8 Tuesday news bites (August 9)

Morning groovers. The news stops for nobody, but find a comfy spot wherever you are and browse this quick recap of the events from yesterday and this morning. It’s knowledge without the effort. So, the news:

1. Federal Labor Minister Penny Wong and her partner are having a baby!

It was announced this morning that Penny and her partner Sophie Allouache will have a baby in December. Sophie is pregnant from a known sperm donor. Penny released a short statement today saying: “Like any expecting parents, the prospect of welcoming this child into our lives fills us both with joy. We are extremely grateful to our IVF service and staff, and to our donor, for giving us the opportunity to raise a child together.”

2. High Court extends asylum deportation ban by at least two weeks.

As the dispute over whether the Federal Government has the right to deny asylum seekers’ application for protection in Australia, Justice Hayne in the High Court has ordered the deportation of the first load of people to Malaysia be halted for at least two weeks. That’s so the full bench can hear the evidence put forward. It apparently all comes down to whether the Immigration Minister can speak adequately of the human rights standards of another country. This will be one to watch.

3. Among the richest women in Spain, Duchess gives it all away to marry civil servant

This is a truly bizarre story, brought to us by Lulu in the comments yesterday (thanks)! Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva is the most titled woman on Earth: a duchess seven times, a countess 22 times and a marquesa 24 times and owns several castles but, love was worth more. While estimates say she is worth up to 3.3 billion Euro, the Duchess said: “I own a lot of artworks, but I cannot eat them, can I?”

4. Open plan offices make it harder to think (and clean desks relate to smaller brains).

Right, so it’s another study but it’s interesting in what it explores. Conducted for the British television series ‘The Secret Life of Buildings’, the study found that workers in open plan offices suffered loss of brainwave function related to distractions; even if they weren’t aware of it happening at the time. In the study, worker wellbeing dropped by 32 per cent and productivity by 15 per cent. The study also found clean desks led to ‘smaller’ brains and employees who weren’t allowed to decorate worked less efficiently. Are you an open plan lover or fighter? How’s your desk?

5. New report recommends changing the way we handle aged care.

The Productivity Commission – an independent Federal Government research and advisory panel – has released a new report into the aged care sector, recommending changes to the way we currently operate. There will soon be 3.5 million Australians needing aged care of some degree and a system which currently costs taxpayers $10 billion a year will cost $50 billion a year by 2050. One key change will be treating the family home, if there is one, as an asset to pay aged care costs. The Government should back a scheme where the elderly or their families could use the equity in the home to pay costs, without having to sell it. If they do choose to sell, the extra money will not be counted in any means testing. The Gillard Government has so far not indicated whether it will accept any of the recommendations. Have you any experience with aged care? What needs to be done?

6. Nicole Kidman was originally meant to be cast in movie that saw Brad and Angelina hook up

But it wasn’t to be because Pitt said he had no chemistry with the Australian actor and pulled out, until they cast Angelina Jolie in ‘Mr and Mrs Smith’ instead. At the time he was still with then wife Jennifer Aniston. The details are contained in a new Brad Pitt biography.

7. Do you panic if you lose your mobile phone?

It’s been 30 years since the first ‘mobile’ phone (it was a car phone that cost $17,000 in today’s terms) made a call in Australia and today there are more phones than people in Australia. Coinciding with our love affair is the sense of panic that arrives quickly once we realise we’ve lost a phone. Almost a quarter of Australians get the heart palpitations of panic within a minute of realising the phone has gone missing and a third of Gen Y check their phone in the morning before they do anything else. Including going to the toilet.

8. Rioting in London spreads as 215 arrested … so far.

The violent riots in London’s Tottenham over the weekend have spread to other suburbs as police draft in an extra 300 officers to deal with the carnage. The riots were sparked by the death of a man who shot at police before being gunned down himself but now it appears the rioters are joining in just for the ‘fun’ of it. 35 police have been injured and an 11-year-old boy has been arrested. Police said it was the work of a ‘criminal minority’ and not general unrest, worried about perceptions less than a year out from the London 2012 Olympics.