The Federal Government’s mandatory internet filtering trials, which were scheduled to begin on Christmas Eve 2008, are now set to go ahead. Telstra, Optus, and Iinet, Australia’s three biggest ISPs, are not involved. Half of the ISPs that are involved… Read More ›
australia
Forced-birther blames bushfires on abortion law reform
There’s always one, isn’t there? The fatuous godbag woman-hater who blames disasters on the Wrath of God. We saw them after Hurricane Katrina, and now they’re starting to waggle their loathsome little fins in the wake of the horrific Victorian… Read More ›
Victoria is burning.
Update 9 Feb: There are now 126 people confirmed dead, and the toll is projected to rise about 200. Flickr photoset of the firest here. ~~ Any fire reports? Are the Hoydenizens ok? There’s probably no mobile coverage if you… Read More ›
QotWeek
Pavlov’s Cat, over at LP’s discussion on Helen’s post about the Rudd government’s failure to lift our Australian version of the Global Gag Rule:
Australia Day: “Speak English!”
It’s Australia Day again, so I’m recycling my favourite anecdote from a few years ago.
We had decided to spend a warm Australia Day picnicking on the shores of Lake Monger with friends. Plenty of other people had decided the same thing, and it was a convivial atmosphere. The black swans were noodling around in the background, there plenty of kids playing on the grass, families were chatting with each other
Friday Saturday Hoyden: Caroline Chisholm
This fairly blunt profile of Caroline Chisholm presents her as an impressive but uncomfortable woman due to her uncompromising standards, and came as a bit of an eye-opener to me in terms of sanitised school history: the fact that the young immigrant underclass women that she was training had been lured to the Australian colonies where they were left to fend for themselves and would have no options other than prostitution or crime to earn a living was very heavily glossed over
Friday Hoyden: Nancy Bird Walton, by Guest Hoyden Chally
Nancy Bird Walton, AO, OBE, DStJ, Dame of the Knights of Malta, was a legendary pilot and about as hoydenish as it gets. At age 19, she became the first Australian female pilot to receive her commercial license. She went on to be instrumental in running early outback air ambulance services in New
South Wales and commandant of the Women’s Air Training Corps during WWII as well as founder and long-time president of the Australian Women Pilots’ Association. I’m tearing up as I tell you that she died on Tuesday afternoon in her home in Mosman, northern Sydney.
Weblog Awards Finalist!
We’re in the Best Midsize Blog category. This means we’re up against : Zomblog Betsy’s Page The Sideshow Israel Matzav Argghhh! Rod 2.0 At Largely Scholars And Rogues Suburban Guerilla Voting starts on January 5. Congratulations to Shakesville for their… Read More ›
Happy Solstice from the Flickr Folk
From the sunrise at Norfolk Island, Australia’s Easternmost point:
The Web isn’t like movies
Clive Hamilton, “public intellectual”, has been banging on about how wrong wrongitty wrong anti-censorship advocates are. Clive has been stampily regurgitating the mantra of the censors: “I have heard no one argue that films, television, books and magazine should be… Read More ›
Hoyden About Town 