The brilliant Tina Fey gave a hilarious acceptance speech when she was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for Humor last week, only the third woman ever to win. For the Sarah Palin jokes that were cut when PBS showed the award ceremony, head to the 12 minute mark… Watch the full episode. See more Mark Twain […]
November, 2010
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours
We’re a diverse community: Ivanhoe. Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School principal Heather Schnagl responds to the same-sex storm in a letter to parents… Dear School Community Member I am writing to you regarding the recent complaint made by a student against the school, the consequent adverse media coverage, and how we as a school community will […]
Crikey Says: Just get on with it
This government allowed public sentiment on the issue of climate change to fall off a cliff. Now they need to work twice as hard to earn it back.
leaked 
100 naked airport body scans made public
With all the controversy currently in the States about airport security and strip searches, Gizmodo releases 100 photos of the body scans of ordinary citizens. They were taken from 35,000 images kept by US Marshals, although all ‘naked’ photos were promised to never be made public.
Cholera, vomit and violence: the horror in Haiti
An outbreak of cholera in earthquake-affected Haiti — with nearly 1000 dead and infection spreading rampantly — is resulting in violent protests, with protesters claiming a Nepalese UN contingent caused the epidemic.
lol 
Mac in the USSR: Beatles in the 21stC
After years of negotiating the songs of The Beatles are finally available for purchase on iTunes. To celebrate, The Guardian indulges in some word play, rewriting Beatle’s song titles for the iTunes age. Think: ‘While My Guitar Gently Tweets.”
Welcome to Googletown
No longer will Googlers be forced to go home to their dreary houses in normal cities. Instead, Google is building a Googletown bubble: where housing and retail shops are to be built surrounding the Google headquarters in Silicon Valley.
Leigh Josey’s morning media maulings
So Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting married. Leigh Josey turned hia attention to the British papers and wondered if yesterday’s Evening Courier — “the voice of Calderdale” — jumped the gun a little early…
This thing called sovereign risk
The world’s newspapers are full of stories of the risk of Greece, Ireland, and then Portugal, even Spain and Italy, all taking the knock because their governments cannot repay outstanding loans. But what will consequences be if it actually happens? asks Richard Farmer.
Gillard: Why we need a carbon price
PM Julia Gillard pens a column on why the carbon price reform is such a grand idea. Putting a price on carbon will end this awkward uncertainty sending energy prices up and is clear decisive action on climate change, claims Gillard.
Theatre review: Angela’s Kitchen
Actor Paul Capsis should wear a cape, to forewarn of his superhuman talents, declares Lloyd Bradford Syke, in his review of Capsis’ latest play Angela’s Kitchen, currently on at the Griffin Theatre in Sydney.
Has the ABC lost its way?
One of the things that we should demand from our media is that it hold all of our elected representatives up to scrutiny, but you don’t achieve that by outsourcing your line of questioning to one of our political parties, notes Dave Gaukroger .
Britain goes mad over Big Willie and Babykins
Crikey media wrap: The biggest story in the world right now? A royal engagement. We waded through the British media as they froth at the mouth so you don’t have to.
Gittens: Copenhagen wasn’t a failure
Like Australia, the US has just abandoned plans for an emissions trading scheme. But not all hope is lost for climate change policy, with the pledges made in Copenhagen far stronger than the media has represented, writes Ross Gittins.
film reviews Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: a Pott-estrian near death experience
The Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a collection of scenes, spectacles and sights gaffer taped what little there is of an overlapping narrative. The first hour is right up there with the slowest and the dullest the franchise has to offer, declares Luke Buckmaster.
An end to 52 years of authoritarian rule?
In Guinea the Electoral Commission says that Opposition leader Alpha Conde has won the presidential run-off election. But the former PM is alleging fraud, explains Richard Farmer.
Rethinking the Basin Plan
Imagine how the draft Murray Darling Basin Plan would be if we’d had a major rejuvenation and expansion of Landcare around climate change, carbon literacy, renewable energy, water management, drought resilience and sustainable food systems, suggests Andrew Campbell.
A first for Aussie crowd-funded journalism
A story on chronic fatigue syndrome sufferers is the first YouCommNews — an initiative to crowd-fund journalism — story to be published today. But many pitches still wait with thousands of funding dollars still needed for the story to get written.
Murray Murmurings: rethinking the Basin plan
The launch of the community guide to the draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan marks the latest step in the largely bipartisan process of water reform, writes Andrew Campbell manager of Triple Helix Consulting and former executive director of Land & Water Australia.
Country Alliance and Labor strike up an unlikely friendship
Hunting and fishing aficionados the Country Alliance will preference the Labor Party in 10 lower house seats in exchange for Labor preferences in the upper house regions of Northern and Eastern Victoria.
Conroy confirms: soccer punished with a return to anti-siphoning
While speculation has centred on what will be removed from the anti-siphoning list, we now know soccer will be punished by being put back on.
Media heat map: Bolt’s (boat) people
Continuing on with our look at election coverage, this week we’ll start looking at opinion columnists, writes Jason Wilson, lecturer in journalism at the University of Canberra.
Our fast-vanishing national media diversity
We’re now down to six national sources of commercial media, courtesy of the Murdoch-Packer deal at Ten. And our media ownership laws say nothing about it.
Please ignore the UN climate deal
The UN climate conference meeting in the Mexican resort town of Cancun at the end of the month promises to be a far less dramatic circus than the Copenhagen conference at the end of last year, writes Georgina Woods, director, Climate Action Network Australia.
