As it's going through a dust storm rather unlike any other

Australia is seriously just one of the most awesome places in the whole world.





( These photos are not tinted or doctored! )

Feeling very bad for the asthmatics in Sydney though. Take care of yourselves!

But most importantly, the new dinosaurs have been affectionately named after old-school poets and Waltzing Matilda.

Yup. That's us. Calling a titanosaur 'Matilda.'

The awesome artist and bewylderbeast is seeking to help the Scottish Badgers through the sale of her artwork. I'll gank a section of her wordpress post about it here:

"Scottish Badgers work to preserve Scotland’s badgers, their setts and their habitats, but their valuable work is under threat due to shortages in funding.

To help raise some funds, I am hoping to sell a load of my artwork.

From Wednesday 1st July to Wednesday 8th July, you can make me an offer for any piece of my work that is for sale. Once postage costs and paypal fees have been taken off your payment, the rest of what you give will be donated to Scottish Badgers."

Click here for the awesome artwork officially for sale, and here for the artwork that *may* be for sale or contact her directly at emma@urbanimal.co.uk

And pass it around. :)

Might I add that this is an awesome offer. bewylderbeast does amazing artwork (I own two pieces), and you are buying a piece from someone who, like myself, works very hard to ensure a connection to the animal energy / animal she is working with. It's very cool stuff. Please check it out.

Ganked from jamethiel_bane

Wallabies hopping into poppy patches and getting high. Whoops! Crop circles of stoned happy-hoppiness and everything!

A study of 50,000 people via Tohoku University in Japan, shows that obese and overweight people are likely to live longer than those of different physiques.

(Although it also shows that we cost more in medical expenses. Lol).

I am generally against banning things in the media, but one thing I would like to see banned is the Labor government's 'Clean Feed' ISP (and Stephen Conroy, if possible!), designed to slow down the internet throughout Australia due to an outdated and outmoded concept of 'censorship.'

This Clean Feed, which is planned to be implemented throughout Australia, will cost at the very least, millions of taxpayers money (which includes, fellow Australians, YOUR money), in order to 'block' what the government feels (not you) are unsavoury websites. In the Clean Feed fantasy land, these unsavoury websites will stop pedophiles from contacting each other. In reality land, everything that the government doesn't want you to access will be blocked. This includes LEGAL content. If you are an Australian, or living in Australia, this will affect you unless you speak up and do something about it. and even if you don't live in Australia this will affect you because you'll suddenly have millions of grumpy Australians complaining about their slow, sheepified Internet connections even more than they do now....

Two points remain true:

1. The Clean Feed ISP can be routed around in a few hours, meaning that it's not going to stop any Internet criminal activity in Australia. Believe me, I will be routing around it, and so should any other intelligent Australian who believes in freedom of information - especially that which is legal!

2. It will slow down everyone's Internet throughout Australia, and cost YOU money; in a nation where we have some of the most backwards internet speeds, telecommunications technology and policies in the Western world.

The Clean Feed concept has been virtually condemned by every intelligent, educated person out there. The public, other ISPs, individual State governments, media and censorship folk, and of course lowly media analysts like myself.

( want to read more? Want to know what you can do? read on, dear reader, read on... )







Information sourced primarily from: http://nocleanfeed.com/
under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia licence.

ETA: Just to prove that the Clean Feed is being used for the 'good of all,' the Wikileaks ACMA black-list of sites so far also includes sites that support abortion, euthanasia, a photo of a dentist (which has apparently since been cleaned up) among other things. Sound like a policy that's worth paying millions for?

The double miracle of Kinglake couple - seriously, read it.

Death toll has reached 108; still climbing. This stands as Australia's deadliest natural disaster since records began

All the fire areas where people have died have been declared crime scenes by the arson squad :/ The police have already said that they will try and charge any arsonists with murder, and if they can't get murder on the table; then manslaughter.

I'm not sure if any of you are aware outside of Australia, but currently there are 20 out of control bushfires of epic proportions raging in Victoria. Over 50 people have lost their lives, and that's a conservative estimate. It already has a Wikipedia article - which reports 65 dead and 640 homes burnt to the ground.

As well as the victims of this tragedy, can you please keep my friend and spiritual brother-in-arms riven_scythe in your thoughts at this time; he's currently got all his belongings packed with his family and is waiting to see if they'll need to evacuate their house, as the fires are predicted to hit their area soon.

Only at my highschool; I have to say, I'm not surprised. Go Johnno! *sigh*

Perth school investigated for conducting an illicit 'fight club' and posting the fights on YouTube

Yup. That's where I got my first class education. *roll eyes*

The many adventures of the amazing, travelling Boab tree - 700 year old boab, weighing 36 tonnes makes 3000km journey from the Kimberley in North Western Australia, to Kings Park (twenty minutes from where I live! Lol) with the blessings of its Indigenous Gija custodians.

It's things like this that reminds me how damned big Western Australia is in the first place.

Seriously, this whole thing makes me smile.