This week’s Wankley Award goes to Paul “Colgo” Colgan of The Punch for liveblogging the marathon surgery that was performed on conjoined twins Trishna and Krishna at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital this week.
Media / Online
leaked 
UK plans to create Internet Piracy General with power to appoint militias, create laws
A UK government source claims a new Bill will give the Secretary of State unprecedented powers to pass laws on online piracy without debate and confer investigative and enforcement powers to record labels and movie studios, giving them access to personal information and files.
Facebook now worth $9.5 billion
Facebook’s private shares are now for about $21 each — a 42% increase since July — valuing the company’s common shares at $9.5 billion. Will the company go public soon?
The 10 defining internet events of the decade
The folks behind the Webby Awards have named their 10 most influential internet moments of the decade, including the launch of Wikipedia, the closure of Napster, the 2008 US Presidential campaign, and more.
Time’s nerdy new tech site
Time has taken a gamble by entering the already bloated market of tech sites with its new venture Techland. Can it really bring anything new to the web? It sure is purty.
The Times reveals its paywall plans
As News Corp sites prepare to erect paywalls around their content, the editor of the UK’s Times has finally revealed some bricks-and-mortar information about what it will be doing and when.
Move over, Apple: get ready for the Google Phone
It’s only been a rumour until now, but TechCrunch says it can now confirm: Google is making its own mobile phone, and it should be out early next year. Time for Steve Jobs to start sweating?
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.
ABC to unleash a new opinion site
ABC Online is set to relaunch its Unleashed section as part of a new commentary and analysis site that will aggregate ABC commentary content alongside original material, and “compete” directly with The Punch and The National Times.
PODCAST: What’s next for the ABC?
An interview with the ABC’s director of news, Kate Torney, on the brave new future of our national broadcaster as it steps up its presence in the online world.
Tim O’Reilly: The War for the Web is just getting started
Murdoch’s threat to take News Corp content out of Google’s results in just the beginning, says tech publisher Tim O’Reilly: big players like Facebook, Apple, and, yes, News Corp, are breaking off bits of the Web for themselves — and they won’t always want to share.
Qld Hansard a closed book to OpenAustralia
Why won’t the Queensland Parliament allow OpenAustralia to publish the Queensland State Parliamentary Hansards? Crikey intern Michelle Loh investigates.
Why Murdoch won’t ditch Google
Rupert Murdoch’s threat to pull all News Corp sites from Google’s search index may not be as dire for the mastheads as many are predicting — but chances are he won’t follow through on it anyway: he’ll just erect even higher paywalls.
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”.
Crikey editor moves to ABC Online
The editor of Crikey, Jonathan Green, has resigned to take up a new post with the ABC. Inside sources say he will be sorely missed.
The biggest websites you’ve never heard of
Forget Facebook: Megavideo.com, Megaupload.com and Megarotic.com are the real heavyweights of the online world, proving piracy and porn are still the hottest commodities on the internet.
Can Salon.com be saved?
Despite its iconic status, seminal news and opinion website Salon.com lost $4.6m last year and recently laid of 20% of its staff. PBS asks new CEO Richard Gingras whether the site can really be saved.
Meet the man who beat Glenn Beck
Fox News commentator Glenn Beck recently tried to sue Isaac Eiland-Hall, a 34-year-old IT student and the owner of a website called GlennBeckRapedAndMurdered AYoungGirlIn1990.com. He lost.
How Murdoch can really hurt Google
Rupert Murdoch’s recent rejection of Google may be less about news content and more about the search engine wars, suggests Michael Arrington: by de-indexing from Google, other search engines could pay him for the rights to index News Corp content.
Blogger Belle de Jour’s true identity revealed
The anonymous blogger behind the famous Diary of a London Call Girl diary, which inspired spin-off books and a TV show, has revealed her true identity to the Times: Dr Brooke Magnanti.
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 Murdoch may be more right than wrong about Google
mUmBRELLA’s Tim Burrowes asks if Rupert Murdoch has a point in thumbing his nose at Google and locking News Ltd’s content behind a paywall — maybe Google traffic isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Hammertime for Sydney’s social media set
Rapper, preacher and Twitterati MC Hammer paid a visit to Sydney’s Social Media Club this week, explaining how he’s used social media to turn his image around from a ’90s has-been to cutting-edge entrepreneur.
Which News Corp sites are “stealing” content?
Rupert Murdoch has been a vociferous opponent of news aggregation sites “stealing” his News Corp content for profit — but are News websites just as guilty? Tech Dirt lists all of Murdoch’s sites currently aggregating other sites’ news and articles.
Media Watch goes behind the nudes on Twitter
Two months ago, Scott Bridges joked on Twitter that he would do a “nudie run” if Jonathan Holmes ever said “pwned” on Media Watch. Three nights ago, Holmes said it.
