Happy Australia Day.
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Australia Day
Happy Australia Day.
Category: News and events
News and current affairs
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Quiz question
Quiz question for you. No cheating, leave your answer in the comments. Before 11th September 2001, how many buildings were in the World Trade Centre in New York City? And what happened to them?
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Name that flag
Red flag, white crescent and star. Name it. Wednesday lunchtime. The traffic lights weren’t changing. Two motorcycle cops zoomed up, lights flashing, shouting instructions, gesticulating and giving a blast from their sirens to gain attention. “You! Do your hook turn! You wait there!” We lunchtime pedestrians looked on, bemused. Intersection cleared, traffic and people waiting. ... [More]
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Big crowd
A huge crowd for the demonstration against the Federal Government’s industrial relations reform package in the city today. Work commitments meant I couldn’t join in, but I did pass nearby and saw all the people. This is the crowd outside Flinders Street Station at 9:50am, as snapped by the Omni webcam. In the nearby arcades, ... [More]
Remembrance Day at Flinders Street Station, 11am this morning. Two police stop the traffic. The crowd stops moving, and grows silent. A bugler plays The Last Post. A minute’s silence. Then the Rouse. A simple, yet moving commemoration for the war dead. Update 11/11/2013 — Revised pics, and fixed video.
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Halloween
There was a time in my not too distant past when the very prospect of kids Trick or Treating on Halloween would have had me angrily shouting about American cultural imperialism. Maybe I’m mellowing. This past weekend the Bentleigh Shopping Centre organised a Halloween dress-up. Many participated, including my own children (though I didn’t organise ... [More]
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Watch your step
Confirmed geek telecommunications specialist David Mery was arrested at Southwark tube station in London. What had he done? Among other things, he’d failed to look at police on the way into the station, was wearing a jacket they decided was ‘too warm for the season’, had a bulky rucksack, and two other men entered the ... [More]
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Hurricane red tape
The following is from a friend who has a relative who is a firefighter helping in the hurricane zone. Re-posted with permission. FEMA is the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. I find it rather frightening that they should be showing such obvious ineptitude dealing with the disaster. I just got off the phone with ****. ... [More]
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Fiddling with formats
After trying to stuff the Business section into its main News pages, and apparently getting flayed for it, The Age has now tried to stuff the Metro section in there instead. They say that Metro readers were sick of looking through the Sport section to find it. That’s probably true, but will they be any ... [More]
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Innocence lost
Right now, innocence is being taken by faceless government bureaucrats. The Age: Back at school after being illegally detained Immigration officers arrived unannounced at Stanmore Public School in March and removed Ian Hwang, then 11, and his six-year-old Australian-born sister Janey, after their Korean mother was arrested arriving at Sydney Airport with a false passport. ... [More]
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Tragic anniversary
Flashback to ten years ago: Srebrenica massacre. See also coverage on Google News.
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This is London
Helping to make stoicism the media’s most over-used word of the week, Londoners continue to show their defiance against terrorism: I’ve been asked several times by members of the public whether I’m scared to drive my train now. I answer that we can’t allow ourselves to be beaten. — a District line tube driver A ... [More]
Reaction to the London bombings: US President George Bush told reporters at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles that “the war on terror goes on.” It occurs to me that if one is to wage a war on terror, it could do with not playing second fiddle to the war in Iraq. While Saddam was a ... [More]
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London
London’s one of my favourite cities, which makes today’s events all the more shocking. Obviously it’s too early to know the cause with any certainty, but with multiple blasts around London, it does look like terrorism. Londoners, the world is watching, and I’m sure I’m not alone in sending our best wishes.
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Priorities
“Any chance of a VB? How are the Cats going?” — Freed Iraq hostage Douglas Wood, on his release.
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Headlines
From the scrolling news sign above Young & Jackson’s… Seven eh? Oh dear. Oh well that’s not as bad as 60. Wow. Do they know which seven? Only seven? Maybe they should stay home. Actually it’s five. I think I might have mentioned this before, but I always thought it looked funny when I had ... [More]