Australia Day and Kultura of Klokans

Bohemians and MEdia Dragons even Down Under know how to be good at being bad among the 24 million characters... Czech out SMH as Google-doodle shines A Light on indigenous culture

Indigenous parliamentarians, federal and state: a quick guide 

The Macquare legacy is still with us. It underpins our best instincts to give all residents in this country, whether Australian born, migrants or refugees an equal opportunity in life, a second chance. That ethos of redemption is a core part of our history. Out of Cold River to Fired Harbour

As Australia closes in on the next population milestone of 24 million, which it will reach in February, social researcher Mark McCrindle analyses what life was like when the population was half this — and how we have changed in the 48 years since. 22 facts about Australia as we hit 24 million

Now the mystery behind the big bird's extinction may have been solved, after burnt eggshells revealed people may have been the culprits.
Genyornis giant bird extinction mystery points to first people

Musicians need philosophy. Indeed, it is the absence of philosophical reflection that has produced so many half-baked ideas in music... Music Media 
 

Leisel Jones says she-has no sadness over father's death Good Weekend

Need Surgery, Will Travel New Republic (resilc). I know people who go to Eastern Europe for serious dental work. You get German materials, which if anything are better than we use here, and you can find dentists and oral surgeons every bit as good if you know where to go.

English, strictly speaking, is not my first language by the way. I haven’t yet discovered what my first language is so for the time being I use English words to say things. I expect I will always have to do it that way; regrettably I don’t think my first language can be written down at all. I’m not sure it can be made external you see... Consider meditating on the epigraph, from Adam Zagajewski’s poem ‘Fruit‘, is “How unattainable life is, it only reveals / its features in memory, / in nonexistence”), and most of it is told long after the bohemian and antipodean events – was, presumably, written long after the events, so the telling has the richness of long thought and is dotted with the sort of details that crystallise and colour over time.
 
Wise Ineka Voigt's winning design in the Doodle 4 Google competition

A wise person (not me or any other living MEdia Dragon) once said that in predictions of media change it is relatively easy to get the direction right but lots harder to forecast timing and magnitude.
Take, for example,  my effort in this space a year ago.  I thought 2015 might be the year legacy print media broke through with video that had wide audience appeal and generated an advertising windfall. Instead we got more experimentation, some growth but once again not enough to impact revenues and earnings.  By the end of the year, the New York Times, a bellwether in the space, was switching out the leadership and much of the staff of its video production unit. 3 Tin, Tri media business trends to watch for in 2016

Forthcoming 2016 movies

EXCLUSIVE: Defence's culture change progress report reveals women aren't fooled when male bosses' public enthusiasm is little more than a script. Women — and men — speak out. Don't fake it: women see through culture change phonies

Australasian Lawyer, Law School Parody Ad Causes YouTube Sensation:

The [real] ad tells the remarkable story of Deng Adut is Sudanese refugee who was taken from his mother and forced to fight with Ethiopian rebels, escaped to Western Sydney, taught himself English and lived in a car, eventually managing to complete a UWS law degree, before becoming a refugee lawyer.  

Australian honeys are the most contaminated in the world with natural poisons linked to chronic disease including cancer, according to international researchers.

Hervey Bay photographer Evan Switzer captured a kangaroo mourning the loss of its mate in the wild.   Foto by Evan Switzer 

Owners of this estate in Lučatín, a small village in central part of Slovakia, replaced some of the dilapidated buildings on the property with a pitched roof structure which they built with scrap wood from demolished barns. Architect Jaro Krobot collaborated with ETH Zurich to build the structure according to a Swiss system called STEKO, which is based on bricks made of solid spruce wood filled with different kinds of insulation. Slovakian home uses STEKO, a unique construction method from Switzerland

Jewish Journal, How Studying Judaism Fits Into a Christian University...

A radical factional hitlist has been drawn up that would see more than half-a-dozen high profile federal MPs in NSW face preselection challenges before this year's election. "It's threatening to put the Game of throne's Red Wedding scene in the shade," said one senior member of the NSW party.  Julian Leeser at ACU