wednesday newstrip

US approves chicken made from cultivated cells, the nation's first 'lab-grown' meat · US navy detected an ‘anomaly’ that was likely the Titan's implosion but only realized that was what it was after loss of contact with the submersible was reported · the owner of the Wagner private military contractor escalated his direct challenge to the Kremlin on Friday, calling for an armed rebellion aimed at ousting Russia’s defence minister · it has been revealed that multiple versions of Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse are currently in cinemas · turn your phone off every night for five minutes, Australian Prime Minister tells residents · Pasifika health professionals are defending a new formula that uses ethnicity to prioritise patients for non-urgent surgery in Auckland, saying it will help address racism in the health system · clash over LBGTQ+ decor at Starbucks leads to planned strikes at more than 150 stores in US.

wednesday newstrip (courtesy of Rupert Murdoch)

Meghan Markle ‘cutting the chain’ from ‘mentally disturbed’ Prince Harry · Australian men jump position in global penis size ranking · New Zealand police patrol streets amid soaring youth crime · Joe Biden ‘making up for lost time’ despite never being ‘good on gay rights’ · ‘Other groups’ besides women interested in receiving uterus transplants · London Mayor Sadiq Khan has produced an “inclusivity guide” for his staff to tell them “what they can & cannot say” · Sky News Australia host reacts to latest ‘lefty lunatic’ · Russian cyber hackers compromise top-secret defensive data in historic breach · Harry & Meghan ‘$20 million’ Spotify deal cancelled · direct conflict between Putin & NATO military units on the ground in Ukraine 'the next logical step' after Zelensky's failed counter-offensive.

geographies : Natimuk

 

The back lawn, in black & white, after the sprinkler's done its work

Six Australian white ibis with their black heads

Four magpie larks

Two willie wagtails

& a magpie, just come along
to see what all the fuss is about

it's amazing what turns up!

(click on image to enlarge)

wednesday newstrip

‘Big Penis USA’ pills banned in Australia over undeclared substance · Australian Tax Office data shows 66 millionaires paid no income tax in 2020-21 · El Nino under way, raising fears of extreme weather patterns · Tjuwanpa Women Rangers sharpen shooting skills in mission to control feral cats in central Australia · DoNuts T.®ump says he's been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate · BoreUs(NoMoreNow) Johnson standing down from UK House of Commons after being told he will be sanctioned for misleading Parliament · Utah parent successfully blocks Bible from schools.

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.

Now available

Now out from sandy press.


Mark Young
with the slow-paced turtle replaced by a fast fish
sandy press, 2023
94 pages
$US 19.95
ISBN: 978-1736816066
Available through Amazon

Mark Young's language is at once familiar, sprinkled with unusual words beloved of the philologist in us. There is a Magritte-like gap between image and object, with a title that sounds as though it comes from a fable by La Fontaine. These are poems for the Zeitgeist, poems of the Internet Age and post-colonialism, a demystification couched in at times mysterious language. Poems written in a demotic language, apocalyptic, cynical, utopian and always beautiful, stripping pop-culture illusions bare while creating new myths, a deliberate misreading to create new truths. You think you know what's coming in Young's work, but there are always twists and turns enough to surprise you and catch you out; his latest collection, with the slow-paced turtle replaced by a fast fish, does not disappoint.

—Javant Biarujia, author of Pointcounterpoint: Selected and new poems, Resinations, and Spelter to Pewter. Creator of the Taneraic language and compiler of its comprehensive dictionary.

There's a sampler available at sandy press.

wednesday newstrip

Three more insurance companies including Tokio Marine have left a United Nations-backed net-zero climate alliance, leaving the group with about half the number of members it counted two months ago as insurers take fright at political pressure from some Republican politicians · ‘last resort:’ government faces legal action to force repatriation of Australians from Syrian refugee camps · Australia's 'misery index' up 220 per cent in a year due to rate rises, inflation · new evidence suggests Russia deliberately targeting schools in Ukraine · Whitehaven Coal's underground mine in northern New South Wales is polluting the atmosphere with more than three times the direct greenhouse gas emissions it forecast it would emit when it received environmental approval in 2015 · popular pub in Adelaide under fire for offering free drinks to woman based on their bra size: 'the bigger the better.'