Mystery and movement: doing more with dominoes

John Gough explains how to turn an ordinary set of dominoes into games of mystery, movement and strategy.

Investigation of mystery in ecological knowing

The focus of this thesis is the internal incoherence of contemporary western understandings of ecology. Ecology suggests that everything within our world is interrelated. As this includes the generation of human knowing, our knowing of ecology and the structure and functioning of the world is called into question. An argument is developed which considers ecological knowing as belief, and specifically as a type of religious belief.

The pyjama girl mystery : a true story of murder, obsession and lies

The pyjama girl was an unknown woman, found dumped by a road nesrl Albury in 1934. She had been brutally murdered. Who was she, and who killed her, become Australia's great unsolved crime for decades. The body was preserved in formalin, her image circulated around the world. The mystery fascinated the nation and, for some, became an obsession. Ten years later, the body was identified and a man was convicted of her manslaughter. The case, it seemed, was neatlty solved. But this 'solution', advanced by police, accepted by the courts and the media, and since repeated endlessly, was a lie. Behind the lie is a troubling story of murder and obsession, of a wild conspiracy theory, of police corruption and a miscarriage of justice, and of a real killing which floated free from reality and became a myth.

The pyjama girl mystery

An investigation into the pyjama girl mystery

John Mystery and the Australian book trade

The John Mystery books are a collection of Australian children's books and ephemera produced by a little known publishing dynamo, Lester Sinclair, in the middle of the twentieth century. I identify factors which operated to position these items as forgotten elements of Australian literary history. After contextualizing the John Mystery brand of children's books, I suggest how children's literature scholars may find potential resources in the Children's Literature Collection and other heritage collections of the State Library of Victoria.

A mystery to the medical world : Florence Nightingale, Rosendo Salvado and the risk of civilisation

In 1860 Florence Nightingale conducted a study on the mortality rates of indigenous children attending native colonial schools across the British Empire. Her study was driven by the question: ‘Can we civilise the natives without killing them?’ One colonial school that participated in the survey was New Norcia Benedictine mission in Western Australia. When Rosendo Salvado, the mission’s superintendent, responded, he drew on his daily encounters with the Yuat people, his statistics on the mission residents and his Benedictine philosophy of civilisation and conversion of colonised peoples. The correspondence between Salvado and Nightingale took place in the climate of intense debates about Aboriginal health, colonisation and extinction in Britain and the colonies. While many settlers and colonial observers understood Aboriginal depopulation to be the result of either the vices and diseases of unprincipled Europeans or an unstoppable destiny, whether Divine Providence or natural selection, Nightingale and Salvado shared a belief in practical solutions to what they understood to be a practical problem. Their collaboration is an example of the humanitarian opposition to the racial pessimism of Social Darwinism. They both sought to use the recently influential intellectual discipline of social statistics to support their conviction that Aborigines, if patiently and carefully handled, would survive the admittedly risky process of civilisation.

Tales of mystery and the mundane: children’s books in 2013

Part of a commissioned series reviewing notable cultural productions of 2013

Possessed by the beast: subjectivity and agency in pictures in the dark and foxspell

The first book to assess critically mystery in children's literature, this collection charts a development from religious mystery through rationally solved detective fictions to insoluble supernatural and horror mysteries. Written by internationally recognised scholars in the field, these thirteen original essays offer challenging and innovative readings of both classic and popular mysteries for children. This volume will be essential and stimulating reading for anyone with an interest in children's literature or in mystery fiction.

Consumers' health perceptions of three types of milk: a survey in Australia

A survey was conducted among 345 randomly selected shoppers in Melbourne, Australia, to identify their perceptions of the healthiness of whole milk, reduced fat milk and soy milk and to investigate demographic influences on health perceptions and types of milk consumption. The survey revealed major differences in shoppers' perceptions of the three types of milk along the themes of bone health, weight control, disease prevention, and, allergy and disease causation. Generally whole milk was perceived more negatively than soy or reduced fat milk. There were few demographic differences in the shoppers' perceptions of the three products. Reported consumption of reduced fat milk was more frequent among women and elderly people, and whole milk consumption was positively related to parenthood. The findings suggest that previous marketing and education campaigns have been effective but the widespread uncertainty and erroneous beliefs about milk products suggest that many consumers have not assimilated new findings about milk products. This represents a challenge for industry and public health practitioners.

Consumers` sensory and nutritional perceptions of three types of milk

Objective: To identify consumer perceptions of whole milk, reduced-fat milk and soy milk, and to investigate demographic influences on perceptions and types of milk consumption.

Design and setting: Questionnaires covering nutritional and sensory perceptions of three types of milk.

Subjects: Three hundred and sixty-one randomly selected shoppers in Melbourne, Australia.

Results: Generally, respondents held positive perceptions about milk. Milk was considered as having good sensory properties, providing a good source of nutrients, and being a convenient and safe product. However, despite these findings, misperceptions and unawareness about the nutrient content of milk were prevalent. Negative perceptions were most common for whole milk and were mostly related to its perceived high fat, cholesterol and energy contents. Soy milk received lower ratings on sensory quality and convenience than dairy milk. There were few sociodemographic differences in consumers' perceptions. Although reduced-fat milk consumption was more frequent among elderly people and type of milk consumption was related to parenthood, no other significant effects of demographic variables were found on the consumption of specific milk types.

Conclusion: Although positive perceptions were common, negative perceptions and misperceptions appear to be prevalent, presenting a challenge for nutrition education. Sociodemographic factors were not shown to be important predictors of perceptions and type of milk consumption.