SARS, shoe bombs and teen sex: the 10 stupidest scare campaigns of the decadeRemember how we were all going to die of bird flu? And the world was going to end with the year 2000? Newsweek looks at the most overblown fears of the noughties.
Life / People & Ideas
The 50 best inventions of 2009
Time names the 50 coolest things created over the past year, including vertical farming, the robo-penguin and tweeting by thinking. It has also listed the year’s five worst inventions.
“Let’s go to the video tape” and nine other phrases that will soon be dead
Steve Rubel looks at 10 common phrases that could soon be made redundant due to changing technology.
Callan to Breaker: a little of us in all Woodward
Edward Woodward, the man who played Callan and Breaker Morant, is dead. He should be honoured in Australia for playing a wronged anti-hero of the Boer war, writes Peter Craven.
How the Nazis stole Christmas
A new exhibition of Nazi paraphernalia in Cologne shows how the Nazi Party tried to take Christ out of Christmas with swastika cookies and hand grenade tree decorations. Many of their “paganised” Christmas carols are still unwittingly sung today.
Meet the man who killed the letter
In 1971, engineer Ray Tomlinson was asked to find something interesting to do with the newly created ARPANET computer network. So he invented email, inadvertently changing human communication forever.
The science of climate change is only a small part of the discussion
Equating climate change doubters and dissenters with mass-murdering war criminals is the mark of a moral dwarf, writes Sinclair Davidson.
Oxford Word of the Year: Unfriend
Oxford University Press has named Facebook term “unfriend” as its 2009 Word of the Year. Other contenders included “hashtag”, “paywall”, “birther” and “zombie bank”.
Hamilton: Denying the coming climate holocaust
Which is morally worse: Holocaust denial or climate change scepticism? It sounds like a no-brainer, but the real-life consequences of climate sceptics succeeding may far outweigh those of Holocaust denialists.
The Ayn Rand revival of 2009
With bailouts, salary caps and health care reform, 2009 has been a year of Big Government in the US — sparking a renewed interest amongst the country’s Right in the libertarian, free-market philosophies of Ayn Rand.
Will Twitter be Time’s Person of the Year?
Twitter is emerging as the hot favourite amongst pundits as the hot favourite to be named Time magazine’s 2009 Person of the Year. We can just see the world’s social media experts wetting themselves already.
Why do good boys do bad things?
One of the big questions that underlies all the debates on university colleges, male sports teams and other forms of hooliganism, is: why do some groupings encourage thuggery? Eva Cox explores.
The most powerful people in the world
Forbes has launched a new annual list, ranking the world’s most powerful people. Obama at number one is a pretty safe choice, but names like Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page at number five and Putin as number three are sure to stir up debate.
What broke the Hadron Collider? A baguette? Or time-travelling birds?
Most scientists believe the recent breakdown of the Large Hadron Collider was caused by a rogue piece of baguette, but two “esteemed” physicists say it was a time-travelling bird, sent from the future to sabotage the machine.
Top authors explain: how to write a great novel
Some of the literary world’s brightest stars, including Junot Diaz, Hilary Mantel, Anne Rice and Kazuo Ishiguro, explain their novel methods for writing great works of fiiction — from retreating to the bathroom to color-coded plot charts.
The great atheist debate
Is there an atheist schism? Ophelia Benson explores the different disagreements amongst atheists, from those who just want to not believe and shut up and those who wish to preach the atheist movement. Is there an ironic war brewing?
Hey Victorian government, leave Britney alone!
A Britney Spears concert is presumably a mass of gyrating, fireworks and lip-syncing. But the Victorian government wants concert goers to be made aware when music isn’t technically ‘live’. Do we really need to be protected?
Stephen King writes poetry? For Playboy?!
Curiously, sci-fi/horror Author Stephen King has turned his hand to writing poetry. Even more curiously, his literary medium of choice to share his rhyme doggerel with the world? Playboy magazine. Read his effort, The Bone Church, here.
Study: What kids nickname Lego pieces
Every household has its own set of words for describing particular Lego pieces, says Giles Turnbull: one kid’s “round flat one-er” is another kid’s “bronze jewel”. And so he set out to document the Lego dialects that are unique to different families.
Dowd: Rush Limbaugh is immature and narcissistic
Shock jock Rush Limbaugh is one of the key media mouths of the Republican Party and he loves to insult at Obama. Too bad he forgets the actions of his good mate Dubya, because it wasn’t Obama who stuffed the economy or brought about the war in Iraq, notes Maureen Dowd.
Crap you don’t need: the most stupid products ever invented
A definitive HuffPo list of the 15 stupidest products available for sale. Which is the most inane? Tinkles the toilet cat that hides under your toilet seat ready to scare your guests? Or the phallic shaped boob separator?
weird The most bizarre CIA programs of all time
The CIA has funded some odd programs throughout its history. Like, luring men with prostitutes and then drugging them to observe the effects of acid and LSD. And implementing cats with microphones to spy on the Russians. Fun!
Is Clive James a climate change sceptic because he’s a senile old sucker?
Clive James may have praised the need for scepticism with climate change, but that just proves him as a old sucker, not a sceptic, writes George Monbiot. Do old people think more positively about climate change effects because they are closer to death?
Macquarie Anthology to have a global reach
The Macquarie PEN Anthology will have a considerable effect on the burgeoning study of Australian literature abroad, writes Nicholas Birns. Yes, some bits are very literary, and some authors miss out, but finally Australian literature might get its deserved world recognition.
