Good Weekend

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Rise of the plyscrapers

An artist’s impression of London’s skyline with the proposed “Toothpick”: “Timber has a very important place in the ...

Timber buildings are reaching towards the skies, thanks to breakthroughs in super-strong wood.

Real to reel

Australian artist Lynette Wallworth.

Australian artist Lynette Wallworth deals with topics including global warming and refugees in unexpected ways.

Showcase: Mirka Mora

Mirka Mora in her studio wearing a Gorman dress featuring her work Naked Angel.

Why translating the Melbourne icon's artwork onto cloth made designer Lisa Gorman nervous.

Tight squeeze

Sydney architect Brad Swartz renovated his 27-square-metre apartment with space-defying results.

Take a tour of the tiny, as rising prices and shrinking space force a rethink of the great Australian home-owning dream.

Flight for life

Drone with first aid kit.

Specially adapted drones are offering new hope to organ transplant recipients.

Ricky Gervais: back to the office

Ricky Gervais at the world premiere of <i>David Brent: Life on the Road</i> in London.

Ricky Gervais is reviving his most cringe-inducing character, David Brent, to expose the ugliness of modern-day bullying and the foibles of older men.

Doin' time

Patrick and Mel Jacob at their Blue Mountains home this month: “I’d fallen head over heels in love with his gentleness,” ...

A suburban dad’s poor decisions lead him to jail. How does his incredulous wife – and mother to his two children – adjust to the stiff sentence?

Showcase: the stair climber

Mark Bourne climbing the stairs of Sydney Tower: his aerobic capacity has been likened to that of a Tour de France cyclist.

Considering racing up the 1500-plus steps of Sydney Tower, or Eureka Tower? Canberra's Mark Bourne has some advice.

East to west

Mourners at the funeral of a man killed in the Istanbul airport attack in June.

Terrorism, an influx of refugees and a leader more sympathetic to Islam are combining to create new tensions in Turkey – and an ancient neighbourhood in Istanbul.

The scientist at sea

Church on the CSIRO research voyage in May. The instruments behind him collect water samples and other information.

Described as the "Don Bradman of sea-level science", John Church's sacking from the CSIRO left many observers gobsmacked. Can we really afford to let him go?

Trumptown, USA

Donald Trump

Breakfast with birthers, an afternoon flag-burning, and lots of hateful Hillary masks. Welcome to the circus.

Burden of care

Vanessa Browne with her 22-year-old son Alex, who has Sotos syndrome and requires constant care.

People with intellectual disabilities are a silent minority, often forgotten by a society that finds it too easy to look the other way. Yet their parents face a lifetime commitment.

The unstoppable Will Power

Will Power pointer

Toowoomba outsider Will Power had to “claw all the way” to become IndyCar world champion in 2014. He doesn’t care if he’s seen as arrogant and cold – but there are some things that are just too hard for him to talk about.

Murder, she wrote

'She's the only writer for whom we've ever concluded a deal in Montenegro': Liane Moriarty.

She's sold six million books about the darker side of suburban life. So why is Liane Moriarty the most successful Australian author you've never heard of?

Now it's my turn

Photos of the Camerons nearly always show them in close physical contact. “We love each other more than ever,” says David.

Until just a few years ago, Samantha Cameron was a high-flying businesswoman earning three times her husband David's salary as Britain's PM. Now that she's left Downing Street, what's next?

A man of one's own

<i>Illustration by Sam Bennett</i>

As sex enters the lives of a teenager and her mother, close bonds are tested and new intimacies formed in unexpected ways.

Within these walls

Hazara refugees from Afghanistan in one of Adele Dumont’s English classes in Auburn, western Sydney.

As an English teacher working at an immigration detention centre, being a 20-something single woman with all-male classes wasn’t the most difficult thing about the job, recalls Adele Dumont.

The freedom fighter who didn't

Williams in the distinctive cap of the French Foreign Legion in Nimes, 2011. He passed the notoriously tough training ...

Jamie Williams decided to take off overseas to fight with Kurdish guerillas in Syria against Islamic State. The Australian government had a different idea.

Race to the edge

Dutee Chand, a sprinter who didn't qualify to compete as a woman due to the presence of high testosterone levels.

Dutee Chand was born a woman, raised as a woman and identifies as a woman. But winning a gold medal led to a legal challenge – and humiliating "gender verification" tests.

The man who made Disney sing again

Alan Menken’s Disney credits include <i>Pocahontas</i>, <i>Aladdin</i>, <i>The Little Mermaid</i>, <i>Beauty and the ...

Alan Menken was instrumental in ushering in a golden age for Disney when he co-composed the songs for 1989's The Little Mermaid. And it all began with a singing, man-eating plant …

Hell Rider

Cody Heffernan clings on to Long Prong, a bull bred by his brother, Brad.

Cody Heffernan has been stomped on, headbutted and thrown like a rag doll by one-tonne bulls. Yet, Heffernan insists, he finds serious beauty in riding these beasts.

Beyond the Hedge

Illustration by Tavis Coburn/The New York Times (supplied image, NO ARCHIVING) GW - July 9 : The Fall of China's Hedge ...

Xu Xiang's secretive trading style helped him achieve staggering returns on the Chinese sharemarket, even as the country's boom turned to bust. Then his extraordinary luck ran out.

Under Pressure

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An international ranking puts Australia's schools in the middle of the pack, way behind many Asian regions – and Finland. But could striving to reach the top signal "the end of joy" for our kids?

The Noongar Warriors

Noongar thumbnail

These Indigenous people from the south-west could field their own AFL team. How did they get to be so good?

Happy pampers

Friends celebrate Jarrah O'Connor's eighth birthday party: the "crazy-popular" trend for pampering at girls' parties ...

Pedicures have replaced pass-the-parcel, high teas trump hide-and-seek: these days, children's birthday parties pump to a very different beat.

The safe room

Dr Alex Wodak, right, and Matt Noffs, pictured here with The Schielestrasse centre's Gabi Becker, have embarked on a ...

In some European cities, drug dealers and addicts are watched over by the police at legal consumption rooms. Could Australia's ice epidemic be contained if we did the same?

The Undoing of Slater and Gordon

Under Andrew Grech's leadership, Slater & Gordon went from taking on the big end of town to being the big end of town. ...

Too big to fail? Andrew Grech transformed an Australian law firm into a sharemarket-listed behemoth - only to see it crash and burn.

Woman on Top

"There is good and bad in ageing. Each age you become reveals a new person you've become."

A trailblazer for feminist heroines on TV and film, Helen Mirren loves shameless women - and Kim Kardashian's butt.

Two Of Us

Modern Guru

Danny Katz

Kicking up a stink

My colleague sprays on deodorant at his desk. How do I tell him to do it in private?

Adult Education

Benjamin Law

A sorry situation

We can say, "Sorry, my house is a mess" – but can't apologise for stuff that matters.

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