After a day of phone calls, texts and emails about Air NZ’s latest viral ad campaign, maybe this blog should help spread the virus. But will it win more customers than it alienates? asks Ben Sandilands.
October, 2010
Washington Post pulls Where’s Waldo? parody
Cartoonist Wiley Miller of Non Sequitur fame is reportedly livid about the Washington Post’s decision to pull a Where’s Waldo? parody on the grounds that it might offend Muslim readers. It is the latest cartoon to fall victim of Muhammedgate, reports Andrew Alexander.
Odd things in the Green vote
Where the Greens candidates sit on the ballot paper has an impact on the size of the vote they receive, beyond a standard donkey vote. The closer to the top of the ballot paper, the bigger the swing to the Greens candidate. Possum Comitatus explains.
They go loco: the US senate’s 15 craziest candidates
With a smattering of crazy in the coconut candidates, John Avlon believes the 2010 midterms marks the “year of the Wingnut.” Avlon takes on the tricky task of measuring levels of sanity and presents his list of the 15 nuttiest senate candidate nut bags.
Grattan: Abbott turns down the volume, Pyne cranks it back up
Just as Tony Abbott was toning down the vitriol of his slings at Julia Gillard in the wake of last week’s Afghanistan debacle, along came Christopher Pyne to reignite the flames. It was another gob smacking outburst, writes Michelle Grattan.
Abbott gets hit with Afghanistan flak
The latest Newspoll shows Tony Abbott’s approval ratings down 9%. Why? The Afghanistan issue — where he didn’t visit troops because he feared jetlag — reflected poorly in the polls and he might need to rethink the call for more Aussie troops.
Newspoll: still 50-50
The latest Newspoll shows the parties still araldited together on 50-50 with the two party preferred. But Tony Abbott’s person ratings have dropped a whopping 9 points, says William Bowe.
The climate sceptic salesmen
The science might not agree with them, but climate sceptics have managed to grab a giant chunk of the media spotlight. It may be just a handful of people but they scream louder than most and are effective at getting their views heard.
PHOTO GALLERY 
The trapped Chilean miners
Thirty-three Chilean miners remain entrapped underground, where they’ve been stuck since a mine collapse on August 5. These stunning photos show their families making contact with them above ground and grainy photos of miners themselves.
Sexy Times in India
Sex sells, but the increasing sexification of the Times of India newspaper is destroying its traditional readership. Is the media landscape so saturated in India that overtly raunchy news is the only way to sell a paper?
lol 
Things I learnt while unemployed
Just because there is a recession, doesn’t mean your resume can’t be filled up with interesting and useful skills. Like “developed and implemented a strategy to hide employment status from potential dates.” Critical for the selection criteria, surely.
Mad Men isn’t sexist, just accurate
Don’t get angry at Betty Draper’s weak housewife character: Mad Men is the most feminist show on television because it accurately portrays how women were treated without a rose-tinted history, writes Stephanie Coontz.
Lachlan Murdoch hit for six as IPL bowls out Royals
Lachlan Murdoch’s most unusual asset, the Indian Premier League’s Rajasthan Royals, has been banned from the competition due to irregularities in its shareholdings and ownership structure. What does this mean for Murdoch?
Meet Bob Katter, aka B Joyce … and Andrew Robb, aka J Hockey
The ABC has finally discovered the high value of the Australian dollar is more of an issue than just a simple race call at the back end of the news or a mention in the finance report.
Essential: health, economy more important than asylum seekers
Today’s Essential Report looks at what issues voters rate most important in influencing how they vote — and how they feel about our involvement in Afghanistan.
Energy task force delivers Australia a power jolt
If the task force recommendations are adopted, it seems certain that Australian business and households are in for something of a culture shock when it comes to energy consumption, writes Giles Parkinson, of Climate Prectator.
Why Beecher is wrong: Simons on the battle close to home
It’s fair to say I and the rest of the Crikey editorial crew were surprised to wake up this morning and find our fearless leader, publisher Eric Beecher, all over the cover of The Australian’s media section — not an organ normally friendly to us, or him. Beecher was quoted as attacking the ABC , and in […]
Farmers will survive, with more than a pinch of salt
Could changing irrigation methods in Australia save water, the agricultural sector and ultimately the Murray Darling Basin? “It can go a bloody long way towards it,” irrigation consultant Jeremy Cape told Crikey intern Jane Vashti Ryan today.
Liu Xioabo’s Nobel part of a rich history of achievement
The Norwegian Nobel committee has waded into controversy again this year with the award of the peace prize to jailed Chinese human rights campaigner Liu Xiaobo. Charles Richardson takes a look at the history of this controversial award.
Market set to judge QR
The Queensland Government is set to receive something between about $3.6 billion and $5 billion in proceeds from the QR float, writes Stephen Bartholomeusz.
The tell-all book: Oz editor offered to quit, Big Harto gawked at Mrs Garrett
Bruce Guthrie’s Man Bites Murdoch contains a treasure trove of titbits that will have media watchers feverishly scanning the index when it hits bookshops on Wednesday. Here are the the juiciest highlights.
Guy Rundle: Rundle: Kohler’s Marxing to a different drum
Alan Kohler has a subtle and dry wit not appreciated by everyone. So, in replying to his suggestion that the exchange rate of the Aussie and US dollar repudiates socialism, I will continue his joke and pretend he’s serious.
Protestors defy Vic govt laws that ‘stifle democracy’
Controversial Victorian climate change protest laws breach freedoms of political expression and are “stifling democracy”, a prominent barrister and Greens candidate has claimed. Greg Foyster reports from the weekend protests.
Infrastructure isn’t the (whole) answer
The Murray-Darling debate has laid bare the basic problem of how to support regional communities, and whether they should be asked to bear the cost of fixing an historic problem alone.
