As Queensland clears up from the floods, NASA is reporting that the La Nina weather event responsible for the rain is one of the strongest on record.
January, 2011
Video of the Day: Arianna Huffington extols the virtues of sleep
In a presentation for TEDWomen Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post discusses how she rediscovered the value of sleep and implores her audience to “literally sleep your way to the top.”
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours
Where’s the money trail, ACON? The Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday on NSW AIDS group ACON and its “squandering” of millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money. While ACON pays its workers on the ground peanuts, look carefully at what it pays certain “special” people and there you will see the money drain. ACON has long […]
Crikey Says: Keneally turns off the lights
If voters can’t trust their government to give them the full story how can they trust them enough to vote them back into power? That’s the question that the Keneally government faces in light of the extraordinary events in NSW since parliament was prorogued in December.
infographic 
QLD floods: before and after
Watch Queensland turn brown in this very clever interactive photo gallery showing high resolution pictures of Brisbane suburbs, Ipswich and regional Queensland both before and after the recent flooding.
PHOTO GALLERY 
404 error pages as you’ve (probably) never seen them before
Everybody encounters a 404 error page from time to time after clicking on a bung link or typing a wrong URL. But some websites offer specially tailored left of centre 404 pages and Mashable presents a collection of the best.
film reviews 
The Dilemma — easily resolved: avoid
The real dilemma in watching Ron Howard’s new movie is not the one the characters mull over but rather what to make of this noodle-scratching dramedy and the spectacular incompetency the veteran director exhibits, writes Luke Buckmaster.
Wikileaks 
WikiLeaks to receive bank secrets of the rich and famous
Will Paul Hogan’s banking secrets make their way onto WikiLeaks? Swedish whistleblower Rudolf Elmer is set to hand over CDs to Assange and co. stuffed full of bank account information about high profile individuals detailing potential tax evasions, reports Ed Vulliamy.
News.com.au verbals Bob Brown, big time
An interesting headline popped up on the front page of News.com.au over the weekend from Bob Brown: ‘Coal miners caused floods.’ A pretty explosive quote, that’s for sure, minus one fact: Brown never actually said it, writes Dave Gaukroger.
White Noise’s daily TV Diary
Dan Barrett’s TV blog White Noise presents big thoughts on the small screen. In his daily TV Diary Barrett gives the low-down on the best and worst TV on the boob tube and the net.
Cherie Blair’s “bioelectric shied” pendant to ward off evil spirits
In a section of former UK Prime Ministerial media adviser Alastair Campbell’s soon to be published diaries, Campbell discusses Cherie Blair’s alleged use of a pendant worn to ward off evil spirits, reports Richard Farmer.
A good year for fishermen
Peruvian fishermen named the phenomenon La Niña “the gift giver” because the cold, nutrient-rich water brought to the equatorial Pacific off South America is a boon to marine life. Here in Australia the gift isn’t fish but rain but sometimes, as this year, it can be too much of a good thing, writes Richard Farmer.
Tunisia: the social media revolution that wasn’t
As turmoil continues in Tunisia in the wake of the flight of long-term dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, western pundits are emerging to “explain” an event they have been busily ignoring for weeks. Is this really a Twitter or WikiLeaks revolution? asks Bernard Keane
Morgan: 50.5-49.5 to Labor
The first federal opinion poll of the new year is from Morgan’s face-to-face surveying last weekend, covering 855 respondents. However, the obvious systematic bias to Labor in Morgan face-to-face polling, once factored in, points to a fairly solid lead for the Coalition, reports William Bowe.
New ACCC powers could make Tiger change its stripes
The ACCC now appears to have consumer law powers that could force Tiger and Jetstar to abandon some of their obnoxious practices such as taking months to refund fares for cancelled flights, writes Ben Sandilands.
An open letter to Lance Armstrong: you can do better than 50k for the floods, mate
Cycling superstar Lance Armstrong has pledged to donate $50,000 to the Queensland Flood Appeal but Bob Gosford reckons he could do better. Like, $1,950,000 better.
‘I don’t think we’ll be getting home tonight’: a tale from Toowoomba
Toowoomba resident Jim Forbes left his wife and four-year-old daughter to head in to work in Brisbane on Monday, leaving just before the floods hit his family and his hometown.
Qantas does Dallas (and it hopes, the Virgins)
Qantas played the American Airlines alliance card hard today when it announced it would stop flying to San Francisco in favour of new flights to Dallas/Fort Worth.
Queensland floods: media’s looting reports put lives at risk
While the media are getting caught up reporting widespread looting in the aftermath of the Queensland floods, research shows that looting is usually non-existent after a natural disaster, writes Crikey Intern Liam Mannix.
Brisbane floods: vulnerable cultural precinct’s priceless collections survive
Despite many iconic cultural institutions being sited right on the river bank, most seem to have survived any serious and lasting damage.
Maley: a currency peace offering from China
It’s hardly coincidental that the Chinese currency, the yuan, has glided to a record high just days before Chinese President Hu Jintao is due to arrive in Washington, writes Karen Maley, of Business Spectator.
Facebook Facebook face-off: the lawsuit continues beyond the film
Despite a US$65 million (now worth US$140 million) legal settlement and a movie generating plenty of Oscar buzz, there appears to be plenty left to write about the Facebook imbroglio between the world’s youngest billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg, and the wealthy scions who claim Zuckerberg stole their idea.
