Poke! What I've read today! (8th August 2011)

You did it, Kate! [Brisbane Times]
A bit of an attempt for entertainment news here. After 13 weeks of constant competition and restless cooking challenges, Kate Bracks, from Orange, NSW, has finally beat Michael Weldon in the final episode of Masterchef 2011. A mother of three has a talent on making desserts, and luckily the challenge was also making a dessert in the final pressure test where Kate and Michael battled to claim the Masterchef position. While Michael has unfortunately got fewer marks than Kate on the final challenge, he's still got an opportunity to expand his culinary knowledge with the judges after the competition at their respective restaurants, which I think it's not too bad at all. Whilst there are joy and tears over the air, Channel Ten was critisised by shoving an episode of The Renovators in the middle of the Masterchef finale which people flamed over Twitter and other social media platforms.

Poor baby whale washed ashore [Brisbane Times]
I'm sucker on marine science so I always don't understand why whales and dolphins tend to wash themselves ashore, but around midnight at Surfer's Paradise beach in Gold Coast, a whale calf aged only about 2 weeks old has washed ashore and now the calf has been moved into a makeshift pool on the beach in an effort to make it alive longer. Beaching whales are usually caused by currents and wind which carried them close to the coastline and some due to illness or injury, according to Wikipedia. But without human intervention, the whales that have washed ashore will end in inevitable death. Sad stuff.

Australian Sharemarket plunged as expected [The Australian]
Yesterday, analysts have predicted after the downgrade of US credit rating, and now the S&P/ASX 200 has opened down by 84.1 points (2.1%), taking the local market to its lowest level since July 2009, a two-year low. What I can foresee is there will surely be another downturn on global economy.



D.