wednesday newstrip

The mystery of white dwarfs with intense magnetic fields could finally be solved · almost two-thirds of Australians think the Covid vaccine rollout is not going well, survey suggests · falling 21-tonne Chinese rocket 'garbage' could have landed anywhere from Denmark to Australia, but apparently came down in the Indian Ocean · new method shows that tau forms small aggregates as part of the body's normal physiology · Game of Thrones prequel, House of Dr. Agony, releases first photos · World baffled by Australia’s escalation with China · South Carolina adds firing squad to execution methods after running out of lethal-injection drugs.

Today the post-
woman brought
me an abacus.
"Does it still
work?" I asked.
"I wouldn't count
on it," she replied.

opaque

The city has a 
gloomy grandeur. 
The walls appear 

black — moody, 
claustrophobic. 
Not being a social 

butterfly, that's 
not necessarily a
bad thing for her. 

from the Manet archives

The Balcony

 

from the Magritte archives

Perspective II: Manet's Balcony

Whether it be
fête or
theater

or just

sitting
on the balcony
watching
the funeral
parade pass
by

Manet
insisted

his family
always dress
to reflect the
occasion.

Today the post-
woman brought
me a split infini-
tive. I ran out to 
quickly collect it.

geographies: Barcaldine

 

wednesday newstrip

David Beckham’s branding business makes $85,000 every single day · Sky News commentator claims "China 'relish' in Australia 'rotting' because of woke culture" · "staggering": 25,000 barrels of waste found at toxic dump site in Pacific Ocean off Los Angeles coast · an Australian wannabe politician has been ordered to pay $1.5 million to Universal Music after losing a copyright fight over his use of the Twisted Sister anthem We're Not Gonna Take It in a string of political advertisements before the 2019 federal election · 'wolf packs' of predatory bacteria lurk in our soil, & they play a crucial role · Louis Vuitton plane-shaped bag ridiculed for costing more than an actual plane.

The latest issue of Otoliths has gone live

To ease the transition from Walpurgisnacht to May Day, issue sixty-one of Otoliths, the southern autumn 2021 issue, has just gone live. As always, there's an eclectic — comes from being a one-person band — & exciting — comes from having an outstanding & ever-widening contributor base — mix on offer.

 

In this issue you'll find paintings, drawings, music, essays, vispo, fiction, fact, poetry, photography, & vispo, from Laurent Grison, Sanjeev Sethi, Olchar E. Lindsann, Brandstifter & Texas Fontanella, Louise Landes Levi, Linda M. Walker, Demosthenes Agrafiotis, John Bradley, Sarah-Jane Crowson, Doren Robbins, Andrew Topel, Clive Gresswell, Elaine Woo, Heller Levinson, Judith Skillman, Jack Galmitz, Patrick Cahill, Cecelia Chapman & Jeff Crouch, Paul Dickey, C.S. Fuqua, Clara B. Jones, Nicholas Alexander Hayes, Anna Cates, Jim Meirose, Joann Renee Boswell, hiromi suzuki, William Doreski, Bart Plantenga, Tony Rauch, Pete Spence, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, David Miller, Ian Ganassi, Cecelia Chapman, GTimothy Gordon, Adam Fieled, Jim George, Gavin Lucky, Joseph Salvatore Aversano, Guy R. Beining, Ron Riekki, John McCluskey, Cameron Lowe, Grzegorz Wróblewski, Greg Hill, Lynn Strongin, Mary Corbin, Josie/Jocelyn Deane, Isabel Gómez de Diego, Jim Leftwich, Dave Read, Remi Seamon, Karl Bachmann, Dennis Hinrichsen, Nina Živančević, Texas Fontanella, Charles Freeland, John M. Bennett & Adam Roussopoulos, Hazel Smith, George Myers, Jr., Daniel F Bradley, Peter J. King, Rosella Quintini, Mark DuCharme, Sreemanti Sengupta & Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Mary Cresswell, Kenneth Rexroth, John Gallas, Bob Lucky, Heath Brougher, Daniel de Culla, Nathan Whiting, Carol Stetser, Mike Callaghan, John Levy, Jake Goetz, Tony Beyer, Simon Perchik, John M. Bennett, Hugh Tribbey, S. K. Kelen, harry k stammer, Jeff Bagato, Jeff Harrison, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Richard Kostelanetz, Tim Pilgrim, Paul Ilechko, Martin Edmond, J. D. Nelson, John Sweet, Megan Wildhood, Aysegul Yildirim, Magdelawit Tesfaye, Bob Kotyk, Elmedin Kadric, Michael Neal Morris, Randee Silv, Eric Hoffman, David Lohrey, Sophia Archontis, Sheila E. Murphy, Keith Nunes, M.J. Iuppa, jeremy witherington, John J. Trause, Michael J. Leach, Tom Beckett, Alison J Barton, Diana Magallón, Mark Pirie, Penelope Weiss, Olivier Schopfer, Keith Polette, Keith Higginbotham, Marilyn Stablein, Bob Heman, Hrishikesh Srinivas, Fotis Begetis & Jack Galmitz, Katrinka Moore, Sam Langer, Paul Pfleuger, Jr, Michael Brandonisio, Jane Simpson, Cherie Hunter Day, Alex Glynne, Javant Biarujia, & Stephen Nelson.

&, as always, enjoy.

wednesday newstrip

Essential poll: fewer than 50% of over-50s Australians willing to get Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines · climate change has now invisibly shifted Earth's axis, new data reveal · Russia has started making its own AMD B450 motherboards · countries are racing to send medical supplies, vaccine components to India as COVID-19 'storm' cripples nation · global supply issues & shipping delays hit the New Zealand family cat's dinner plate · Australian Prom Minister Scat notSorryi'mtheSonofgod warns that identity politics is an "evil thing" & social media can be "used by the evil one" · Brutish Pram Minister Bore us nowyourJohnny'sgone accused of saying he’d rather see 'bodies pile high in their thousands' than order 3rd lockdown.

Today the post-
woman brought
me an audio re-

cording of the
love that dare not
speak its name.

geographies: Julago

 

wednesday newstrip

Australian Federal Government’s 'confusing' new education campaign uses tacos & milkshakes to explain consent · Amazon cancels Lord of the Rings MMO, in latest blow to gaming division · tarantula’s pervasiveness traced back to the cretaceous period · we finally have a complete view of the resonance dust ring of Venus · US police: FedEx shooter legally bought guns used in shooting · Byron Bay goes to war with Netflix over 'hot Instagrammer' reality series · high-profile Norwegian conspiracy theorist who said COVID-19 was a hoax dies from the virus after hosting illegal house parties.

Recently, from Luna Bisonte Prods

Mark Young
The Toast
Luna Bisonte Prods
ISBN: 9781938521751
$US12.00
100 pages
Can be bought from Lulu here

 

Maybe it’s because “A railroad line runs im-/mediately behind the/parietal lobe.” Or maybe it’s because “Phallic ritual is a/literary genre that blends/aspects of natural rubber/& cognitive therapy…” I don’t know, but Mark Young’s poetry opens out into a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk, a total art work, limning our present moment. His work is at once intellectually engaging and truly entertaining. No small feat. I’m a fan. — Tom Beckett

geographies: Payard's Lagoon

 

Today the post-
woman brought
me a birthday 
card from the 
Marquis de 
Sade. Not for 
me, I told her, 
two houses up 
the road. I ran 
to retrieve it 
the minute she 
was out of sight.

wednesday newstrip

Graphene-like boron is stabilized by hydrogen, paving the way for practical applications · Putrid Dustbin becomes SittingonDefence Minister in Australian Federal Cabinet reshuffle · Army intel analyst tried to lure teen with chicken & condoms · pro-T.®ump women’s group says Matt Gaetz will speak at rally evem though there are child sex-trafficking allegations against him · Derek Chauvin murder trial hears George Floyd allegedly said 'I ain't do no drugs' in arrest rather than 'I ate too many drugs' · 5200 Tons of extraterrestrial dust rain down on Earth every single year · World COVID-19 vaccine rankings shows Australia languishing at back of the queue.

          Today the post-
                       woman brought
              me a pterodactyl.
                    I'd actually asked
               for some pommes 
                    de terre au gratin;
            but these days
                 you take what 
            you can get, & 
                  are grateful for it.

GarGoogle's idea of entertainment?

 

TEN TITLES from THE TOAST

 

now out from Sandy Press

 

List price = $US14.95
Available through Amazon.

& a blurb:

Mark Young’s Sorties

A sortie is a military manouevre, ‘an attack made by troops coming out from a position of defence.’ In Mark Young’s prose, the citadel is the home, or else the inside of his head; while the sorties are mounted against the land and city scapes of Rockhampton in Queensland, where Young lived in the earlier years of the 21st century. Or against the past. It wouldn’t be right to say he takes no prisoners. Birds are his constant companions, however; and the past, while certainly over, is sometimes close behind. These are intelligent, humorous, precise and well-informed observations, largely autobiographical, but delivered without any attempt at the construction of a narrative or of a unitary self. Mark Young, who gave up playing the double bass because he couldn’t fit the instrument into a taxi before or after a gig, now makes use of the keyboard, with its black and white registers, colored all over, to entertain, to perplex and to delight.

— Martin Edmond, author of Luca Antara, Isinglass, and many other books.

A PDF preview of sorties is available on the sandy press website.

wednesday newstrip

OpTic Chicago bounce back with win over Seattle Surge in 2021 Call of Duty League Stage 2 group play · scientists finally know how an ancient reptile lived with such an absurdly long neck · Myanmar's military junta killed 43 children in past two months, Save the Children says · Australian Pram Minister Scat SorrySon's efforts to engage with women are more 'me' than mea culpa · string theorist Michio Kaku: 'Reaching out to aliens is a terrible idea' · Amazon apologizes for denying US employees sometimes need to pee in bottles · 533 million Facebook users' phone numbers & personal data have been leaked online.

The Night Owl

wednesday newstrip

Indigenous entrepreneurs urged to verify their business to weed out 'black-cladding' · DoNuts T.®ump is planning a return to social media on his own platform · Egyptian feminist, activist Nawal Saadawi dies at 89 · Apple discontinues iMac Pro, along with 512GB & 1TB SSD 21.5-inch 4K iMacs. New iMacs soon? · melting glaciers contribute to Alaska earthquakes, cause land to rise at 1.5 inches per year · Suez Canal blocked after massive container ship gets stuck sideways · octopuses dream in "GIFs,' new experiment suggests · NASA gives all clear: Earth safe from the particularly menacing Apophis asteroid for 100 years.

geographies: Boulia

 

Out from SOd Press

 

Downloadable from here.

wednesday newstrip

Space travel & sperm bank on the moon necessary to keep world going, according to scientists · Lamela rabona against Arsenal ‘one of best goals in EPL history’ · NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU appears on Geekbench with 2,048 CUDA cores & 4 GB of VRAM · ancient Aboriginal technology unearthed in rare bone discovery on Ngarrindjeri country · 'unrealistic': doctors slam government over Covid vaccine booking website as GPs inundated · billions of lightning bolts may have jump-started life on Earth, study suggests · 'you can't escape the smell': mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia.

geographies: Forsayth