According to Crikey, Mark Latham's oil slick is spreading. Since it oozed into Australian political waters last week, Latham's murky sludge of allegations and enmities, bile and bastardry has tainted Kim Beazley, Kevin Rudd, Stephen Conroy, Wayne Swan and John Faulkner. And it's spreading still. This morning Pru Goward was forced to refute a slimy rumour – retailed by Latham – that she had an affair with John Howard. Kim Beazley's daughters have waded into the Latham muck to defend their father and Leeanda Wilton, the sister of former MP Greg Wilton, has braved the sludge to support Latham's claim that ALP callousness contributed to his suicide. And as the muck spreads, there's been no word from Melbourne University Press, that venerable academic publishing house, of a clean up operation. Publisher Louise Adler told the ABC this morning she was delighted at all the publicity this goo is getting. The Latham Diaries – a "riveting chronicle of life inside politics" – hits the stores today, and it's going to be a publishing smash hit. Meanwhile the slime is out there, spreading still. Robert C(a)rr has A leaked extract of the Latham Diaries…
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: The Real Meaning is all about your attitude
Heart surgery, studio apartments and hurricanes: all offer opportunities for self-serving slippage between language and the world.
A young man walks through chest-deep floodwater after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Beneath another near-identical photo, except the people are white, another caption reads: Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store. Note, they're "residents", doing some neighbourly "finding". The youth must be a blow-in.
• We're All in It Together Does it jab or come in waves? [Few in publishing inspire more fear than the head buyer of Waterstone's. War of the words ; Kewl. God only knows why cool didn't suffice. Bing Me: Kewl; How are you going? Busy? is like a relentless spur we use to urge each other on, creating a personal version of the old Cold War promise of "mutually assured destruction": if we all stay busy - if we cling to each other in this desperate, dizzy dance - none of us will notice what's actually happening to us and we'll all be dead before we realise it. Life's busy, then you die ]
• · Filmmakers and actors are turning to the net In the can online ; In the end, emotional alchemy boils down to wisdom and compassion. The meltdown of our habits of clinging and pushing away, and of centering everything on ourselves, reveals a wise compassion. There emerges a sense of interconnectedness and a deep wish for everyone, all of us, to experience that freedom Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart
• · · There's a whole world of gadgets designed to refine your aural experience Listen up: Loud and clear; Name that tone
• · · · Murder and mysticism challenge three generations of women Little Oberon: Magic mountain ; Without any doubt Sydney rental market is becoming like the old Soviet bread queues, but without the shared black humour. Sydney is like the frog being slowly boiled in warm water. Cast your mind back 10 years and reflect on how your suburb, your city, has changed ... It's not the children of the elite who are being driven out of their city Applying Soviet breadline policies to their housing markets ; Scenes from Ismail Kadare's novel Broken April (1978), a fable of vendetta in the north Albanian highlands, discloses both a narrative and a psychological bias by the laureate of the 2005 Man Booker International fiction prize Living with ghost
• · · · · Set foot in your local Wal-Mart at own peril ; Watch out girls, these guys have had a gutful and it's payback time
• · · · · · Little Fish, with a stunning performance by Cate Blanchett, might just be the best Australian film in quite a while Nothing fishy in Cabramatta ; Publishers and authors are horrified at Waterstone's proposed takeover of Ottakar's and want it blocked A literary storm; Who will bring the high street to book?