Australia Day timeline  This is an interesting timeline of Australia Day from the official government website.  Before 1770 – Aboriginal peoples had been living for more than 40 000 years on the continent we now know as Australia. At least 1600 generations of these peoples had lived and died here.  1770 – Captain James Cook […]

Hotel Drinking Glasses This put a dampener on my excitement about going to Melbourne this week. If you have ever used a glass in your hotel room when travelling, this news report video will give you shivers. As you’ll see, hotel staff in four reputable hotel chains in the USA are caught red-handed with shocking […]

Fast Food Choices Program Emily Brindall, Adelaide researcher with the CSIRO, says the main reason South Australians eat fast food is because it’s convenient. She interviewed 500 South Australians and discovered that we visit fast food chains about 3.4 times a month, with 1 in 3 of us claiming we buy fast food because of […]

Amazon’s Kindle Taking away a few novels to read over the summer break is about to change is a big way, as Amazon.com, the Web’s largest online bookstore, rolls out its recently released electronic book reader. It’s a standalone book reader using electronic paper to store up to 200 books at a time. All of […]

Life Hacker’s Top Ten Food Hacks Life Hacker is one of my favourite sites online, and as we start getting ready for Christmas Day, I thought it timely to visit the site’s Food Hacking tips. There are techniques for folding chip bags that keep chips fresh, a great use of a CD case to carry […]

Global Incident Map This is interesting! This site consists of a World Map featuring strange and dangerous things that are happening right now in every country in the entire world – and it is updated every few minutes. You can move the map around, zero in on any one area and actually upload the story […]

Wired Test edition Wired magazine has been an online icon for geeks for a few years now, and each year they produce their TEST edition. There are 300+ items tested, reviewed and rated in the 2007 edition, which covers just about every gadget imaginable in every category imaginable. I have linked to a page on […]

I’m Thinking Of You Adele Basheer from Intrinsic told me about this site. Thanks, Adele. A website has been developed here in SA for people experiencing trauma or critical illness. It enables them to be part of a constructed “care zone” of friends, family and carers, so that their network can work in harmony to […]

Givle.com An Adelaide accountant and web enthusiast, Richard Khoo, has set up a site that mirrors Google, called Givle.com. It is based on the blackle.com site – which is Google with a black background. The idea is that when you use a black background when searching, it reduces the power consumed by your monitor by […]

Facebook We have mentioned Facebook in passing before, but I thought I had better give it a proper mention on the show because it is gaining popularity quickly, especially among adults, as opposed to MySpace which is dominated by teenagers. About 250,000 Australians are now using Facebook. Facebook is described as a social utility that […]

City Shrinker An old photography buddy of mine, Adrian Morgan, pointed out a fantastic photography site, showcasing the work of former Adelaide boy, Ben Thomas. It’s called City Shrinker. Ben has an amazing technique, enabling him to shoot cityscapes and make them look like close-up photos of model train sets. It is fascinating. We think […]

International Ice Cream With summer here in the middle of winter, I thought this site was worth visiting. While the invention of “Iced Cream” can be traced to the mid-1700s, it was during the 20th Century that the frozen delicacy assumed its place amongst the world’s most popular desserts.  While most of tend to stick […]

Why Files This site carries in-depth articles on the “science behind the news”. There are articles about bridge collapses, space shuttles, euthanasia, etc. Today’s top story was about the “vocabulary explosion” that occurs around 18 to 24 months of age. It is one of the more amazing feats of human learning. After months of sipping […]

Safety on MySpace Since we last spoke, there has been a lot of chatter in the US about the risk that teenage MySpacers are exposing themselves to from sexual predators. Apparently, according to research by criminologist professors, claims that teenagers are publicising too many personal details about themselves are “overblown”. On the My Social Networking […]

Oz in 30 seconds GetUp! Claims to be an independent, nonprofit, Australian community organisation “working to re-invigorate Australian democracy through wider participation and direct campaigning”. They also claim to have a membership of more than 180,000 – which is more members than all Australian political parties combined. Oz in 30 seconds is a competition that […]

World War Two in Colour For so many years, historians and casual observers alike have observed the events of World War II through faded black and white images. What most people do not know is the fact that quite a large portion of the WWII was shot using color film! However, it wasn’t until recently […]

Wacky Uses This is an engrossing site that any brand-name shopaholic will love. It explores hundreds of alternative uses for everyday supermarket items. This site has a mad scientist section where you can make fake blood, stink bombs and exploding life savers, etc. But it is the wacky uses of everyday products that I think […]

Private Health This is a federal government initiative – it gives us a chance to compare health funds on a level playing field. What’s good is that you can cut out the nasties like co-payments (the extra costs per day for being in hospital), and you can play around to see what is a good […]

Google Maps This a free map service provided by Google. They are gradually adding cities from around the world. A new feature is the Personalised Map Service. You can log in and create maps with your favourite landmarks or places or friends’ houses, etc. Or you can create interesting map projects like Maps of all […]

Snow crystals With rain and winter here, I stumbled upon a fascinating site about snow crystals. In fact, not only fascinating but beautiful. It also reveals the bond between snow and frost. This site has been created by a guy who is passionate about the physics of snow crystals. Did you know that no two […]

Party excuse generator This was a site I didn’t get to use over the xmas holidays – but with a little twist, you can use it all year round. The Holiday Party Excuse Generator is an invaluable tool that can save you from having to attend undesirable or inconvenient events.  Simply answer a few questions, […]

This is where you will find my archive of websites, as discussed of fiveAA. Many entries are missing because our database file disappeared from my provider’s server and I had not been backing up. Let this be a lesson to all of us: 1 Always back up our blogs 2 Never host with a certain […]