10 news bites + viral video for Tuesday

Good morning!

Be careful of the winds today if you’re in Sydney – or Melbourne! – (and if you own small animals, tether them to something sturdy) as the Bureau is predicting winds of 100km/h. But apart from that, Tuesday should be a ripper.

Let’s dive right into the newsiest of the news. Here we go:

1. There’s been a 4.4 richter scale tremor in Melbourne

And don’t we know it! Twitter has gone off today after the earth shook, with many saying it should have been called a ‘wobble’ more than an earthquake. Geoscience Australia says the tremor could have been felt up to 100km away from the epicentre.

2. Digger killed in Afghanistan

In breaking news, Australia Sergeant Todd Langley was killed in Afghanistan, it has been announced. A fellow soldier was wounded in the same operation. Their families have been notified.

3. Lily Allen says what we were all thinking

British pop star Lily Allen has taken reluctant aim at supermodels and pop stars and said they weren’t thin because they were hitting the gym. “I hang out with models, the biggest pop stars and, you know, really and honestly, I hate saying this, but none of them are achieving those body shapes by being healthy. They’re not eating or they’re taking speed not to eat. In America everyone abuses that Adderall stuff and people aren’t normal.” It’s not exactly a ground-breaking revelation, but the fact one of their own spoke up about says quite a bit.

4. Advertisers given time limit to prove responsibility

A parliamentary committee has given the Advertising Standards Board until midway through 2013 to ‘prove’ it can regulate its own advertising standards before it steps in to find alternatives. The committee was predominantly discussing complaints relating to outdoor advertising on places like billboards, buses and store windows. These were unique, it said, because they could not be switched off. It did say, however, that a blanket ‘G’ rating for outdoor ads would not work as some messages (like anti smoking ads) would not comply but would be necessary.

5. Fox News Twitter account tweets of Obama’s death

Fox News’ political Twitter account was hacked last evening and sent tweets announcing the assassination of President Barrack Obama – saying he had been shot twice – to tens of thousands of followers. The tweets remained for quite some time before being deleted. Fox News apologised for any distress caused.

6. NSW police given power to remove burqas and face veils

After ‘that’ incident where a Muslim woman escaped jail in Supreme Court because her identity could not be told beyond reasonable doubt, the NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell yesterday announced that his Attorney General was preparing legislation to give police in the state the unprecedented power to remove any identity-blocking face coverings. This includes anything from motorcycle helmets to religious dress. He said it was important to respect religious freedoms but that the rule of law must come first. It is hoped the legislation will be rushed through parliament and become law in a matter of weeks. Good decision? Yay or nay?

7. The Carbon Tax price will be announced this Sunday

Welcome to your daily carbon tax news bite! Yawn. But a heads up, it was announced last night the price per tonne, one of the many X Factors in the current debate, would be revealed this Sunday. Rumours originally had it at $26 per tonne, some say it will be $20 but who knows? Watch this space.

8. 5th horse dies from deadly Hendra disease in Queensland

It’s the disease that is lethal, often. And there’s been another outbreak in Queensland. In my hometown of Boonah, no less. A local vet who was treating one of the infected horses and five others are also set to wait 6 weeks for tests to reveal if they have caught the disease. It has killed four of the seven people who have contracted it since it was first discovered in 1994.

9. Penis size is linked to finger-size ratio.

I can’t believe I am writing this. So, some South Koreans did a study on some other South Koreans (men, obviously) and realised that the closer the height of your ring and pointer finger are, the, umm, larger your manhood is. But don’t go measuring this yourself unless you have the finest measuring equipment that can do so with an accuracy to 0.01mm. Or, if you’re really keen to know, you could just convince everyone around you not to wear pants.

10. Feature reveals more of American soldier ‘traitor’ who gave info to WikiLeaks.

Bradley Manning was a young, unsure gay man in the American military who eventually befriended Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and leaked the largest cache of classified information in American history to the organisation. This feature is long, but worth a read if you want an insight into the young intelligence analyst in the United States Defence Forces who has now been charged with treason. Many of the insights come from AOL chat logs Manning had with another man.

And, to finish things off the Video of the Day. This one’s a fascinating look back at how they advertised one of the first ‘mobile’ phones from Centel. Wow, look how mobile everyone is! 1989 – where the phones were large enough to be considered weapons. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ptbJZ9HBw2k