Seven won the night, but it was another “so what” evening. It’s summer.
January, 2010
Media briefs: NY Times to charge for content … Air NZ mauled for ‘Cougar’ ad
The NY Times has joined in again the paywall battle, with news that its paywall will return in coming weeks. Air New Zealand takes the heat from male rape victims over its ‘Cougar’ ads and other tidbits and scoop from the mediaverse.
leaked Kosky: Why I quit
Read the email Victorian Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky sent to caucus colleagues at 11am today, announcing she had quit politics.
Jasper and Abby and the Royal Children’s Hospital kerfuffle
Kevin Rudd and Rhys Andrew Muldoon launched their book about Kevin Rudd’s Pets in Melbourne today, at an event that was simultaneously hilarious and a little disturbing. First Dog on the Moon was there.
Political snippets: A new alcohol tax? I’ll drink to that!
The alcohol taxation gets silly, the Australian Education Union is off with the fairies, plus shock revelations that Aussies don’t want to pay more tax and sex sells news.
Mungo MacCallum: Abbott’s cunning stunt is just a distraction
Tony Abbott’s planned private member’s Bill to override Queensland’s Wild Rivers legislation may be, as his opponents claim, a political stunt, but they can hardly deny that it’s a bloody good one.
China isn’t our biggest hacker threat
When Google announced last week that it was targeted by a cyber attack originating from China it certainly got media attention. But transnational cyber attacks are widespread, and China isn’t necessarily Australia’s biggest problem.
Daily Proposition: A book made of magazines
The first in our ‘Daily Proposition’ series of suggestions of fun things for the night ahead. Tonight, curl up on a couch with a glass of wine and a possible new favourite book, The Best American Magazine Writing 2009.
Armstrong and Rann, the Tour Down Under funder
With eight weeks to go to the next election, SA Premier Mike Rann is doing his best to distract the South Australia masses with a party that runs right up to election day, also known as the cycling Tour Down Under.
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: A high-profile CEO loses their lustre
Which high-profile bank CEO, who has lived a charmed corporate life, is starting to lose some of that well-promoted and developed lustre? Plus, its not only temporary skilled worker numbers that are down.
Crikey Says: The ickiness of a media managed miracle baby rescue
What’s wrong with this footage of Seven’s Mike Amor scrabbling to lift a dehydrated and dazed baby from the rubble of Haiti? And where exactly do the family members fit into a media managed miracle rescue?
Stott Despoja: Will voters buy Abbott as a greenie?
Tony Abbott is trying to reinvent himself as an eco warrior, shaking his fists over the Murray-Darling Basin and whaling. But is anyone really buying such a rusted-on member of the Right as a tree-hugger? asks Natasha Stott Despoja.
Leave the poor (well, rich…) bankers alone!
It’s time for the commoners to get over the whole Wall Street bankers earning bajillions in bonuses issue, writes Steven Pearlstein. If we’re going to get mad at bankers, we need to be mad at rock stars and athletes as well.
Was booze the motivation behind human civilisation?
Man didn’t turn from hunting and gathering to agriculture for bread or a desire to settle down — he did it out of a desire to make more and higher quality beer, according to new research. Nice to see we’ve evolved so far over the past 10,000-odd years.
PHOTO GALLERY: Dressing down the Golden Globes’ red carpet
Sequins, frilly dresses and umbrellas, oh my! It may be raining at LA’s Golden Globes ceremony, but Gawker reigns over the pithy insults about celebs wearing borrowed dresses and diamonds.
German government: Ditch Internet Explorer
Berlin has issued a statement recommending all German internet users — that’s 76% of the country’s 82m people — stop using Microsoft’s default Internet Explorer browser, following a report that it was a vulnerability in IE that allowed Chinese hackers to attack Google.
How immigants to Italy are enslaved by the mafia
Impoverished African and Eastern European immigrants to Italy are being trapped into a mafia-controlled employment racket that sees them working 10-14-hour days for $3 an hour.
graph pr0n 
From chronic disease to the fall of the US$: how the whole world is connected
An amazing interactive look from the World Economic Forum at how intertwined all the major world risks in 2010 are. From the cost and likelihood of technological errors to environmental disasters, see the real world examples of cause and effect.
Newspaper articles are too long
Reason #1,494,3428 newspapers are dying: their articles are too. damn. long. says Michael Kinsley. Not only could papers save money by printing fewer words, their readers might be a bit less bored, too.
Why the Vatican’s newspaper has embraced pop culture
The semi-official newspaper of the Vatican, L’Osservatore Romano, seems to spend more time writing about The Simpsons and Harry Potter than Catholicism these days. Is it a shameless cash grab, or is the Pope hipper than everyone thinks?
Why Avatar makes white people feel good
From Dances with Wolves to Pocahontas, District 9 and Avatar, that old white guilt/racism fantasy pervades many a blockbuster film. When can we get over the guilt and start thinking about race in a new way? asks Annalee Newitz.
The case against school veggie gardens
Memo, Stephanie Alexander: setting up veggie patches in poor schools may teach kids what organic rocket tastes like, but it won’t teach them to read or help them get a job. More algebra, less arugula says Caitlin Flanagan.
graph pr0n 
The evolution of Crayola colours, 1903-2010
An amazing chart tracking Crayola’s “crayon chronology” — from a modest eight colours in 1903 to the current 120-colour lineup. Was there ever really a world without essential shades like Razzmatazz, Piggy Pink and Screamin’ Green?
What’s your favourite political childhood memory?
Whether it be your childhood crush on Bob Hawke, a poem penned in primary school for Gough Whitlam or a secret fondness for John Howard, join in the discussion at Larvartus Prodeo about your earliest political memory.
