March 2009
34 posts
Firefighters get new uniforms →
They will fit better, look more professional and, crucially, protect the wearer more efficiently from heat and flames, says the government. But the new firefighters’ uniforms unveiled…
Mar 30th
Twitter lights up with reports of Sydney power... →
Shared by Zacha And there was a gas explosion and a fire at or near the trapeze school. And zombies. A massive Sydney power failure has not stopped the city’s residents taking to Twitter, with the…
Mar 29th
Biodegradeable gum goes on sale ... as street... →
Shared by Zacha ‘It takes 17 weeks for chewing gum to be removed from the entire length of Oxford Street in London, for example, but only 10 days for it to be littered with gum again.’ It…
Mar 29th
Prospect of Barack Obama show causes UK to clear... →
Shared by Zacha Obama is landing at Standstead. With an entourage of 500 staff, an armour-plated limousine and a fleet of decoy helicopters, America’s new president will arrive for his first visit…
Mar 29th
Major cyber spy network uncovered →
An electronic spy network, based mainly in China, has infiltrated computers around the world, Canadian researchers say.
Mar 28th
'Control yr freedomz': Classification... →
Shared by Zacha The text: “The Classification Board has the right to not just classify content (the name is an ELABORATE TRICK), but also the right to DECIDE WHAT IS AND ISNT [sic] APPROPRIATE…
Mar 26th
New OSX.RSPlug variant masquerading as media... →
Most of our readers know that you shouldn’t download questionable files, but that warning tends to get filed away pretty quickly if you’re using Mac OS X. If you need a quick reminder of…
Mar 26th
Signs of Spring - The Big Picture - Boston.com →
Shared by Zacha Check out the snake. 17People attend the spring equinox in front of the Kukulkan Pyramid (or “El Castillo”) in Chichen Itza, Mexico, Saturday, March 21, 2009. This Mayan…
Mar 24th
Nicholas Hughes's death tells us nothing about... →
Shared by Zacha Nicholas was ‘Nick’ in ‘Nick and the Candlestick’. This makes me really, really sad. It’s easy to forget Sylvia Plath’s poems that are full of joy. Anahi’s favourite is…
Mar 24th
Centrelink to open same-sex couple register - ABC... →
Shared by Zacha How (mostly) cool. Centrelink to open same-sex couple register Posted 4 hours 54 minutes ago Updated 3 hours 38 minutes ago Couples can register their relationships…
Mar 23rd
British press watching Rudd-Obama visit - ABC News... →
Shared by Zacha “Subsequent reports suggest Mr Brown cannot even watch the DVDs because they are the wrong region.” Kevin Rudd has touched down in Washington to meet with the new US President,…
Mar 23rd
Mary Beard on the ideas we've inherited from... →
Shared by Zacha Very bleak, but good, piece on tv ancient idea of a ‘good’ death; and the author’s own philosophy on death. Socrates philosophised as the hemlock kicked in, Vespasian quoted verse…
Mar 22nd
Coyopa's guts →
Shared by Zacha A description of the hardware behind the BBC’s Listen Again and podcast encoding. Coyopa, as any regular Radio Labs reader will know, is the new system for encoding BBC national…
Mar 22nd
A Religious War in Israel’s Army →
Shared by Zacha Further to the BBC article earlier on. After the harshness in Gaza, a clash over who will control battle ethics….
Mar 21st
Late Night Live - 2009-03-19 →
Shared by Zacha Skip Alexander Downer and listen to ‘The Vertigo Years’ by Philipp Blom. After listening to this I downloaded the free-sample 1st chapter to my iPhone on the Amazon Kindle…
Mar 19th
BBC NEWS | Politics | Councils get banned jargon... →
Shared by Zacha “For most [of the jargon on the list], though, no explanation is forthcoming or, perhaps, possible.” Councils get banned jargon list Winston…
Mar 19th
Israel troops admit Gaza abuses →
Shared by Zacha This is a pretty shocking story. An Israeli college prints soldiers’ damning tales of civilian killing and destruction of property during the Gaza offensive….
Mar 19th
Stephen Moss: On the trail of Somerset's... →
Shared by Zacha Keep reading the article to discover what this small town “Miss Marple” us actually doing. Highbridge (pop 4,606), a small town on the edge of the Somerset Levels, is - if reports…
Mar 17th
As security concerns theaten trainspotters,... →
Shared by Zacha Guardian piece on modern trainspotting. (Trains, not heroin.) Trainspotters get a bad press - and now security concerns threaten to drive them to extinction. A worried Stephen Moss…
Mar 17th
Tourists in Mexico experience rigours of crossing... →
Shared by Zacha Mexican border-crossing tourist/educational camp, for Mexicans. Attraction in El Alberto simulates migration from Mexico to the US, complete with fake border patrol agents A…
Mar 16th
Sam Jordison on John Wilmot's bawdy legacy →
Shared by Zacha It’s nice to see a piece talking about what a bastard the Earl of Rochester was. Not something you see very often. Misogynist, subject of the film ‘The Libertine’ and good friends…
Mar 16th
CityRail puts brakes on iPhone timetable app -... →
Shared by Zacha I wanted to post the news from yesterday’s Tully-friendly Fin Review that Google and Sydney’s public transport are sorting the details of having Sydney public transport on Google…
Mar 12th
Sam Spenser's Umbrella Bloom →
Created by artist Sam Spenser. Photo by Jessica Rolland Photo nicked from Charlie Todd’s awesome blog.
Mar 12th
Why photograph signs? →
Shared by Zacha The Powerhouse has all sorts of cool photos posted online via Flickr. Watch out for the penguins, originally uploaded by owenfm. Signs can be a very powerful form of communication…
Mar 12th
The imbalances that could sink the G20 →
Obama’s interevention into the G20 warm-up process last night carried an unmistakeable message. The twin goals of the summit are to be bank regulation reform and fiscal stimulus. This,…
Mar 11th
Sri Lanka and its long war →
Shared by Zacha Image 21 is terrible and aweful. The Sri Lankan Civil War, waged between separatist Tamil rebels and the government of Sri Lanka - a conflict which has run hot and cold over 26…
Mar 11th
French police: we saved millions of euros by... →
France’s Gendarmerie Nationale, the country’s national police force, says it has saved millions of dollars by migrating its desktop software infrastructure away from Microsoft Windows and…
Mar 11th
Nixon's 1969 "In Event of Moon... →
Shared by Zacha Which I found after a Sydney poet advertised that he’d refer to such a thing in a performance next week. … the notion that the July 1969 mission could have turned tragic now…
Mar 11th
AVQ&A: Worst moviegoing experiences | Film |... →
Shared by Zacha Tasha Ronbinson’s storys are really awful. In the sense of scary. What happens when the drama isn’t all up on the screen?
Mar 6th
Where are the contemporary novels about liberty? →
Shared by Zacha A list of cool-looking spy novels is at the end of the post. In the current climate, you’d think there’d be a lot of English novels being written engaged with this very…
Mar 2nd
Mar 2nd
1 note
BBC - Science Fiction Drama - BBC Radio 3, BBC... →
Shared by Zacha BBC season of science-fiction radio dramas BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 7 
Mar 2nd
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Morph flashmob honours... →
Shared by Zacha ! Morph flashmob honours Tony Hart Advertisement Morph ‘flashmob’ outside Tate Modern gallery A flashmob of tiny Plasticine figures have gathered on London’s…
Mar 1st