Jen

David Stratton, legendary film critic who championed Australian and international cinema – obituary Stratton brought Australia’s movies to the world and the world’s movies to Australia, forming an unforgettable TV partnership with Margaret Pomeranz At last count, the film critic, writer and cinephile David Stratton had seen and critiqued at least 25,000 films, not counting those he watched more than once. His goal was to see one new film every day, a childhood habit that developed into a career spanning six decades that celebrated and advanced the Australian film industry. Stratton, who has died aged 85, had an incomparable passion for celluloid storytelling. As a seven-year-old boy in England watching his childhood hero Chips Rafferty wrangling cattle in The Overlanders, Stratton had little idea that Australian films would transform his life. He left England in 1963 as a “10-pound Pom” intent on exploring Rafferty’s outback for himself, but, like the protagonist John Grant in Wake in Fright, one of Stratton’s favourite films, he found it menacing and dark. Continue reading...

David Stratton, legendary film critic who championed Australian and international cinema – obituary

Wrecked English warship's cannon found on seabed off Kent coast The Northumberland sank off the Kent coast in 1703 during a major storm.

Cannon balls.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

‘Deceptively cute’ ancient whale with razor-sharp teeth and eyes the size of tennis balls discovered in Australia Scientist says new species described from 25-million-year-old fossil found in Victoria ‘was a gnarly whale I wouldn’t want to get in the water with’

Fossil whales
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Scientists say they cruised the ocean in a deep-sea submersible and came across an undiscovered ecosystem | CNN While exploring the ocean in a deep-sea submersible, scientists say they discovered a flourishing ecosystem capable of sustaining life without sunlight.

🥳

edition.cnn.com/2025/08/11/s...

Shock kiwi rediscovery delights conservation world Kiwi pukupuku/little spotted kiwi have been rediscovered in the wild on mainland Aotearoa for the first time in 50 years, shocking and delighting conservationists.

Huge news! Having spent a while studying #kiwi pukupuku, this got me very excited. Finding a remnant mainland population of LSK is probably more significant than finding more #kakapo. Huge respect to those involved and particularly the hunter who found them.
www.doc.govt.nz/news/media-r...

Revealed: How playful whales and dolphins socialise with each other Scientists thought dolphins “harassed” whales. It turns out they’re just playing together – and the love is mutual.

Marine buddies
www.smh.com.au/environment/...

To Study Viking Seafarers, He Took 26 Voyages in Traditional Boats

Sail away
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/s...

The Class Ceiling. Australia is not a classless society, socio-economic inequality is becoming more entrenched. Class, more than any other diversity demographic, was the most strongly linked to workers’ experience of inclusion and one of the most strongly related to exclusion. #auspol

Happy 45th birthday to Start! Released by The Jam on this day in 1980 youtu.be/mEW0ONwrX7Q

YouTube video by Bitcore Dial Up Modem Handshake Sound - Spectrogram

AOL will discontinue its dial-up internet service on September 30, 2025. Who remembers the handshake sound?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvr9...

Dial Up Sound Relive the excitement of connecting to the internet with the noise of a 56k modem.

For instant nostalgia click here www.dialupsound.com

I am waiting for the labubu crash, mainly so I can say labubu crash.
Come on, it's gonna happen. Don't believe me? I've got a couple of gonks I can sell you.

I love Strange New Worlds almost more than original Trek, but that was such a Stargate episode. That's okay, I was quite fond of Stargate, too.

‘The ocean is spitting our rubbish back’: Italy’s museum of plastic pollution Faded items dating back to 1950s have been found on Italian beaches, underscoring plastic’s problematic longevity

Good news for archaeologists, I guess
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

In my nightmares tonight

It was bobbins but right now I need bobbins 😂

A black kite against a blue sky made in the shape of a pirate ship, and apparently flying, much to the disbelieve of the off camera owner and his kids!

Took a pirate ship kite to the beach yesterday, and it was AWESOME!!

A book titled "Outdoor Pigs: How to Make them Pay."

those damned outdoor pigs can't keep getting away with this

Simple Minds released Love Song on this day in 1981

Million-year-old tools found in Sulawesi made by mystery human Archaeologists discovered stone tools at least a million years old on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, but exactly who made them and how they got there is unknown.

On the tools.
www.abc.net.au/news/science...

Cockatoos that feel the beat have distinct dance moves, study shows Cockatoos can headbang, body roll and sidestep intentionally to music according to a new study. One bird recorded 257 dance moves while listening to music for 20 minutes.

This is glorious. Gotta dance.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

How am I just finding out there is a land border twixt Victoria and Tasmania?

Very sad to hear about the death of David Dale. He established the long-time cult institution on the back page of the Sydney Morning Herald, the "Stay In Touch" column, with genius cartoonist Matthew Martin, where I subsequently got my my cartooning break. Inveterate trivia buff, foodie and friend.

The most important British character in US comics Alfred Pennyworth? Captain Britain? No, it’s a trench-coated, chain-smoking reprobate who this year celebrates his 40th birthday—John Constantine

40 years of John Constantine! Come raise a glass with me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk. With @jamiedelano.bsky.social
@damedenisemina.bsky.social
@ianrankin1.bsky.social

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/70761/the-most-important-british-character-in-us-comics-john-constantine-hellblazer-alan-moore

The covers of a group of six paperback books including ‘electricity‘, ‘castles‘, ‘buildings‘, and ‘lost cities’

Does anyone else remember the “How and Why” books from the 1960s/1970s?

Remains of extinct Bronze Age cattle found in Ingleborough cave Archaeologists and cave explorers found the remains among Ingleborough's caves and sinkholes.

Fascinating things aurochs and obviously not just a Bronze Age beast.

Remains of extinct Bronze Age cattle found in cave

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

In the red sand, two ancient cultures collide Like their Yolŋu hosts on Gumatj country, the stories, dance and regalia of Navajo, Comanche, Kiowa Sioux, Pueblo and Lakota nations in North America are intertwined with the land and natural environm...

Cool First Nations photos
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

Sam Neill’s 20 best roles – sorted! The New Zealand actor has been delivering cracking performances for more than 40 years. Here’s our pick of the crop Scientists, farmers, spies, cops, priests, the devil incarnate: is there any role Sam Neill can’t play? The New Zealand actor has been delivering cracking performances for more than four decades and, after returning to screens in Untamed and the third season of The Twelve, shows no signs of slowing down. Here are his 20 all-time greatest performances. Continue reading...

Sam Neill’s 20 best roles – sorted!

Actor and Archer: The double life of Robert Hardy - The Mary Rose Best known as an actor, Robert Hardy CBE was also passionate about the English longbow, and contributed to the study of those found on the Mary Rose.

Best known as an actor, Robert Hardy CBE was also passionate about the English longbow.

In our latest collections blog, we look at the work he did with the Mary Rose longbows, and the testing that proved English bowmen were tougher than we thought...

A wet black feather lies on a concrete path.

One of those things, booked Grief is the Thing with Feathers. Weather and transport were not ideal. Oh, but the work, the performance. Some brilliant old school theatre magic happened. Toby snapped and snarled and strutted and sobbed. It was cool.