2 w. ago I taste words. ‘Bob’ is like a milk chocolate Easter egg on my tongue

Monique Todorovski, a clinical administrator, shares her experience of lexical-gustatory synaesthesiaRead more in the way I feel seriesWhen I met my husband and found out his name was Philip, I felt conflicted. I liked him as a person but his name tasted like crunchy green pears and I don’t like green pears at all. My compromise was to call him Phil, which tastes more like stewed pear – sweeter and not as crunchy. It’s just a nicer-tasting name in my mind.Fortunately I was 30 by the time I met Phil, so I had an explanation for my word-taste associations, after years of strange looks from family and friends. I had lexical-gustatory synaesthesia, one of the rarest forms of the phenomenon, in which words or sounds trigger taste sensations. Researchers estimate it affects just 0.2% of the population. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago ‘The hidden engine room’: how amateur historians are powering genealogical research

Wealth of datasets compiled as private passions are now a goldmine for those hunting for their ancestorsThe autumn sunlight is filtering through quietly falling leaves as Louise Cocker stands in front of the gravestone of James Henry Payne and takes a quick photograph. Payne died at the age of 73 in October 1917 and was buried in the Norfolk town of North Walsham, along with his wife Eleanor and son James Edward, who was killed in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917. “Not lost”, reads the simple slab, “but gone before”.This is far from the first Norfolk gravestone Cocker, 53, has photographed – in fact, over 24 years, she has captured almost half a million of them, driving around the county on her weekends and days off from her job in the local Lidl supermarket. As a result, she has produced a remarkable dataset of 615,000 names – many graves contain more than one person – which experts consider one of the most comprehensive photographic records of gravestones and memorials in En...

Politics

3 w. ago Man named as person of interest after rabbi's car firebombed on Christmas Day

Moorabbin Crime Investigation Unit detectives are searching for a suspected arsonist as they continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding a suspicious car fire in St Kilda East

Events

3 w. ago Car bombing prompts police evacuation of rabbi and young family

A rabbi and his young family were evacuated from their home in the early hours of Christmas morning after a firebomb attack, as the world and Australia remain on edge following the Bondi Beach terror shootings.

Events

3 w. ago Car with ‘Happy Chanukah’ sign firebombed in suspected antisemitic attack in Melbourne

Police say the vehicle was set alight in the driveway of a property in St Kilda East in the early hours of Christmas DayGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA car with a “Happy Chanukah” sign has been firebombed in a Melbourne suburb in the early hours of Christmas morning.The suspected antisemitic incident comes less than two weeks after the terror attack that targeted Jews celebrating the holiday of Hanukah at Sydney’s Bondi beach and claimed 15 lives. Continue reading...

Events

last month Epstein's depraved handbook revealing he would 'make sure' girls were underage exposed in files

A set of files from 2019 include an interview with a person whose name is redacted includes the disturbing passage showing how determined Epstein was to procure new victims.

Politics