Poke! Kittens season; suitable time for kids to start school? (17th September 2011)

Is 3 articles a day too much? What if two? Is that too few? Allow me to improve myself in quality over quantity in this coming week.

Warnings from RSPCA as kitten breeding season is approaching [AM | ABC]

Spring is usually a period where animals and plants flourish, and yet this is the exact problem the animal community will face in the coming few months as the breeding season for cats and kittens is near. In this very season, RSPCA will have to put down tens of thousands of cats and kittens but we can definitely do something to prevent overbreeding among felines. On the other hand, the psychological stress of putting down animals is also very severe among workers.

They have to decide out of every five kittens that are coming into a shelter, which four are going to die and which one lives. It's actually been shown that 50 per cent of those workers will end up with post traumatic stress syndrome [...] Desex early and avoid what is called spay delay [...] Kittens can be pregnant by the time they're four months of age, so it's so important that you have your cat desexed so that it doesn't breed and do it early before they actually start to come into heat.

In the article, they also mentioned calling on landlords to allow pets in their properties as this is one of the major reason people have to dump their pets on the streets because of the "no pets allowed" regulation. But still, I think people should consider thoroughly before owning a pet, including all the little things that need to be concerned. It is a life promise to keep a pet as well as your own. I hate to see when people have to put away their newly-bought pets because of simple reasons like the one above.

What age should your children start school? [Brisbane Times]

I was the early bunch of children to start school, as I started my Kindergarten year at 2 and a half years old, and primary school at around 5. There were concerns about me whether I was ready to handle the new environment and studies. Here is an article about what should parents consider before putting their early children into schools. The majority believes that we have to see if the kid is confident and mature enough to go to school, as these factors contribute his outcome in his academical results and other things.

"You really want your child to be confident enough to speak to adults, to be able to make their needs known, and not to go to pieces if something doesn't go right." [...] "In general, we find that it's better for children to turn six, not five, in their first year of school. We like to see the children set up for success and to fly, rather than it be a struggle. We find the younger ones are tired, they have trouble concentrating, and they're not as ready to learn as the older children. The clever children who are young still find it harder than the older children to cope emotionally and socially at school.''

As you may see, age does not determine the kid to be ready for school, but the emotion and intellectual readiness of the whole "school" thing. So parents shouldn't force their kids to go to school too early. Also, don't think they would miss out a whole year's opportunity if they don't start early.

D.

Poke! Too many fire incidents; Rudd says NO; Sleepbox design (16th September 2011)

5 fire incidents took on in Brisbane area today [Courier Mail]

Not something we'd usually see every day, but today, there were 5 fire emergencies happening in Brisbane area that kept firemen so busy.

...A quarter of the Carindale PCYC building at Narracott St, Carina, has been damaged after a fire struck the building this afternoon... ...A large bushfire was burning on the corner of Creek and Wynnum Rds at Cannon Hill, with embers from the fire flying onto the roofs of nearby houses... ...a major fire was burning at Springfield Lakes, on the corner of Grande Ave and Greenbank Arterial Rd... Fire crews are on their way to another fire which has broken out at a house in Karragarra Island near Redland Bay... 

The fire crews however, worried that the hut may have been chemicals in the buildings at the Redland Bay location. Apparently no people were hurt during these fire incidents, and several of them might be caused by the dry and windy weather which triggers bushfire.

Rudd not foreseeing himself as PM in the near future [Courier Mail]

"No." He said as he was asked by the media whether he will be the next Prime Minister of Australia, and apparently he is not very looking forward to be PM again in a short time. He was first being pushed away by Julia Gillard back in June last year, and since then, he was taking some millions of travelling across the globe as a foreign affairs minister. Poor Rudd, I actually like him a lot, as he can speak Mandarin better than I do.

The question was a double-barrelled one at the end of Mr Rudd's speech to the Asia Foundation, asking: "Do you foresee yourself stepping back into the role of Prime Minister and will the Wallabies win the World Cup?" He replied: "Let me take those in the reverse order: Yes and no."

Gallery: Sleepbox, a design that lets people to sleep when layover [Gizmodo]

Look at this smart design that aims to minimise the scene of travellers sleeping in airports when their flights were cancelled or delayed. It is a very dilemmatic situation as a traveller - No hotel rooms for a night's stay, yet stranded in the airport and you've virtually no choice but to stay in airport. But fret not! The Sleepbox will save the day!

we have developed a device SLEEPBOX. It provides moments of quiet sleep and rest from the city without wasting time searching for a hotel... ...Thanks to SLEEPBOX any person has an opportunity to spend the night safely and cheaply in case of emergency, or when you have to spend few hours with your baggage.

D.

Poke! New plans for NASA; Media inquiry; Gillard shooed by driver (15th September 2011)

NASA announces new design for future space exploration plans [NASA]

Such an exciting news for space fans! Back then when the last shuttle was launched in July, I was so devastated seeing that every staff in the shuttle program has to be fired, and we don't know what will NASA do to the mighty astronauts. But now, NASA has moved forward, trying to get onto the next step after the space shuttle program, taking the spacemen to ever further into the solar system - This includes "near-Earth asteroids, Mars and beyond."

...an advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new national capability for human exploration beyond Earth's orbit. The Space Launch System will give the nation a safe, affordable and sustainable means of reaching beyond our current limits and opening up new discoveries from the unique vantage point of space.

I'm just waiting for the day as the mankind revisits the moon. This also makes me kind of jealous baby-boomers had witnessed that in their life long before I was born.

Media, and their conducts are being "probed" [Crikey]

Quite an interesting read by Bernard Keane denoting the state of the media nowadays as the Labor government has started their inquiry on the media available in Australia, and see if they are doing something not quite right. Knowing I just had this lecture about media's future, some concerns here were also mentioned in the lecture. In the article, it says about whether the dominance of Rupert Murdoch's media empire is hurting the overall scope of media in Australia, also the decline of revenue a news company is making. Also, as the online community of news is blooming every minute, and some content are quite controversial and prohibited for the public, is it a concern as well that they will start control the content available on the Internet?

The better news for the print media is that the terms specifically open up a discussion about support for quality journalism, which may mean some form of financial support... ...This could be a tough sell, not for any inherent flaws in the argument, but because the term “quality journalism”, despite having the status of motherhood, tends to be a loaded one, associated with one model of professional journalist and the companies that employ them, and the economic model that funds what is ultimately an output that costs far more than it can ever generate in revenue (see classified advertising, death of).

As a journalism student, I can't help but cringed about the fact that the industry of journalism is not what I hope to be - simple, just do your job. But what I've studied and read during this few months, it doesn't seem to be as same as the "good ol' days."

HA! Julia Gillard refused by driver in New Zealand [Brisbane Times]

New Zealand officials have apologised to Prime Minister Julia Gillard after a driver refused to let her on to a bus with other leaders during the Pacific Islands forum in Auckland last week, telling her instead to get on the spouses' bus.

Apparently, the Kiwis are misled by the stereotypes that all males are politicians and females are only their wives. During the Pacific Island forum, due to security reasons, spouses are required to travel in separate buses. That gets the driver, who was with other leaders, telling Julia to get on the spouses' bus instead of his.

Cracker! But after that, he was immediately informed about the mistake and she was then let into the bus. What a day for Miss Gillard! By the way, Poor Tim...

D.

Poke! Farewell to victims of Slacks Creek house fire;

Thought I should do a little change to the format for the Poke entries. I want to clean it up to make the news and my comments to look clearer.

Funeral service held yesterday for Slacks Creek house fire victims [Courier Mail]
Earlier back in August, a house fire has completely destroyed a family at Logan. Today, the farewell has to be done.

A FUNERAL service for a mother and her five children who perished in the Slacks Creek house fire last month has commenced in Mt Gravatt this morning.

Indeed a very sad day for the community, and the Samoan family has to send their loved ones to their last resting place. People dresses in black, some extended families dresses in Samoan traditional clothing while the crowd places their flowers and give their tributes by attending the funeral. Around 1500 people were gathered outside Mount Gravatt's Hillsong Church. May the victims rest in peace.

Sex went wrong! [Courier Mail]

In Rome, Italy, a BDSM performed by a man to 2 girls has ended up killing one of them! She was died of suffocation when Soter Mule strangled her with a rope. Also there is another woman in the same scene where she participated being tied together as well.

It is alleged the two women were tied tightly together with the same rope. When the unnamed woman fainted, Ms Caputo was suffocated.

Dodgy sex is dodgy. I think no one wants to be killed whilst enjoying the pleasure of sex, right? Why does this BDSM exist in the first hand anyway? I guess sometimes people are having too much things in their mind.

Comics based on the voice of PhD students coming to theatres [Wired.com]

One thing that PhD student has, is lazy between research and more research. One source of spending their time is to read PhD Comics, have a crack, and get back to their boring work. But now, the group behind the comics are planning to move these into the big screen of cinemas.

LOL. Being a research student is hard!

While graduate students everywhere were waiting impatiently for a new comic strip, the reason for idleness was soon revealed: Jorge teamed up with some uber geeks at Caltech to produce a live-action film adaptation of his comics — the popular comic characters Cecilia, Mike Slakenerny, Tajel, and the Nameless Grad Student finally come to life, their roles played by real-world grad students.

Well, I'm not really sure if that's a good idea, putting a comic into a film. Seeing that most of the superhero comics are turning into movies in Hollywood and I hated all of them, I am a bit skeptical about this trend.

D.

Focus: Lecture - Public Media

To contrast with last week's lecture about commercial media, we looked at the complete opposite of it, and it's called public media.

But first, in honour of my city, let's take a look at the public media in Hong Kong.

Back in Hong Kong, the only public media organisation I know of is Radio Television Hong Kong, or RTHK in short. They have produced so much interesting contents and feature for the viewers and listeners alike. Not only that, they also help produce education TV programmes with the Education Bureau for primary school students and they used to put them on-air every weekdays. However, they now distribute them online instead of broadcasting on television. RTHK also produce and broadcast programmes and meetings happening in the Legislative Council Building, the place where politicians debate about many issues in the Hong Kong society.

So. What is public media? According to the lecture, it is a media that aims to serve and engage a public, and they support public and the progress of democracy. Every public media should have a public value, a so-called 'public service ethos'. The productions of public media should also of value of public's fee that has given to them, in the case of Australia, it would be taxpayer's money. Not only that, in order to provide high standard content, they have to listen to the public audience as well: they need consultation that is opened to public. They receive fundings mostly from government through taxpayers' money.

The key mechanism of public media is mostly news and current affair (a.k.a. CAFF). The styles on reporting news are mostly serious and very precise, and they tend to not trying to attract audience since they see importance and unbiased standpoint as top priority. Their news are very considered, breaking news usually need to be verified and checked before publishing. However, not everything about public media is news and things happening every day. The programmes they produced can be very entertaining and useful as well. Such as comedies, education, history, entertainment, and everyday life topics (e.g. cooking shows and etiquette). In some countries, they also have the duty to spread propaganda.

Putting side by side with the commercial broadcasting media in Australia, there are 2 main public media organisations in this continent. ABC and SBS. They both broadcast on radios, televisions and online. ABC is the nation's first public broadcasting network. They provide very highs standard news bulletin and discussions, as well as different kinds of contents for audience from toddlers (Giggle and Hoot) to old fellas (Antique Roadshow), while SBS is a multicultural branch that passes intercultural harmony and understanding between each other. They also broadcast foreign news programme from other places in the world, such as Italy and Russia.

Opening shops help generate revenue
to produce high quality content

Sometimes, public media organisations have more than one source of fundings. They would commercialise and sell programmes in DVD and merchandises through their shops. Not only that would help ease the operation of public media, it also provides more resources for them to produce more high quality contents as well.

I think even though commercial media has all the resources and money to create or purchase exciting and audience-driven shows, the inner value is still missing and in my opinion, they are not as honest as public media. Moreover, public media provide news and truth of current affairs that is unbiased, complete and sincere, I believe people should watch and listen more from them, other than watching stuffs that sometimes propagate on one-side's opinion and standpoint. Being a well-informed audience is important and applying their knowledge in everyday life is crucial for developing critical thinking and skills. It seemed like public media is not as boring as other people say at all!

D.

Poke! Grand Slam Sam win at US Open Final; More bones found; Changing migration law (12th September 2011)

Samantha Stosur beat all others in US Tennis Open Final [Courier Mail]

Congratulations to Australians! Today marks the day for Samantha Stosur, who has claimed the position as Australia's first female grand slam singles champion for 31 years. Australia was once the home of world's best tennis players, but other countries like the UK and US has kept their pace up and taken numerous positions of top players in the world. But now Samantha has beaten the nervous and inappropriate Serena Williams in the one hour match. Having a new star rising up in the world of tennis, I believe more kids will see her as an aspiration, and in the future hopefully, we will once again be the home of the world's best tennis players.

Brief: More bones were found at Daniel's site [Courier Mail]
Just to do a news update on Daniel's case. Today, another pile of bones were found at Beerwah, where the volunteers are digging around and collect more evidence to support the charge to the 41-year-old man. Earlier, the Morcombe couple went on a campaign tour across Queensland to give messages to children about safety awareness and protection.

Commentary: Canberra braces for Julia's D-Day [Courier Mail]
Since I am not familiar with the situation about the news around asylum seekers and the reason why people are discussing about this issue so furiously, I took a read on the backgrounds of the story. Although it is brief, but I believe as a foreigner, I realised the issue wasn't only appeared recently, but it was a problem since the John Howard era, the former Prime Minister ten years ago. I think I still have to dig in some more to really understand what's going on in Canberra.



D.

Poke! 10th year anniversary of 9/11; gay protest; homeland terror threat (11th September 2011)

Apologies again for not posting today, as a massive assignment was on my hand yesterday.

Bomb plot threat amidst 10th 9/11 anniversary [Brisbane Times]

It's been 10 years since I first saw the striking video of 2 planes crashing towards the World Trade Centre on news, 11th September 2001. Ten years on, Osama bin Ladin has been killed, but the terrorism never fade away. Today is a very important day for the US, as well as the world to reflect on their anti-terrorism effort. Now areas around New York and Washington has put on alert on reports showing 2 Al-Qaeda operatives has flown into the US to plan on another row of terrorist attack. Police has armed heavy weapons and increased overall security on both cities. In this important day of the year, I recommend everyone to stay safe and not to wander around outside. Or simply stay at home, finish up your assignments before the due date comes.

Despite no detectable plans of terrorism in Australia, home grown terror attacks are still feasible [Courier Mail]

4 domestic terror attacks was foiled and prevented since the 9/11 attack last decade. But Attorney-General Robert McClelland has said attacks from homegrown terrorist are still feasible. He also mentioned that even though the focus of investigation is only a small group of people, but there is still possibilities that they will bring threats and cause harms to the general public. After the 9/11 attack, Australian government has also raised their concerns about the safety of borders and the security of Australian people. People should take note the fight against terrorism is not finished, and the people will never forgive those who will plan to attack on our soil.

Gay protest held at Mount Isa, where Bob Katter's stronghold located [Brisbane Times]

Bob Katter is such a conservative crook. He not only uses mere tactics to get on popularity, he also opposes gay marriage. That caused his half-brother Carl to come out and defend homosexuals. Today, about 70 people has gathered outside Bob's office to protest equal opportunity to allow same-sex marriage as well as heterosexual marriage. This rally was described as the first gay rally in Mount Isa. Quite a monument that is.

D.