The nominees for the 2009 AFI Awards have been announced, and capping off a bumper year for Australian cinema, it’s an impressive list, says Luke Buckmaster.
October, 2009
Keane: Everything that’s wrong with the Preventive Health scheme
Bernard Keane is not a fan of the government’s proposed National Preventive Health Agency, and it’s not just the Nanny State thing (though there is that): it’s because the bulk of the agency’s funding will be directed to pointless “social marketing campaigns”.
Electoral politics are more important than the Refugee Convention?
The Indonesian Solution is significantly better diplomatically, but significantly worse for refugees, writes Michael O’Keefe. Refugees won’t enter Australian waters and will be stuck at the same refugee processing point as when they left their homes.
Video of the Day: Celebrity vampire reunion
A special Halloween Video of the Day today: The world’s most famous vampires get together to settle their differences. But can the likes of Count Chockula and Angel ever really see eye-to-eye?
50 years of TIME in Australia (and a few less-important islands, too)
TIME magazine is celebrating 50 years of publication in Australia (well, the “South Pacific”, but it pretty much ignores everyone else), including a tribute to its pick of most influential Aussies of the last five decades: Robert Menzies, Germaine Greer, Victor Chang, Eddie Mabo, and Tim Flannery.
Is Twitter protecting celebrities from nasty tweets?
Blogger Mickey Kaus has found something sketchy happening on The Twitter: insulting tweets about celebrity twitterers are disappearing from search results. Grassy knoll territory? Or is the company protecting one of its most valuable asset, the Twitterati?
Shoot first, pay them later: US loses the Afghan drug war
US military are struggling to handle the Afghan drug trade. Although it’s a violation of Afghanistan’s laws, the US military have complied a kill on sight, drug lord hit list. Too bad some Afghan drug lords are on the CIA’s pay roll, writes Jeff Sparrow.
Just don’t search Freebird: Google turns DJ
Google has added playable music clips to its search results, with a new feature dubbed “Music OneBox”. Will the next front of the aggregation wars be fought against the music industry?
US pulls itself out of recession, but hold the champagne
US government figures show a growth rate of 3.5% in the third quarter, indicating that the debilitating US recession is no more. Too bad consumer confidence is down and so is faith in Obama’s ability to handle the economy.
No more Cronulla beach anti-immigration rage
It’s not Kevin Rudd’s immigration policies or public opinion that have changed, just the media’s treatment of the government’s actions. The media has bizarrely flip flopped this week into the morality police.
While we mourn the Balibo 5, who remembers the Saigon 4?
The story of the five Australian journalists killed in Balibo, East Timor, in 1975 has received plenty of attention from politicians and the media. So why does the slaughter another group of Australian journalists, during the Vietnam War’s Tet Offensive, still go untold?
revealed Inside Campaign Obama
Get a peak inside Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign from the man pulling all the strings, campaign manager David Plouffe, with this extract from his new memoir, The Audacity to Win
Shanahan: Rudd’s moral compass has lost its direction
The only reason things aren’t looking worse for Kevin Rudd on asylum seekers is because the Opposition is such as shambles. Both are operating on outdated and flawed immigration ideas, writes Dennis Shanahan.
How global warming could ignite an India-Pakistan war
The always heated relations between India and Pakistan over Kashmir could flare up into a raging blaze if climate change worsens Pakistan’s droughts, as both countries battle for access to the region’s glacial water supply.
80 years since the Great Crash
It’s the 80th anniversary of the Great Wall St Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression. Steve Keen looks at what we’ve learned — if anything — eight decades on.
Another leak in the Timor Sea
Another environmental disaster has hit the Timor Sea, with gas leaking from the Puffin oil field, about 50km from the West Atlas rig that continues to discharge oil.
Breakfast Media Wrap: Ugandan argument over gays – hang them or jail them?
The pick of the morning’s media
Bush wasn’t dumb, just superficial
A new paper analysing George Dubbya Bush’s psyche says it’s a myth he’s stupid — his IQ is in the top 10% of the population — he’s just “intellectually lazy”, and thus prone to make stupid decisions.
The economics of war: 1 soldier = 20 new schools in Afghanistan
Nicholas Kristof crunches the numbers on the war in Afghanistan: the cost of every additional soldier stationed in the country could pay for 20 new schools there. It’s not just value for money, it’s a better investment, too.
shocking 
CIA kept detainees alive to torture them more
A human rights lawyer claims that under the Bush administration, the CIA tortured some terror suspects so badly during interrogation sessions, it had to keep them alive so they could continue being tortured.
Lowbottom High Diaries: Lowbottom Diaries: It’s all about ‘engagement’, we are told
Teachers are not permitted political opinions. Instead we are made to sit before the telescreen shouting IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH, writes our long-suffering school teacher Trevor Diogenes.
Breakfast around the world
What’s on the table for breakfast in Botswana, Egypt, Sri Lanka and El Salvador? Not cornflakes and toast, that’s for sure. Fascinating breakfasts from around the globe to make your Weeties look a tad weak.
How much larger is a coffee bean than a carbon atom?
It’s a question we’ve all pondered at some point (*cough*): just how much larger is a coffee bean than a carbon atom? This great little flash app offers a unique perspective.
Is 30 Rock a rip off of the The Muppet Show?
It may seem like a ridiculous idea, but there are some eerie similarities between the Emmy award winning 30 Rock and Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show that are too close for comfort. Just compare Jenna with Miss Piggy!
My husband’s name is not my name
It’s about time people become open minded about family members having different names, writes Robyn Butler. It shouldn’t matter if you don’t have a middle name, your husband’s name or the same name as your children.
