News
I don't necessarily like providing oxygen to the "OMG Rudd is going to depose Julia" hype machine which has been running for the last 12+ months, but it is sounding like
things are getting pretty patchy over there in Canberra. Gillard remains trenchantly unpopular and Rudd has the next six weeks to campaign in Queensland and gently remind people why they liked him. A coup could happen in May. I have my theory about how Oppositions will, after they've been ousted from Government, wheel out a sacrificial leader to absorb the body blows of a newly hostile electorate for twelve months or so, before they bring out the real leader to try and win the next election (see Nelson, Brendan). With a string of deeply unpopular but often important reforms under her belt, it's starting to feel like Labor are doing this while in Government.
150 000 odd community sector workers (mostly women) are due to receive a 40-65% pay increase over the coming years. A massive event for an essential but long undervalued part of society that has employers suitably apoplectic. It is thought to be the most important and wide-ranging Fair Work decision since 1972.
Julian Assange is back in court in the UK, putting together one final, flimsy attempt to avoid extradition to Sweden. I do not fancy his chances.
Well, they proved they could put together one hell of non-violent protest last year, but now that they have their freedom,
the Egyptians want to show us that they can also put together one hell of a violent soccer riot. Over seventy (yes, 70) people are thought to be dead after a stadium's worth of people went absolutely goddamn bananas when one team beat the other 3-0. I mean, come on. It wasn't even close, people. It's not like one tiny decision separated your team from eternal glory. Even better, another game in Cairo had to be called off at around the same time because people set fire to the stadium. And we think Collingwood fans are bad...
Unsurprisingly, Romney gave Gingrich a flogging in Florida. The sound of the collective anuses of the entire Republican establishment simultaneously unclenching was almost audible over here. Although, they shouldn't get too cocky:
most national polls still have Gingrich ahead amongst Republican voters. Moreover, even if he ekes out a victory over "The Newt", the previously untarnished reputation of a man who had been so smooth most people didn't even know he was there
has been seriously, damagingly smeared. And
he's getting his money from hedge fund managers, still a popular class of people over there. Also,
the Uncanny Valley may have something to do with it.
A little bit late, but Kim Jong-un says Happy Australia Day! Hard to know whether the delay is because they simply don't know when Australia Day is, or because of deep flaws in the North Korean postal system. I also like the fact that they addressed the greeting to our Governor-General – I presume they saw the title and thought "Yep. Governing and military? We have found our leader."
Features
Robert Fisk on Syria: its history, its resilience and the current state of play. Perhaps the clearest explanation of affairs that I've yet read.
A piece on the flakiness of that "economic modelling" that so much politics and journalism spins on these days. For the high cynics among us.
Oddities/Curiosities
I'll give it to VICE. Nihilistic trash rag it often is, but occasionally they pitch up a genuinely interesting discussion.
Here's an interview with a chemist who spends his time making new psychoactive chemicals.
Divorce can be a brutal process. Just ask the man who is having to
dismantle the $150 000 Star Trek fit out of the apartment he and his wife once shared. He started work on the Intrepid-class apartment after his wife left. Because that's what happen when you separate from your life partner. Star Trek themed housing.
Video
This 7-year-old girl saved her Mum's life. With a slice of pizza.
At least I think that's what the story is.