Politickin Top Five Political Scandals It’s nearly been one year since Kevin “unflavoured for me, please” Rudd stepped his clogs into the Prime Minister’s office. It... Read More

Politickin Top Five Australian Heists The world, in case you hadn’t noticed, is in financial chaos. It’s like Jurassic Park out there, except this time the raptors are subprime... Read More

Politickin Top Five Australian Mysteries It’s getting close to Halloween, and everything’s gone a bit spooky at Merge towers. A lot of people around this time seem to be forgettin... Read More

Top 5 (alleged) Drugs in Politics (allegedly) Everyone loves a loveable stoner – but does that universal law apply to the oft-hated politican? Does a stoned politician or government suddenly become loveable? In light of the recent weed-smoking revelations from Malcolm Turnbull and Julia “Gilchrist” Gillard, we put the tab on the tongue of history to bring you our top five (so... Read More

Top Five Australian Political Slag Offs Ever Let’s face it, the best part about Australian politics is when our elected officials start slagging each other off in Parliament. And what a proud history of slagging off we have in Canberra. As a kind of salute, we now give you the finest five purveyors of abuse ever to stand under the big flagpole. I’m getting all misty-eyed.PETER WAL... Read More

Oz Hip Hop Goes Mainstream Although it’s probably been the case for more than 3 years, definitely 2, Australian Hip Hop is increasingly accepted on mainstream radio waves. However the ARIAS have not really been up with the times and have continued to disappoint fans of the genre with terrible nominations in the “Urban Release” category. This year things are... Read More

Mutiny In The Ranks Mutiny in the ranks is a common political problem andthis week's usurping in the Liberal Party's ranks was, feasibly,a long time coming. What Turnbull does with his slim margin of support remains to be seen, with several political commentators suggesting that he too will be subject to a bit-by-bit whittling away of his authority from within. So in ... Read More

The Senate Gets Hostile As far as Federal politics go, from tomorrow we’re in for some of the most interesting times since Bob Hawke sculled a yard glass outside the hill at Adelaide oval.Tomorrow the new Senate’s term begins in Canberra, bringing with it a raft of changes to the upper house. Most important is the distribution of parties. Kevin Rudd’s Go... Read More

Halftime at the Beijing Olympics So we’re now almost halfway through the Beijing Olympics and already neck-deep in scandal and intrigue.Following an absolute public relations nightmare of a torch relay, things in Beijing kicked off with an inauspicious start on day one with the stabbing murder of an American by a local man. Australian athletes were then urged by the Australi... Read More

Differing Street Views Google Street View has hit the pavements of Australia, and its arrival has caused more than a slight tremor. The revolutionary technology is the stuff CIA spy movies are made of - the "Find me the address of John Doe. Now pan... pan... ENHANCE!" type.Using a series of images snapped from a roaming Google van last year, Google Street View ... Read More

Heating Up Things getting a little warmer around your neck of the woods? Maybe not in Adelaide at the moment (where we had our coldest morning in 25 years today), but lately Kevin Rudd’s definitely been feeling the heat. By now, the phrase “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme” should be tattooed onto the brain of anyone who follows the n... Read More

Protest is Go The public’s right to “annoy” pilgrims gathered for the Catholic youth festival, World Youth Day, in Sydney has been restored after the controversial state law prohibiting such actions was reversed. People are grabbing packets of condoms by the bag-full and heading to Sydney to annoy the papal-enthusiasts with their prophylactics.... Read More

Salute to Peter Norman Salute is due for its cinematic release later this week, a timely debut for a film that focuses on the theme of human rights at an Olympic games.Matt Norman’s documentary of his uncle’s silver-medal performance in the 1968 Mexico Olympics is a compelling and emotive story of a proud Australian and an even prouder humanist. The fact that... Read More

Go-Go Cops of the Olympics Is Beijing prepared for every contingency come August when those five coloured rings join together in celebration of peace, internationalism and sportsmanship? You bet!These pictures are from one of China’s official State newspapers.Described as China’s “laugh riot police” on one blog, the gang of go-go copslookas though it ... Read More

Worst Dressed - Ever News Flash: Adelaide possibly the most unoriginal city in Australia. Wecould hardly believe what we read this morning on theAdelaideNowwebsite.Although,over on Waymouth Street, they liked to put the emphasisin otherplaces and give it a different title, the story "CousinsSuits Himself" was a harsh indictment of Adelaide'ssense of... well p... Read More

A Creepy ol' Place Locals are a little tired of hearing about Adelaide’s rep. as the “serial-killer capital of the world” and Andrew Cowen’s exhibition, Adelaide 1966 - 1999 very much rubs salt into these wounds. The exhibition, which was shown at the hyper-cool Monster Children Gallery in Sydney, demonstrates the morbid curiosity interstaters... Read More

lesbians Not Lesbos When is a Lesbian not a lesbian? A court in Athens this month is being occupied with the case of big “L” versus little “l” lesbians. The isle of Lesbos in Greece, was home to a sixth century BC poet named Sappho who used to write ditties about women she’d like to bone. Subsequently in the 1700s the word lesbian started... Read More

Kanga Cull Eat it, wear it, but don’t kill it, seems to be the lesson learned from Canberra’s Kangaroo Cull experiment. Australians and the world, raised a figurative eyebrow last month when ACT chief minister John Stanhope elected to put around 400 kangaroos “to sleep” rather than relocate the community of marsupials.The Problem:ACT a... Read More

Bill Henson - Artiste or Kiddie Pornographer? Bill Henson will learn this week whether NSW police will press charges over his photography of a 13-year-old girl posing nude.Portrayed as the “controversial artist” by mainstream media, Henson enjoys wide support from the art community, who believe the police’s actions in seizing up to 21 photographs from the Roslyn Oxley9 Galler... Read More

The Media Binge It’s the moral panic of the moment: young people binge drinking. And whether you’re panicking yet or not, there’s no denying that it’s one topic that’s getting more than just one night out in the media. The basic idea of a ‘binge’ is drinking 5 or more (for guys) / 4 or more (for girls) alcoholic drinks in ... Read More

Burning Art Although the Olympic torch's Aussie moment came and went, the controversy surrounding this year's torch relay is far from snuffed out. Alongside the throngs of pro-Tibet and pro-China protestors, street art has played an important role in activism - and raising awareness of just what everyone's yammering on about. Yesterday pro-Tibet protestors unf... Read More

Is Graff A Lost Art? It’s big, it’s black* it’s straight out of Iraq and it’s hitting up the streets. But look out! You might not even see it because rather than its army fatigues, the new Hummer is sporting modern urban-camouflage digs. Hummer’s Australian billboard advertising campaign calls into question the legitimacy with which graffi... Read More

(Half a) Whale of a Time Japan is reporting a lower-than-expected haul caught during its controversial whaling season. The Japanese Fisheries Ministry reports that the Antarctic fleet – which docked back in Tokyo this morning – reeled in just 551 minke whales, falling short of the target of 900. Japan’s yearly minke whale catch has hovered around the 550 ... Read More

Long Road to Now There is no short history on the conflict that exists between the People’s Republic of China and Tibetan nationalists. The earliest record of Tibetan and Chinese relations dates back to the 7th Century AD when King Namri Lonstansent two embassies to China in 608 and 609. Since then, Tibet has ranged from influential empire to subjugated and d... Read More

Carrying a Torch Passions continue to burn over the Olympic torch relay, as the baton snakes its way towards Australia. News today suggests that a group of up to 500 pro-Chinese students will make their way to Canberra in order to defend the flame from protesters who may attempt to extinguish it. Amid rising security concerns, acting PM Julia Gillard says that Aust... Read More

Close The Gap April 22 marks Close The Gap day where every Australian can demonstrate their commitment to eliminating the disparity in Indigenous access to health services. Close The Gap relates specifically to closing the 17-year life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and other Australians. Oxfam is running with the momentum of Febru... Read More

K-Rudd made of steel? PrimeMinister Kevin Rudd has been received with open arms in Washington and right across the United States where his official visit winds up this week.Meeting with world leaders, including the President, the head of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and UN Secretary General: Ban Kai-moon, the Prime Minister seemed at home in the halls of ... Read More

Bullshitting bullshitters Religion is a tricky one. Many moons ago, well after humans crawled out of swamps, the collective intelligence grappled - as we do now - with the eternal question: 'How the bloody hell did we get here?' Not content with: 'Not sure about that', various documenters of civilisations around a disconnected world began that fine human characteristic whic... Read More

Dubious Moments in Australian History: Dodgiest 5 Prime Ministers In Ken Bell's extremely subjective, historically possibly not-entirely-accurate opinion, here's the dodgiest Prime Ministers in Australia's glorious history.Illustrations by Owen Lindsay.5. Billy Hughes (27 October 1915 - 9 February 1923)Representing a total of four electorates in two different states, and changing political parties five times, Bil... Read More

The Invasion of Wright! Joh Trueman’s first visit to my adopted hometown of Gold Hills was unheralded. I had no idea who he was, and he couldn’t tell me apart from any other voter. When I arrived at the small Gold Hills Hotel, dictaphone and pad in hand, I’d only planned to sit in on a meeting between local wheat growers and Trueman’s Farmers&rsquo... Read More

The Nation In keeping with this issue’s theme, think of recent political events in this country within the context of a night out on the tiles.As a starting point, we need to set the scene. ‘The Nation’ could be the name of our three-storied mega-club. The Federal Parliament on level two, is the club-within-a-club where a reasonably popular ... Read More