News and current affairs
Passchendaele This report from last night’s ABC TV news is well worth watching: Western Australian students visiting Passchendaele, and taking on the roles of real WW1 soldiers for a day. The emotional moment in the story is as the connection with their forebears is really nailed, when late in the day, they learn of “their” ... [More]
Tragic events in Boston last week. Being quite interested in language, a couple of things about the use of words caught my eye as events unfolded. Active shooter This is something I’ve noticed before, during all-too-often incidents in the US: the term they now use is “active shooter”. In this case it was at MIT, ... [More]
In looking through my late father’s papers, I found the following, which he wrote about an incident on Rupert Murdoch’s Sydney Daily Mirror in the mid-1960s. I found it fascinating in light of the News Of The World controversy that was uncovered during 2011, though of course one should not jump to conclusions about the ... [More]
The new Pope Francis is known for using public transport. Perhaps out of courtesy to the pontiff it’s time to update the signs? (Sources: pic, font)
I don’t read The Age in paper form everyday, but when I do, it’s either on the weekend where I can spread out as much as I like (so broadsheet is fine, though the smaller format of the supplements is fine too), or on weekdays on the train, where the broadsheet format is extremely awkward ... [More]
Over the past 24 hours, seeing the stories of the asteroid close-call and the meteor falling in Russia, it’s been a bit like those scenes in Doctor Who where they have a news bulletin about the latest alien invasion.
Happy Australia Day. While I cringe at the “bogan display” in the supermarket selling Australian flag caps, t-shirts, capes, stubby-holders and so on, I quite like the (in comparison understated) flags that have appeared on the trams during the week. My recollection growing up is of small flags in this position on the W-class trams, ... [More]
Having a night in. Just noticed my new year’s resolutions from two years ago — given I’m not really in the mood to write a new set, let’s review these old ones, shall we? Teach my kids chess — I did have one go at this, but didn’t push it. Should try again. Try to ... [More]
Just after I moved to my current address, I noted that some of the local kids went Trick Or Treating for Halloween. It’s been the same in subsequent years, and I fully expect the same next week. I’ve decided that while I’m not into cultural imperialism and the adaption of American traditions to Australia, this ... [More]
I was passing Bentleigh RSL in early March when I noticed a new sculpture being installed out the front. (The bloke installing looks a tad grumpy…) Nearby on a truck were some more of the figures, ready for installation. The completed sculpture nicely captures representations of all the services. They went with songs to the ... [More]
Very funny mining video spoof… …so cutting that when Mumbrella re-posted it, they got legal threats from coal company Xstrata. They demand that Mumbrella takes the video off Youtube, to which Mumbrella points out: Your note suggests you may misunderstand who has published the video to which you refer. Your demand that the video is ... [More]
Go to Google News (preferably in an anonymous browser window so it’s not skewed towards your usual searches — though it will detect your location/country). Search for your surname. Who comes up top? For me it’s Immigration Minister Chris Bowen. Related: Google’s top ten Daniels