Australian billionaire Clive Palmer has commissioned a Chinese shipyard to build
Titanic II, a modernized replica of the unsinkable
Titanic.
posted by swift
on Apr 30, 2012 -
98 comments
Bowerbirds, a family of 20 species in eight genera, are a fascinating bunch of birds who range from New Guinea and Australia.
Some are flashy, others drab, but all are named for the "bowers" (
avenues, huts, or towers of sticks;
source) that the
males craft and decorate to attract a mate.
There are regional styles (PDF) in the design of the bowers, and
the male Greater Bowerbirds even employ optical illusions. Some, like
the Vogelkop Bowerbird, add mimicry vocal to their repertoire of courting methods.
Add accidental cultivation to the list of fascinating features of the bowerbirds.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 26, 2012 -
44 comments
Mining is a dangerous industry, and
Mining Mayhem is a blog that aims to be the definitive resource for photos of mine site incidents and accidents (
mostly from Australian mine sites).
[more inside]
posted by barnacles
on Apr 14, 2012 -
12 comments
Data.gov.au is a site giving public access to datasets from the Australian federal, state and territory governments. It was created in response to the
Declaration of Open Government, which aims to get more citizen collaboration in policy and service delivery design. People are encouraged to use these datasets to produce apps or conduct research. So far the little-publicised site has resulted in apps such as
Dunny Directory,
Convict Records of Australia and
Transhub, a public transport planner for the nation’s capital. If you’re interested in more online government participation in Australia, Craig Thomler is tracking developments on his
eGov AU blog.
posted by harriet vane
on Mar 7, 2012 -
19 comments
"
Rhyece O’Neill is an intense young man. A polemical folk singer, a producer of bass-heavy dance music, a protester, and a digital media worker for a major record label. He’s unlike anyone else in Australia’s dubstep landscape."
Cyclic Defrost interviews O'Neill, aka
electronic/dub/dubstep producer Westernsynthetics, and head of the
Sub Continental Dub label. You can skip the rest and hear
two streaming mixes from Westernsynthetics,
19 tracks from the Sub Continental Dub label, plus
the label's first three singles, or continue inside for background, context, and even more music.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Feb 27, 2012 -
9 comments
"Round here, we say 'mate' a lot. Do yourself a favour, and learn to figure out when a bloke is about to buy you a drink, and when he's ready to put the boot in. He'll say mate either way, but how will he say it? Use
our handy guide to MATE, know what your mates are on about!"
posted by vidur
on Feb 1, 2012 -
35 comments
It's a day of high jinx, high revelry and high people in Australia; a day when a large and vocal majority come together to "celebrate what's great" about this country. But what is the meaning of all this fanfare? What is the true origin of this passionately marked day of facepaint and binge drinking? Is everyone in Australia so keen on this particular anniversary? To get to bottom of these questions, and more, join your amiable host Robert Foster
[previously] as he conducts a high-octane, high-frequency satellite link-up with a representative of the Mainstream Australian media: multi-Logie award-winning broadcaster, entertainer, emu-wrangler and true blue Aussie, Kenneth Oathcarn.
Rap News Episode 11: Australia DayWARNING: contains adult Australian vernacular - viewer discretion is strongly advised.
posted by finite
on Jan 25, 2012 -
12 comments
Before Steve Irwin brought short shorts in Australian television documentarism to the world, there were the earworming
Leyland Brothers,
Malcolm Douglas, the
original and literal "Crocodile Hunter" who
combined conservationism with cooking, and the
dry humourist Alby Mangels, who
had his own personal filming curse,
interviewed Caribbean drug lords,
posed nude (SFW) for Cleo,
filmed through minefields and warzones, and
filmed more than 80 documentaries.
posted by Fiasco da Gama
on Jan 15, 2012 -
14 comments
Time lapse videos can be breathtaking, lovely, and a joy to watch… but they can also show you something you may not have thought about before. Before I even read the caption for Murray Fredericks’ video called "IRIDIUM", I knew it was filmed in the southern hemisphere. Can you guess how? [more inside]
posted by infinite intimation
on Oct 23, 2011 -
14 comments
There's a new crop of Australian bands that take inspiration from old blues, but twist the music in a strange fashion. The trend may have started with
CW Stoneking (Jungle Blues,
Love Me Or Die), who channeled the old bluesmen despite being a
young man. Its continued on to Sydney's
Snowdroppers, who started out as a
house band for burlesque shows and kept that dirty sensibility up with songs like
Rosemary ,
Do The Stomp, and their signature tune
Good Drugs, Bad Women (lyrics NSW). Frequent Snowdroppers touring partners
Gay Paris add a Southern horror twist (
House Fire In the Origami District, My First Wife? She Was A Foxqueen! ) and an antic stage energy. Some of the bands relay on gimmicks, like Adelaide's
The Beards, who sing about how
you should consider having sex with a bearded man and point out that
if your dad doesn't have a beard, you've got two moms. The Beards recently performed at the
World Beard and Mustache Championships. Horror-country-rockers
Graveyard Train have picked up the torch dropped when Sydney psychobilly masters
Zombie Ghost Train (
Graveyard Queen) disbanded. Graveyard Train tunes like
Mummy,
Ballad for Beelzebub ,
Tall Shadow and
Dead Folk Dance combine cheerful Misfits horror theming with stompy country. Most of the singers from this loose scene are joining forces in Sydney this week to
pay tribute to Tom Waits.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn
on Oct 4, 2011 -
32 comments
Male, Female, X - you know what you are Australian passport holders will now get to choose what gender they want to be listed as, with the choices including 'X' for intersex.
(Apologies for the single link. An amazing topic, but I am not the most knowledgeable on this and hope those who are can come and comment on it).
posted by Megami
on Sep 15, 2011 -
76 comments
