How ‘hyperselection’ is making modern life efficient, pleasant – and boring

By Jose Yong, Senior Lecturer, School of Social and Health Sciences, James Cook University

It’s difficult to imagine a song like Queen’s 1975 Bohemian Rhapsody topping the charts today. Almost six minutes long, it moves through several radically different musical sections and famously ignores the conventional structure of a pop song. It seems almost designed to break the rules of what a hit single should be.

Fifty years later, popular music seems to have moved in the opposite direction. Once artists and producers figure out what makes a commercial hit – from its length…

Read complete article

~	The failure to stop 9/11 was a catastrophe. But even bigger mistakes were made in its aftermath

~	9/11 anniversary: democracy was not doomed to fail in Afghanistan – the US did not live up to its promises

~	The Twin Towers shaped the Manhattan skyline for decades. Now, it’s shaped by their absence

~	5,500 sheep were stolen from a remote farm. But most farm crime remains hidden

~	Does ‘R U OK? Day’ actually improve people’s mental health?

~	One quarter of Australian kids are ‘developmentally vulnerable’ when they start school. Quality childcare can catch them up

~	How Indigenous Protected Areas became a vital way to protect nature in Australia

~	Why NZ should redraw council boundaries to match our connections to the landscape

~	Your say: week beginning September 7

~	Galileo, Copernicus, Cleansky, IRIS² must work together to secure Europe’s place in the space race