“Monopoly: Revolution Edition” is slick and round instead of dull and square, with debit cards and an ATM instead of paper money and a banker, clear plastic representations of the classic tokens (bye-bye, little boot!), and clips of popular songs (like Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day,” and Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love”) that play after certain actions.

Now measurements from a deep-water buoy moored off the Oregon coast since the mid-1970s indicate that the “100-year” waves – the monster waves with a 1 per cent chance of occurring in any given year – could be 40 per cent larger than previous estimates, at 14 metres high.

Recent research shows that Gen Xers are yet to “participate” in classical music, despite the fact many are now middle-aged, and this is a concerning trend for classical composers.

In the meantime, classical musicians essentially need to be in the business of adult education if they are to keep their audience and their livelihood. They must convince grown people with little or no knowledge of Bach and Brahms and Messiaen why these composers should matter to their daily lives.

There’s been plenty of rain (and humidity) in Sydney these last few days.

Reading worked best, reducing stress levels by 68 per cent, said cognitive neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis. Subjects only needed to read, silently, for six minutes to slow down the heart rate and ease tension in the muscles, he found. In fact it got subjects to stress levels lower than before they started.

Researchers at the University of Bristol said that the superior intelligence of cat owners could in no way be attributed to their famously cunning and selfish pets. Rather, better educated people tended to work longer hours and chose a pet that fitted in with their lifestyle. Unlike dogs, cats do not need walks and cope with little human company.

On the eve of Chinese New Year – being the year of the Tiger – Design Federation is hosting a gathering to mark its third anniversary in the Australian design community, this Friday, 12 February, at theclub, 33 Bayswater Road, Kings Cross, Sydney, from 7pm.

Enjoy an evening of wine, music, and the work of upwards of 50 Australian designers and artists.

Our future may be uncertain and destined to be very short and feature lots of boiling lava blasts and homicidal angels, but one thing is certain: the end-of-the-world genre is currently booming like a nuked metropolis, and so we all might as well get in on the action.