Colby Cosh: "friends don't let friends fisk".

posted by James Russell | 3:57 PM

Interesting idea about the Washington sniper and that false witness.

posted by James Russell | 3:30 PM

Scotland to ban nudity in Turkish baths.

posted by James Russell | 3:24 PM

The details of the Snowtown murders just get weirder.

THE alleged Snowtown murderers demanded their victims call them "Lord Sir" and "God" as they tortured and killed them, the Supreme Court heard yesterday.
The court also heard that one of the men charged over the murders, John Justin Bunting, 36, played the hit album Throwing Copper, by the US band Live, during some of the attacks.

Wonder if that was counted as torture as well...

posted by James Russell | 3:13 PM

Another article on Hollywood's great unreleased. This one, though, seems a bit more interested in "unpatriotic" items like The Quiet American.

posted by James Russell | 3:11 PM

One way of getting out of a sex attack accusation.

posted by James Russell | 3:08 PM

What to do with those unwanted AOL discs?

posted by James Russell | 2:58 PM

Via Angela Bell: Belinda Weaver's Journoz blog, "which will announce new Net-based sources of Australian facts and background information, such as business information, cases, databases, directories, expert advice, government information, legislation, reports, statistics, and trade figures." Only just started a few days ago, looks like being an interesting reference site.

posted by James Russell | 2:38 PM

Labor loses it in Cunningham by-election. The Greens are claiming victory in what has been a safe seat for Labor since 1949. Well, nothing lasts forever, does it. Labor are apparently refusing to concede defeat just yet, but either way Simon Crean should be taking a long cold look at himself, and Labor in general should be doing the same...

posted by James Russell | 2:24 PM

I've just finished watching the ABC's coverage of the Bali memorial in the Domain. Good work on all fronts. I thought Marie Bashir was pretty boring, and I couldn't help but heave an ironic sigh at her having the same surname as that other Bashir character in Indonesia... still, as the governor of NSW I don't suppose she could've been left out. Her aside, I was impressed by the service and the ABC's presentation of it. Dignified and controlled without being cold (Geraldine Doogue was audibly tearing up at several points), emotive without being overdone (as some of the American memorials post Sept. 11 struck me as being). Speeches were good, musical performances were fine, though the Americanisms in Nikki Webster's accent annoyed me a bit. Hell, I didn't even mind Kasey Chambers that much. David Hobson ended it with a particularly good rendition of the national anthem, and Iva Davies' performance of "Great Southern Land" was done well too.

There's even some good news out of Bali, as some of the people on the Australian consulate's "grave concerns" list have been found alive. No indication if they're alive and well, but alive will do. There's still over a hundred people on the list, but I daresay if they can find any of them still breathing they'll accept that as a good sign.

I daresay there's going to be a lot of "Australian spirit" rhetoric surrounding the Bali event. Let me, then, present you with something I found in the Herald today. It's nothing to do with Bali, but it's one of the best illustrations of the Australian spirit I've ever seen.



It looks better in the paper (whoever scanned it for the Net hasn't done a great job; I might rescan it from print myself at TAFE and post it here), but even so. That was taken at Cessnock where there are bushfires raging. Irrespective of the fact that one is blazing just a few metres from them, these cricketers are still playing their game. That, folks, screams Australian spirit to me. A bit foolhardy, possibly even a little stupid, but determined not to let disaster get in the way of whatever it is we're doing. That shot makes me very happy indeed.

posted by James Russell | 2:10 PM