You might be over the swine flue jokes, but Associate Professor Heath Kelly offers 12 things you may not know about the swine flu pandemic. How serious has the pandemic been?
October, 2009
Letter from...: Aceh Part II: the only Jew in the village
Jakarta may now control their lives but an independent streak still runs through the veins of the Banda Aceh province, with a growing number of writers, discussions of morality and pirated DVDs.
Our quietly spreading Exxon Valdez in the Timor Sea
A WWF trip to study the Timor Sea oil slick has found a disaster of disturbing proportions. Gilly Llewellyn and Bob Gosford write.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Climate change is terrifying
Crikey readers dispute Richard Farmer’s claims of most Tamil asylum seekers being economic migrants not refugees and the scary future we face with climate change.
ANSTO poll goes radioactive, quietly changes no to yes
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation has been caught out trying to manipulate a web poll on its own web site about nuclear power, replacing the “I am against it” option with “It is one of the options”.
Media briefs: Nine’s Top Gear ain’t cheap … The story News Ltd didn’t want you to read
The NT News: the vox pop gift that keeps on giving. Plus, the costs involved in the Nine Network purchasing Top Gear and stop the press: Obama played golf with a woman.
Chairman of Australian Press Council calls for accountability
Ken McKinnon, the departing boss of the Press Council, is criticising the media for failing to live up to its own rhetoric on ethics, privacy and independence. Namely, the Utegate scandal and fake Pauline Hanson nude photos.
UK economists fail to see the recession on the wall
The UK economy is struggling, but not one of the hundreds of the economists in the UK markets picked the 0.40% fall in the UK’s economic growth in the September quarter.
What’s happened to all the Pacific seasonal workers?
If the Rudd government is serious about regional economic integration, it must address the link between labour mobility and development in the islands region, writes Nic Maclellan.
Video of the Day: Public Option Annie: an impromptu insurance industry musical
Protestors from Billionaires for Wealthcare interrupt a meeting of insurance lobbyists America’s Health Insurance Plans, which is doing its darndest to stop health care reform — in song!
Where are all the voices that support immigration?
It’s not just Australia getting worked up over asylum seekers. In the UK, anti-immigration fans get all the press. But, if you believe in free trade, you must also believe in the free movement of labour, writes Alex Massie.
Album review: Martha Wainwright’s Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, A Paris
Martha Wainwright’s new live album sees the folk chanteuse breathe new life into a collection of (mostly obscure) Edith Piaf songs, says Tim Dunlop.
Film review: Into the Shadows
Luke Buckmaster reviews Into the Shadows: a dense and compelling documentary about the beleaguered state of the Australian film industry. Required viewing for those interested in the business side of Australian cinema.
Stutchbury: Stuff the GFC, pay attention to China
Will a lack of adequate infrastructure slow Australia’s economic growth? Australia needs to embark on a new wave of supply-side reform, one that actually includes cost-benefit analysis, writes Michael Stutchbury.
AF447 crash: Air France traps itself with leaked memo
The latest response by Air France management to the June crash of flight AF447 is a joke, says Ben Sandilands: a “strongly worded” memo telling pilots to be “more vigilant” about safety procedures.
Why overweight kids are victims of child abuse
Being fat is one thing, says India Knight: feed your face as much as you want. But if you feed your kids so much, and so poorly, that they develop weight issues, expect them to be taken away from you.
The real-time web: a Brave New World or hideous dystopia?
Sitting at a Weezer concert, next to Twitterati who’ve never heard of the band, where everyone is too busy blogging about the show to actually watch it, Paul Carr wonders whether the real-time web isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Only in Japan: the Windows 7 Whopper
In an bizarre cross-marketing campaign, Burger King in Japan has created a special Whopper to celebrate the release of Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system, featuring seven quarter-pound beef patties.
Australia’s shame: the Timor Sea oil spill
The Timor Sea oil leak is a disaster of not only local, but regional and international proportions, says Bob Gosford. So why has this marine catastrophe barely registered on the Australian radar?
PHOTO GALLERY: Timor Sea oil spill
Shocking photos from a WWF visit research trip to survey the damage caused by a recent oil leak in the Timor Sea, an area containing some of the most iconic and threatened species in the ocean.
Australia’s J.K. Rowling
39-year-old Armidale mother-of-four Rebecca James is setting the literary world alight with the manuscript for her debut young-adult novel Beautiful Malice sparking an international bidding war.
Kids who watched Baby Einstein fail to discover E=mc2
So your kid watched Baby Einstein but still ended up as a tantrum throwing brat? After being threatened with a class-action lawsuit disputing their educational benefits, Disney has admitted defeat and is offering full refunds for Baby Einstein DVDs.
Crikey Competition: Pink ribbon pink-washing
Today is Pink Ribbon Day, and Crikey is on the look-out for the most egregious and shamless examples brands engaging in a spot of “pink washing”. Join us!
The real Battlelines: putting the small ‘l’ back in Liberals
Liberal Senator George Brandis has let fly at his party, saying that for John Howard, the Libs were more conservative than liberal. Glenn Milne reports on the battle of ideas plaguing the Liberal Party.
leaked 
The UK police’s “spotter cards” for protesting troublemakers
Check out the highly confidential “spotter cards” used by British bobbies to identify “troublemakers” at protests — just one part of their controversial “overt surveillance” approach. One “troublemaker” responds here.
