FF:QLD News of the Day

Summarised extraordinarily well, Loz.

Mum had to go far, far beyond the call of duty as a teacher last year because a disabled girl's mother was left on her own, unable to afford full-time minder her daughter clearly needed; something the father could covered with barely a dint in his income. It takes a very strong parent to be able to cope under those extreme circumstances, and not everybody has that strength.

Stories like this are exactly why I backed out of journalism. Perfect objectivity is impossible. Even showing "both sides" is a gross simplification. You're turning a complicated situation into something black, white and digestible. Heck, I did exactly that in the paragraph above by "siding" with the mother when I only knew half the story. Heck, I did it in that sentence too by suggesting the story existed in neat halves. Heck, I'm doing now it just by calling it a story.

The best a journalist can hope for is transparency: making the misleading nature of the language and medium as clear as possible. But you're still turning somebody's life into narrative, and it's all too easy to portray a victim of circumstance as a villain.

 

Nicely put too HB, and one of the many reasons I realised Journalism wasn't for me. There is no truth. Just viewpoints. And once it's written, even if tranparent as possible, readers are always coming at the story from somewhere and then the writing belongs to them.

 

RIP Butch Cassidy...
Paul Newman 1925-2008.

 

Not surprising given his age, but sad nonetheless.
Neither cinema nor salad dressing will ever be the same.

 

That sucks I just watched Cars last night.

I'm going to go pour out some caesar dressing on the curb in his honour.

What the hell is it with this year and celebrities dying? At this rate, we're only going to be left with Keith Richards (He died a long time ago, but hell spat him out)

 

MS, the golden age of Hollywood was the 50s/60s. That's 50 odd years ago. All the actors who were young then are old now. Very old. One foot in the grave old. So lots of old people are dying, why so surprised?

 

It's just alot of celebrities this year are dying. Like, more than usual.

 

Man punches shark to save dog

 

Rob Guest dies, aged 57

This sucks! He was really good - I saw him in Phantom, and he was just brilliant as the Wizard in Wicked... I was looking forward to seeing him in other shows... Awww... And he wasn't even that old. Stupid stroke.

 

Noooooooooooo. I have some very limited memories of him in Phantom, mainly because I saw it when I was (relatively) young.

This is a sad day, Rob Guest really was an Aussie theatre legend.

 

Heard this on the radio today too. Really really sad. Glad I got to see him.

 

I'd heard that he'd been admitted to hospital late last night, but was hoping he'd pull through. Very sad news.

What I find tragic is that I've got all these cast albums for various shows I've seen him in and he's not on any of them. I was lucky enough to see him in Phantom in it's original Australian run back in the 90s; he played Valjean brilliantly in the 10th Anniversary revival of Les Miserables (and is one of the few theatre actors in this country with the physical stature to play the character convincingly), and most recently as the Wizard in Wicked. His performance there gave no hint to any frailty whatsoever, he was still at the top of his game.

Be seeing you,

Magnus Darcrider

 

Morgan's special day sparks banner update.

Noname News, October 14 2008.
"Hey, any excuse to rework the banner..." GoobaFish was quoted as saying today. "The banner upgrade will probably be seen to those only who press shift-reload, but it should look alright."
Rumours persist that Goob is re-doing the whole banner for the summer, with the designer himself the one leaking the information.

 

Oh hey


In other news, Ben Croshaw writes opinion piece for news.com.au - "Video Game Censorship and the Art of Horror."

Also, I heard something about Ringo Starr telling fans to stop sending fan mail. Someone also mentioned that he was being replaced on Thomas the Tank Engine, but I've been able to find no proof of this...

 

*opens floodgate*

I meant to post this a little while ago,

No opt-out of filtered Internet

I can't believe the government that I thought was a bit more progressive than this can be so, for lack of a better word, retarded. Fine, you want to protect the kids from naked ladies on the internet. Fine. There are a million ways you could have done that. Like, telling parents to limit the time their children use the internet? Have parents put on there own filters on their own internet?. Who's idea was filtering MY internet, that no children have access to, just in case a horny 12 year-old breaks into my house and uses my computer to look at scat porn? This is just like the filter that China uses. This is going to be a catastrophic waste of money, just like the optional filter that the libs put out. Remember the optional filter that the libs put out?

Australian taxpayers thus spent $2800 for each household protected by this hugely successful initiative.

This is going to be even better -

This is going to strangle the already asphyxiated Australian internet and bump up the prices (people to handle complaints at call centers aren't cheap)

Fortunatly, I don't think this has gone through the senate yet, so there's still hope. I'll be emailing all the politicians that are applicable to air my disgust.

Luckily They give enough Stroganoff at parliament house

 

Indeed Sammich. I've nothing to add except, "Grrr argh, filter bad."

Good to hear - Lord knows what would happen if the Pollies weren't getting enough Strog.

 

Scientist turns to inkjet printer for a new heart.

This sounds fascinating.

 

Before I clicked the link I was hoping it'd be a Tony Stark-esque super-science moment where a scientist used an inkjet printer to create a functioning heart for himself after a nasty accident.

Even so, fascinating story. Basically, he's got the concept for a Gallifreyan Loom right there...

Be seeing you,

Magnus Darcrider

 

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=657558

I highly suggest reading the comments page. Yes, I know it is dangerous but some are amusing, some are just sad, and some just make me angry but anyway - most entertainment to be got out of the comments.

 

Polls on the East Coast have just started closing. Those interested in the America Election might want to start digging up US news sites for coverage.

 

Reports are coming in that voter turnout is unprecedentedly huge, which is a really satisfying thing to hear. People are energised about this one.

 

Well nobody's said it yet, so I suppose I will: Congratulations Barack Obama.

 

Was good that poeple voted. Lucky it didn't rain. Just good Mr Bush is gone. Let's start over.

 

Michael Crichton bows out at 66.

 

Bit wet last night, wasn't it?

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