In a moving keynote lecture read by his friend Tony Robinson, author and Alzheimer’s sufferer Terry Pratchett makes a plea for the legalisation of euthanasia.
February, 2010
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: no longer the best Sydney broadcaster?
One ABC broadcaster needs to pick up his game, warns a tipster. Plus, what’s the real story behind the political donations return in Victoria?
Why Avatar’s “box office success” is bull
Avatar’s claim to be “highest-grossing film of all time” is only correct if you don’t take into account ticket price inflation, foreign currency fluctuations and surcharges on 3-D movie screens. Otherwise, it wouldn’t even make the top 10.
Inside the gun markets of Pakistan
Vice journalist Suroosh Alvi visits “the most dangerous place in the world” — a massive open-air gun market in Pakistan’s tribal area, where members of the Taliban and jihadists go to buy their firearms.
Terry Pratchett: Let me die in peace
Author and Alzheimer’s sufferer Terry Pratchett makes his case for legalising euthanasia: “If I knew that I could die, I would live.”
How the New York Times lost Gen Y
The publisher of popular New York blog Gothamist, Jake Dobkin, has penned a stinging take-down of the NYT, explaining why its “slavish devotion” to traditional journalism has lost it the local yoof market to sites like his.
Dear journalists: stop working for free
Journalists are just speeding up their own demise by doing unpaid or underpaid work, says media veteran Alan Mutter in a call-out for all writers to stop working for free.
WSJ: The RBA is dancing to China’s tune
The RBA’s decision to keep rates steady is hardly a surprise, says the Wall Street Journal: it was just reacting to the movements of our real economic overlord, China.
Pascoe: How we got the RBA rates decision wrong
Fairfax’s Michael Pascoe issues a mea culpa on how and why he (and just about every other business journalist in Australia) incorrectly predicted that the RBA would raise rates yesterday.
Google unveils a potential iPad killer 
Deveny: The Tony Abbott Delusion
Why are people so shocked that a conservative, right-wing Catholic doesn’t believe in sex before marriage? asks Catherine Deveny. At least he’s being honest.
Reflections from the retiring editor of the Medical Journal of Australia
After many years at the helm of the Medical Journal of Australia, Dr Martin Van Der Weyden is retiring. He shares reflections on life in the hot seat with Melissa Sweet.
revealed Fitzgibbon’s $150k gift from Helen Liu
Juicy exclusive from the SMAge today: New documents reveal former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon did receive money from businesswoman Helen Liu — about $150,000 — and Julia Gillard knew.
The Pentagon’s $56b “Black Budget”
Don your tin-foil hats: the US Defence Dept has released its new $708 billion budget — with $56 billion earmarked simply for “classified programs”, the organisation’s largest “black budget” ever. So where is it all going?
Ripping the guts out of Abbott’s climate change policy
The pundits in the Australian media have descended like vultures this morning to tear into Tony Abbott’s new climate change policy.
How the US military is being destroyed by hip hop and blogging
The ‘stop-loss’ US military initiative — where Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans are kept in “involuntary servitude” — is being robustly argued on rap songs and blogs. Overland examines the trouble brewing within the ranks.
must read 
Haiti: every horror story has a human face
Much of the media coverage has slowed, but the after effects of the Haiti earthquake are still being dealt with in Port-au-Prince. Jon Lee Anderson explains the plight of Nadia François, a young woman attempting to gain aid for her community.
How cookies are costing you cold hard cash
Did you know that, thanks to web cookies, online retailers can charge you a different price to what they charge other people. Does your computer history indicate you’re wealthy? Expect an increased price. Welcome to ‘dynamic pricing’.
RBA’s holding pattern stumps pundits, punters: no rates rise
The Reserve Bank has defied the pundits’ predictions, leaving rates unchanged at 3.75% at today’s board meeting, but has warned that if the economy continues to grow, then rates will go up again.
rumour 
iPad 2.0 just months away?
Apparently Apple is already working on a new, bigger, cleverer version of the iPad to be released within a year. And this one is expected to be less like an oversized iPhone, more like a MacBook replacement.
VIDEO: Forget the iPad: projection touchscreens are coming
Regular touchscreens may be the latest fad in computers and mobile phones, but here’s some tech really worth getting excited over: a projection touchscreen that can work on any surface.
Blowing a Raspberry at Hollywood
Throughout the hullabaloo of the annual film awards season, one ceremony maintains a proud history of spotlighting the worst Hollywood has to offer: the Razzies. Luke Buckmaster surveys the field.
Washington Post / Tuesday, 2 February 2010
The Washington Post looks at how an email by a conservative blogger at 5am can run through the blogosphere, the beltway and the parties, and end up being broadcast to Tea Partiers across the nation by Rush Limbaugh in the very same day.