The Transit Lounge

A joint project between the National Geographic Channel and Channel 4 has used advanced high definition cameras to capture animals and embryos during pregnancy and birth. They used infrared and 4-D scanning techniques, as well as realistic computer-generated models. We thought this was sufficiently incredible to pass onto you to enjoy the magic that is conception, gestation and birth.

cubeme.com/blog/2009/12/23/in-utero-images-glimpse-animals-inside-the-womb/

Alistair Macrae

Our Christmas stockings are sometimes filled with not particularly useful gifts. A foot spa anyone? Novelty tie for Dad? Electric snow cone maker for the kids?

This Christmas, I would like our elected representatives in Canberra to give all Australians a really useful gift; A Human Rights Act. This is legislation to protect the human rights of all people in our community, and most importantly to give dignity and respect to the most vulnerable and marginalised among us.

Australia is the last major democracy without comprehensive human rights protection. A Human Rights Act, debated and passed by our national Parliament, could provide protection for the rights and freedoms which Australia has already agreed to protect through United Nations human rights treaties and conventions.

The Parliament of World Religions, held December 3-9, 2009 in Melbourne, Australia invited all people of faith, spirit and goodwill to encounter the vast and rich diversity of the world's religious and spiritual traditions. Alison Atkinson-Phillips attended the parliament and documented what she saw below.

Amy Goodhew

Last year in Australia 812 people donated their kidneys. This year 1,298 people are on the waiting list for kidneys. That’s 486 people who spend every day waiting and hoping and praying that a kidney may become available, but never receive the call. Clearly, it’s time Australia had a conversation about organ donation.

Oddly enough, while 90 per cent of people in Australia are supportive of organ donation we still don’t have enough donors to save the people who need them.

Penelope Monger

Beverley Paine was identified as ‘bright’ and ‘gifted’ as a child. She inhabited a world where an A- was considered a personal failure and where no one took the time to help her identify her “true strengths”. Years later, Beverley is circumspect about her ‘giftedness’ and is still trying to overcome the damage caused by the label.