Put an online journalist out of a job, start your own blog tonight. The software is free and bloomin’ easy to use. New blogger Elly Keating explains how.
March, 2010
Daily Proposition: Become a blogger. Everyone’s doing it
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s UK: the life and crimes of Liverpool
The Bulger trial — for the two boys who killed toddler James Bulger — could only have come out of a place such as Liverpool, a place that needed to change, but did not need to die, as it did in the ’80s and ’90s.
Possum: Rudd faces privatisation blight in Queensland
Will a backlash against Anna Bligh threaten to spill across into the federal election arena later this year?
PHOTO GALLERY: Tuck into a bowlful of nostalgia
Breakfast cereal — and its slogans — are a nice little snapshot of the times, from Rice Bubbles being marketed in war rationing times as a good filler, to ‘constipation’ being mentioned four times in a Special K ad.
What about www.MyMP.com.au?
The government had a vote-winner with its My School website, and now plans to roll out My Uni and My Hospital — so why not My MP, tracking perks, pay and participation, suggests Stefanie Balogh.
Mobile manners: text or not to text?
Is it okay to look at a text message during dinner? Or check your email? While most techies say “of course”, Farhad Manjoo explores the changing world of mobile phone etiquette.
Taste-testing breast milk cheese
A New York chef is in hot water for making and serving cheese out of his wife’s breast milk. Naturally, food critic Gael Greene just had to sample some. The verdict? Sweet, soft and perfect with a glass of good Riesling.
Barbie puts a price on skin colour
In a controversial move by Walmart, at least one store was selling black Barbie dolls for nearly half the price of the identical -white Barbie next to it. Perhaps not the best message to send in a country where ‘minority’ babies are now the majority.
Chicks with joysticks: the truth about female gamers
A year-long, in-depth study into female video gamers has revealed some pretty fascinating facts. Business Insider goes inside the mind of the girl gamer.
Jack Marx: We’re all losers if Tracey Grimshaw wins Journo of the Year
A Current Affair’s Tracey Grimshaw has been shortlisted for the prestigious Australian Journalist of the Year gong. Jack Marx rips her “tabloid” interviewing to shreds and says if she wins, the entire journalistic profession will look the fool.
The Coalition doesn’t care about working women
Abbott’s paid parental leave plan may be aimed at winning over women voters, but really it just entrenches existing inequalities for working women. Plus, the Libs don’t care about equal pay, writes Mark Bahnisch.
Death of the “instant book”
There has long been a lucrative market in “instant books” — hastily cobbled together tomes that pop up after major world events. But the real-time nature of the internet has made them obsolete, says Roger Donway.
The evolution of comics
A fascinating essay by English Professor Brian Boyd on the evolution of comics from the late 19th Century into the form and style we’re familiar with today, and the profound influence of pioneers like Richard Outcault and Art Spiegelman.
Google gets ya on yer bike
Cyclists rejoice, Google maps have finally put biking directions on their maps. Sure, it only applies to 150 US cities right now, but it’s a lengthy process to create a bike map. Google explains the hassles of hills, busy intersections and bike lanes.
PHOTO GALLERY: Mongolia’s worst winter in 30 years
Beautiful but depressing images from Mongolia, where locals are enduring temperatures as low as -50 degrees Celsius and livestock are dying in the millions.
ABC chairman: climate reporting just an exercise in group-think
Climate change has become an issue where contrary views are not tolerated and sceptics are mocked in the media. This shouldn’t happen at the ABC, said ABC chairman — and known climate change denier — Maurice Newman, in a speech to journos.
Can India learn to speak in a single tongue?
India has 1.7 billion people and 1600 languages and dialects, but many believe it’s time for a single lingua franca. But which language? Hindi? English? And is it even achievable?
Joye: Bursting the housing bubble myths
Journos and economists are obsessed with creating a housing bubble, writes Christopher Joye, as he debunks some of the common housing market myths. No, Melbourne house prices are not ‘booming’.
Megalogenis: The flawed economics of Abbott’s parental leave policy
Tony Abbott’s new paid parental leave plan is completely self-defeating, explains George Megalogenis: you can’t give everyone a new right, but ask only a tiny fraction of the population to pay for it.
Did Australia’s electoral system cost Avatar the Best Picture Oscar?
This year, the Academy Awards replaced its US-style “first-past-the-post” voting system with Australia’s preferential model. But it may have been the reason Avatar didn’t score the coveted “Best Picture” gong, explains Peter Martin.
Climate scientist: nuclear power can save us
NASA scientist James Hansen says that cap-and-trade schemes are “hokey” and will never be accepted by developing countries. Only a carbon tax and the use of nuclear power will work to battle climate change.
Film review: The Green Zone — feeble, fatigued war flick
The Green Zone, a bombs-n-guns bloke-fest starring Matt Down feels a lot like an exercise in articulating the bleeding obvious. The existence of WMDs was a lie concocted by American “intelligence” to invade Iraq? Duh, writes Luke Buckmaster.
