and Nazim) outline a vision for a new ethical leadership paradigm that promotes green behavior. They propose that the key is to foster ‘eco-ethical work practices’ – by combining ethical leadership and ‘green’ human resource management. The separation of environmental performance setting and human resource management acts as a barrier to leadership of this type. Ahmad and Nazim argue that the two must be brought together to promote green behaviour in businesses. They provide their top tips for business leaders.

WINTER is just a week away and with it a huge opportunity to reinvigorate the city by keeping public spaces open late. Opening the NGV and State Library and other public libraries until 10pm is a novel idea to create activity without too much hassle.