Poke! Close roads all around!; Eidfest (3rd September 2011)

I was insanely busy today as I had to take my exam in the morning and head to a Muslim cultural event in the afternoon so I'll just have a short update for today!

Road closures as Riverfire starts so soon! [Queensland Police Service | Facebook]
I woke up this morning and assuming that the road across the river will still be open, but I'm horribly wrong. Apparently there will be so many road closures during the Riverfire event, and buses will divert their routes to other places. So commuters, better watch out! Or just ride your bike when you need to!

Eidfest, a very important Muslim cultural event held today [Quest | Courier Mail]

Speaking of events, there is another event going on at Mount Gravatt Showgrounds today from 10am to 9pm. I personally just went there before the writing of this entry. It was a very harmonic event where people share their food and culture. You can see different language speaking people come together to appreciate this festival, which is very lovely. More on that later on Focus!



D.

Poke! Punch bear to save dog!; North Korea's first cruise ship; Riverfire (2nd September 2011)

Soft-news today. Relax and stop reading critics about Julia Gillard and her supportive team!

Alaska woman punches bear, saved her dog [Brisbane Times]

BAM!! In your face, bear!

A very courageous but life-risking act by a 22-year-old girl, who did the first thing she thought of and punched the bear's face and scooped away her dog when it let go. Brooke Collins saw the black bear was attacking her dog as the bear was carrying her dog away just like a salmon. So imagine, as your precious puppy friend was in danger, would you just dash to the bear and punch it into the nose? I bet not. But the scenario would be quite funny as. The dog suffered minor claw marks and bites, and looks like the girl has conquered the wild!

North Korea launches its first cruise ship [Brisbane Times]

I think this is a rather ironic news for North Korea because it has been cut away from the outside world for decades, and the people in there are suffering from poverty and strange government. But the regime had invited more than 120 journalists and Chinese tour operators on board the newly-renovated, 39-year-old Man Gyong Bong ship for a trial run of the 21-hour journey. Inside it is surely not as glamorous as those cruise ships we'd think. Instead, passengers has to sleep on the floor and bathrooms are out of water as well. Apparently the government is trying to whack up their tourism a bit just to support their ever-failing economy. Nice try though, but I think I'll never go there EVER in my life. Think of this: no water? sleeping on the floor? I'm not gonna pay for that for my vacation!

Riverfire! Riverfire! Riverfire! [Quest | Courier Mail]

South Bank will be a rather packed place because Riverfire is coming on Saturday! This year's highlight will be the fireworks used in the event. The crew this year has prepared 4000 aerial rockets, and 15,000 shooting comets and mines during the course of 3-month preparation. However, this year we will not be able to see the chopper throwing down fireballs though. But anyhow, tourists and crowds alike will certainly enjoy this wonderful evening with fireworks all bloomed across the night. I hope I can get on with my mates together and shove in with all the people gathered along the riversides

D.

Poke! Smoking ban started in QSM; 12-year-old-boy got tased; synthetic burger meal (1st September 2011)

Queen Street Mall now banned smoking, Cancer Council praises [Quest | Courier Mail]

Having so many smokers gathered around the cross area in Queen Street Mall, I usually walk quicker than I need just to get past them. Now on 1st September, Brisbane City Council has initiated the smoking ban across Queen Street Mall, and from now on, there will be no second-hand smoke that considered harmful to human bodies flying around. Good news for Cancer Council as they advocates on helping people to quit smoking, and Anne Savage, chief communications officer for Cancer Council Queensland, believe this demonstrates Brisbane is one of the most progressive cities in the world. Well, in this case, I think the next step would be allowing gay-marriage. Wouldn't it be amazing if the state government really pass this law one day?

In Ipswich, police tased 12-year-old boy armed with a meat cleaver [Courier Mail]

The boy went on a rampage at his Ipswich home.
Credit: Brisbane Times (Twitter Link)

A little back story should be explained before parents ranted and despised by what the police has done to this kid. Apparently, this boy is suffering from Aspergers Syndrome, but manifested itself into severe paranoia, causing him to wield with a meat cleavers, an axe and knives. Without having any heavily armed weapon, the only way police can deal with this situation is to forcefully tase the boy onto his knees. I totally stand on the side of the police this time, as they have used a relatively safe way in order to prevent anyone from injuries and even death. But in the same time, I felt pity for this boy as he is suffering the mental disorder and he couldn't simply help himself. The boy was then taken to the Royal Brisbane Hospital for medical treatment.

Researchers close to creating synthetic meat from stem cells [News.com.au]

A controversial topic for meat lovers and animal activists alike. Using stem cells to create meat seemed to be a viable alternative to the traditional method of killing cattle and poultry. The main concern is possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars will be needed to clump together a single test-tube burger slice, as well as the time needed to grow it into full shape. They predicted the first ever synthetic sausage could be just six months away. Well, it won't be anyone from the street who could afford a thousand-dollar hot dog, I assume.

D.

Poke! Rejected people-swap deal; CCTV leak-out!; 3 days to surrender (31st August 2011)

Julia Gillard's Malaysian people-swap deal not passed [Brisbane Times] 

Asylum seeker issue has been a mess throughout the years, and I also find it very complex for a foreigner like me to apprehend the whole thing. Julia Gillard's government proposed to swap Asylum seekers from all around the place to be put in Malaysia. But their so-called border protection policy is deemed as unlawful after the court has heard a challenge to the controversial policy brought by refugee lawyers on behalf of two asylum seekers. Since Malaysian is not a part of the UN's refugee agreement, as mentioned by Australian National University international law expert Donald Rothwell, he believes that this is the likely key factor that the court decided not to pass the deal. I believe for the people who are seeking refuge from Australia are obviously looking for protection from war, poverty and so on. I don't understand why the government led by Gillard has to impel this kind of senseless deal in order to bounce back the issue of this country. It just doesn't make sense!

CCTV footage captured people having sex, brawling in casino, leaked on Internet [Courier Mail]

It was thought that an angry employee has leaked this footage on YouTube, and police are now trying to figure out if this act is illegal and can they put on charges. Another thing that concerned people is the privacy involved on using CCTV to monitor everyone in the vicinity. This type of videos showed us how we are being watched in public. Whether you're eating, running around, or just simply sitting at the table, you're in one part of surveillance camera. Freedom and privacy are lost completely.

3 days left for surrender for Gadhafi loyalists [Brisbane Times]

As rebels are now taking over the lead, Libya's opposition has issued a deadline for cities that are still being held by Gadhafi's loyalists to surrender, or they will take military measures against them. Meanwhile Algerian government confirmed it had provided a safe haven for the fallen dictator's wife, Safia, his daughter, Aisha, sons Hannibal and Mohammed and their children. That triggered the National Transitional Council's anger and they described Algeria's action to shelter Gadhafi's family members as 'an act of aggression', and they vowed to take down whoever supports Gadhafi. The story continues.

D.

Poke! Lucky fella; Dumping $50,000 worth of gold; supermarkets' dominance (30th August 2011)

Man stabbed himself on the head with shears, NO DIE [Brisbane Times]

Arizona, US - an old man accidentally impaled himself with a pair of pruning shears on the head, but he turned out okay and survived with a near miss. This happened at his place while he was working in his garden. He dropped the shears on the ground landed up-side-down. He then proceed to pick it up but failed to balance himself and fell onto the shear ended up having the handle went through into his eye socket and down his neck. He was immediately sent to hospital and surgeons removed the shears and rebuilt his orbital floor with metal mesh, saving his eye. I shouldn't say 'miraculous' but he is such a hell of a lucky fella.

$50,000 worth of gems and gold, dumped [Brisbane Times]

You old fool! Putting valuable gold ingots and jewellery into a garbage bag when packing for moving houses? This man accidentally threw away $50,000 worth of gold in the bin while cleaning out the family garage as they are moving house. Since then, he has yet to find that 3 bags of gold he had split. Normally it would be impossible for the garbage people to look for it since garbage bags has no indication of where they came from. But well, who knows? Maybe some day in the future they would be able to find it back! Even Caloundra landfill's co-ordinator of recovery and diversion Gary Reeve said 'it is hard enough to find it straight away but imagine going back a week later and trying to find it.' Wish you luck, mister!

Heinz blasts supermarket power [Brisbane Times]

I studied Economics when I was in high school but I didn't end up well in the public exam, but that's my fault. But who could fathom that Australia's two top supermarket chain, Woolies and Coles, are making such a hassle for the global food manufacturers? HJ Heinz, the company that sells my favourite food as a kid, baked beans, singled out the Australian market as the most difficult one to deal with among the rest of the world. Both supermarket companies are taking measures on slashing the prices of their own respective home-brand products, making other branded products lose it margin and pressured them to lower their prices as well. I don't understand the principles behind this, but I surely felt pity for them because it's almost impossible for them to compete when their products are put in places with the cheap home-branded products.

D.

Focus: Lecture - Age of Web News?

This week's lecture, we took a ship into the recent changes regarding to the news industry, especially with the printed media like newspaper and magazines.

Back in the old times, people consume 'old' media like newspapers before the dawn of the TV age. People buy them almost every day and newspaper companies make profits with classifieds and advertisements. People in the industry once regard classifieds as 'the river of gold'. But since the world wide web has dominated the media-scape with unlimited possibility, the old media started to fade out to the back stage, and people prefer not to buy the newspapers since there are news on the web that is free-of-charge.

People turned to their computers whenever they feel need to.

The web itself has changed dramatically through the time as well. First, there is Web 1.0, where the web is purely information-oriented. Companies post information on their website, and people use Internet browsers read them. Without using hyperlinks and pure information, there wouldn't be much interaction involved.

Now though, we are standing on the ground of the Web 2.0 age, where people share information using services like Flickr, Facebook, etc. It becomes more social-oriented. People who browse the web also are the producers of certain materials like photos, music and videos, we are also called 'Prod-users' as coined by Axel Bruns as we both are contributors and consumers of Internet media.

In the coming future, or maybe even earlier than we think, we will be entering the age of Web 3.0, where the web becomes a unified knowledge base. Using meta-tagging and search engine, machines can understand sentences and interpret them into useful information that fetch back to us. Every piece of information that sends to users will be customised, tailored and localised to fit them as best as it can.

However, with all these changes on the Internet, what left alone are the old-age media. Newspaper became less significant compared to 20 or 30 years ago, since readers prefer to read all the news on the web. Also, since the information provided to the users are hyper-localised and centralised according to their interests and values, readers become more ignorant and they started to lack common sense and general knowledge of things around them.

People now tend to take 'free news' for granted, and they feel entitled to have it for free. This really hurt the news industry as they heavily relied on revenues from advertising and reader-contributed classifieds. Newspaper companies now have their own website for news for quite some time, but in the future, they could no longer survive if they continue to provide free news. So a rather drastic change is needed in order to provide quality journalism.

News companies like The Times in the UK has used a membership-based subscription for their website, where readers can pay for a certain amount of money to read in-depth news, columns and commentary that would have been available for free in the past. So that makes people who have membership to gain privileges while news companies can generate revenue alternative to traditional printed media with ads and classifieds.

Paywall might be the only thing that saves people from reading low-quality news and sketchy 'investigative journalism' where some dodgy journalists nowadays only rely social media like Twitter and Facebook to research topic, which is quite daunting. And I certainly hope that in order to maintain a high standard of journalism, news companies will take this seriously while providing premium content, since people would not pay for it if the already premium content are in low quality in general.

In addition to this, I have read this piece of writing earlier where the author discussed about where we were in regard to the connection between people and media, as well as provided a future perspective on where we will be. A quite thought-provoking article that made me realise how drastic changes had taken place in the recent past, especially in the media side. Have a read!

D.

Poke! Continued search at Logan fire house; Toddler died with injuries; Parenting stopped as smacking not allowed (29th August 2011)

Logan fire house investigation continues [Brisbane Times]

Today, forensics and police have returned to the house in Logan where 11 lives were taken to continue the investigation for cause of the fire. Police say the fire appears to be started from a office downstairs and quickly engulfed the 2-story house. They also say the complexity of the fire makes it difficult to investigate, but they disagreed that the fire may have been deliberately lit. Meanwhile, at Logan City there's a festival being held but the event manager wanted to call it off since the secretary of the festival, Treicee Taufa, lost her daughter, Ardelle, in the fire. However Treicee insisted that the event has to be continued. Stay strong, even though it's heartbreaking to lose their families in the fire, the community will give their continued support to this family no matter what circumstances.

Toddler died with unknown injuries [news.com.au]

A quite unsettling story has happened on weekend last week in Newcastle where a 2-year-old toddler was found injured and quickly later she was rushed into hospital but died a short time after. After the girl's death, the parents of the child were being questioned but police have yet to charged anyone. Police are now investigating the reason behind the injuries while the toddler's uncle has called the Department of Community Services over fears for the girl's safety before the incident, however he was told to 'mind their own business' which really upsets me about their conducts of treating their calls. I found it quite mind-boggling that what's actually happened behind this injuries even though their parents seemed to have nothing to do about it. The investigation continues.

Parents give up on parenting as the law forbids them to smack their children [Courier Mail]

As I have written before in my blog where I do believe smacking in some occasion is appropriate to discipline children who refused to be nice and good, since they don't like the 'soft' way of negotiating with parents so a more 'hard' and radical measure has to be done. However, some parents though, they basically are helpless without smacking, and little did they know about basics of parenting. Since the law have passed that smacking your kid is equal to assault, they have stopped their disciplining and parenting altogether, letting their children to push beyond the boundary. That's no good for a child's development since they have the full right on doing what they want without consequences. I believe parents have to be considerate and understand their importance on the kid's upbringing, and to understand how they teach the children is also very crucial as well. Simply let them to roam without limit basically creates another social problem in the society.

D.

Poke! Daniel's bone confirmed; Hurricane development (28th August 2011)

Sorry all, I am so busy on other assignments for other courses so I could only write up to 2 post today.

Bones found on site confirmed as Daniel's [Brisbane Times]
Eight years of searching, while the family is hoping to get to an end to this nightmare, the bones found at Daniel Morcombe's search site earlier has confirmed as Daniel's after a week of DNA analysis from the top Adelaide forensic laboratory. Now the police has to connect the evidence to the charged man, Brett Peter Cowan, to see if the collected evidence can support the charges against him. I'm looking forward to see who would be finally charged and pleaded guilty. But still, this case has years before it comes to an end.

Hurricane Irene showing her might while death roll starts to rise [Brisbane Times]
American east coast is now under Hurricane Irene's strong gust and storm with 9 people have died. The youngest victim, an 11-year-old boy, died when a tree crashed through his apartment building in Newport News, Virginia. New York has become a ghost town as thousands of people evacuated from the Big Apple. Besides of those, Irene has cut out electricity, triggered cancellation of more than 8000 flights. But the big city of New York is feared that the hurricane will bring floods to the business district, while the skyscapers are not at risk of serious damage.



D.