The most boring day of the 20CA group of researchers analysed 300 million events from the last century, compared the dates of each of them and came up with the least exciting day of all in the twentieth century: Sunday, April 11, 1954.
December, 2010
Super sales on ‘Cyber Monday’
On a day known as ‘Cyber Monday’ in America, US consumers shopped up a storm with a flurry of mouse clicks and Google searches. They collectively cracked the US$1 billion mark, making it the biggest day of online spending in history, writes Chloe Albanesius.
Wikileaks 
Mum to the rescue: Julian is “fighting baddies”
In the midst of the fallout from the latest WikiLeaks dump, the mother of website founder Julian Assange has come to the defence of her son in an interview with The Herald Sun.
Wikileaks 
Amazon to WikiLeaks: get that stuff outta here
In the midst of the WikiLeaks cables dumps controversy Amazon.com have banned the controversial whistle blower website from its servers and, unsurprisingly, US Senator Joe Lieberman has endorsed the company’s decision.
Bob Gosford’s Bird of the Week: the gay White Ibises of Florida’s Space Coast
A paper presented by biological research journal The Royal Society has argued that the breeding success and viability of the White Ibises could be negatively affected by exposure to mercury, causing males to pair with other males, writes Bob Gosford.
film reviews Devil — introducing the hellevator
Director John Erick Dowdle’s two parts psychological one part supernatural thriller Devil is a roaring popcorn thriller that for the most part skillfully sidesteps expectations, writes Luke Buckmaster.
Parliament upgrades to…Vista
Federal Parliament has finally began updating its Microsoft operating system — not to the latest version, Windows 7, but to the widely snubbed and sledged Microsoft Vista. We assume the IT department has their reasons…
Advertorial at the ABC
What the hell is the ABC doing publishing advertorial nonsense? Yesterday an article about the need for insurance was written by the manager of a bank. Talk about cheapening the public broadcaster, declares Jeremy Sear.
The Airbus A320 Fat Lady sings
It has been an incredibly long game of poker between Airbus and Boeing over the question of whether to re-engine their cash cow single aisle jets, the A320 and 737NG families respectively, or go directly to an all-new design in the 2020s, writes Ben Sandilands.
Tourism Australia, meet Ecotourism Australia
Tourism Australia is being left behind while globally sustainability is at the forefront of everyone else’s agenda. Why doesn’t Tourism Australia support Ecotourism Australia, the peak body for sustainable tourism? asks GAP Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip.
New food policy advisory group stacked with industry
Senator Joe Ludwig has announced the membership of a National Food Policy Working Group to advise government on the development of a National Food Plan. The industry-heavy group includes members from Woolworths, Boost Juice and the Australian Food and Grocery Council, writes Melissa Sweet.
Bach’s last will and testament
W H Chong heads down to church to hear Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Four soloists and a small orchestra perform the big work, which has been called Bach’s “last will and testament.” It wasn’t performed complete until 1859, over a century after his death.
A free health check for Ted Ballieu
Crikey’s health blog Croakey is offering Victoria’s new premier Ted Ballieu and his ministers a free health consultation, from a range of experts in the sector giving their opinion on how the new government should respond to the national health reform agenda.
The greatest movies never made
Getting the money, resources and talent together to make a movie is no easy task - not even in Hollywood. Plenty of great screenplays never see the light of day, and Total Film has compiled a list of 50 of them.
EMRS poll in Tasie: Labor 30, Liberal 42, Greens 24
Tasmanian firm EMRS has published the latest of its occasional polls on state voting intention, which has Labor down four points since August to 30 per cent, the Liberals up seven to 42 per cent and the Greens down two to 24 per cent, writes William Bowe.
Everyone’s hoping this was a mere “bump in the road”
It’s in everyone’s interest to explain away today’s weak GDP figure as a one-off — in spite of nagging evidence that the economy outside the mining industry isn’t quite as strong as we’d all like to think.
Despite 106,000 new jobs, the economy slows
Can an economy that created just over 106,000 new jobs in the three months to September, slow to a dirge-like stutter?
Guy Rundle: Rundle: the GFC, Wikileaks collide … and the world just shifted
Two massive processes have come into collision — the second wave of the global financial crisis, breaking strongly in Europe, hitting WikiLeaks’ rolling wave of information storms, changing the relationship between state and power.
WikiLeaks cheat sheet: the most explosive stuff dropped so far
As news agencies throughout the world scramble to be the first to break the most scandalous, outrageous or bizarre cables, here are a few of the best so far, writes Crikey intern Alison Drew-Foster.
‘Bizarre’ and ‘unworkable’ — Morrison’s plan for asylum seekers
Opposition immigration spokesperson Scott Morrison’s plan to send Afghan asylum seekers — who arrive in boats — back to camps in countries such as Pakistan and Iran is doomed to fail, say asylum seeker advocates.
It’s time to revisit media diversity laws
Our national media has been reduced to six dominant groups. In the face of shrinking media diversity and an evolving media environment, it’s time to reconsider how and why we regulate media ownership.
Hulls and Donnellan to mull over Vic ALP deputy role
Despite some satisfaction in Victorian ALP Left circles, Saturday’s result has refocused the right’s attention on its divided status, with one peacemaker reporting that the “language change had been extraordinary” and that the state branch was now bracing for a “monumental sh-tfight”.
Daily Proposition: A peculiar bunch of gallery creatures
Knob — a seven-foot high, nine-footed beast topped with an enormous bulbous mass covered in fine, fine hair. That bulging black knob caps firmly nine long, transparent legs, washed in delicate veils of blue-black ink, as finely drawn and sure, and elegant, as a line by Donald Friend. It is strange, it is amazing, it is the […]
Rundle: Mitchell’s own goal on the eco fascist line
If the editor of The Australian firms up defamation law as regards the metaphorical use of the “fascist” tag, then he will have handed innumerable people a precedent with which to target every News Ltd columnist and blogger who’s muttered about “greenshirts”, eco-Nazis or the like.
New York Times / Thursday, 2 December 2010
The very nature of anonymity means that people say and do things they would never do if their names were attached, sometimes resulting in horrible events like victim’s families being harassed. Should anonymity be banned online? asks Julie Zhuo from Facebook.