Kurzgesagt explores the realm of the minute and subatomic
8 October 2022
Kurzgesagt ventures to the most extreme place in the universe… a whole ‘nother universe, or microcosm: the realm of the minute and subatomic.
The universe is pretty big and very strange. Hundreds of billions of galaxies with sextillions of stars and planets and in the middle of it all there is earth, with you and us. But as enormous as the universe seems looking up, it seems to get even larger when you start looking down. You are towering over worlds within worlds, within worlds — each in plain sight and yet hidden from your experience.
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Love Your Bookshop Day 2022
8 October 2022
Today is Love Your Bookshop day.
Love Your Bookshop Day 2022 is an annual celebration of everything local bookshops do from fostering expert staff and curating fabulous ranges to creating events programs to celebrate authors, readers, and the books they cherish.
Bricks and mortar bookshops may not be so abundant anymore, but they are an integral part of the writing and publishing industry. In addition to being a source of work for their staff, and a haven for book lovers, bookshops are also vital in helping new authors develop some profile.
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books, literature, novels, writing
The Stranger a film by Thomas M Wright with Joel Edgerton
8 October 2022
Daniel Morcombe, a thirteen year Sunshine Coast boy, went missing in December 2003, as he set off to do some Christmas shopping. In August 2011, after an extensive police investigation, and a sting operation, Brett Peter Cowan, who would later be convicted of Morcombe’s kidnapping and murder, was arrested by detectives.
The Stranger, trailer, directed by Thomas M Wright, is a dramatisation of the police operation to apprehend Cowan, and is based on the 2018 book, The Sting, by Kate Kyriacou. But The Stranger is not a direct re-telling of Morcombe’s disappearance. Instead it focuses on efforts to bring the person responsible to justice.
Australian actor and director Joel Edgerton stars as Mark, an undercover police officer, who befriends a man named Henry Teague. Teague is suspected of committing a serious crime, but police lack sufficient evidence to charge him. Mark sets about gaining Teague’s trust, and he hopes, an admission of Teague’s guilt.
A friendship forms between two strangers. For Henry Teague, worn down by a lifetime of physical labour, this is a dream come true. His new friend Mark becomes his saviour and ally. However, neither is who they appear to be, each carry secrets that threaten to ruin them and in the background, one of the nation’s largest police operations is closing in.
The Stranger is currently screening in Australian cinemas.
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film, Joel Edgerton, Thomas M. Wright, trailer, video
The Small Press Network Book of the Year Award 2022 shortlist
7 October 2022
The Book of the Year Award 2022 shortlist was announced on Tuesday 4 October 2022, and features seven titles this year:
- No Document by Anwen Crawford
- Friends & Dark Shapes by Kavita Bedford
- Hometown Haunts by Poppy Nwosu
- Permafrost by SJ Norman
- Gravidity and Parity by Eleanor Jackson
- Theory of Colours by Bella Li
- Sexy Tales of Paleontology by Patrick Lenton
Also known as the the BOTYs, the award is an initiative of the Small Press Network, an organisation representing some two-hundred and fifty small and independent Australian publishers. The winner will be named on Friday 25 November 2022.
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Australian literature, literary awards
Annie Ernaux named Nobel Prize Literature laureate 2022
7 October 2022
French writer Annie Ernaux has been named the Nobel Prize Literature laureate for 2022. In selecting Ernaux, judges cited “the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory.”
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Annie Ernaux, literary awards, literature
Anthony Douglas barista of the year World Coffee Championships
6 October 2022
The 2022 World Coffee Championships were held in Melbourne, Australia, during the last week of September, and local coffee-brewer Anthony Douglas was named Barista of the Year.
Here’s some video footage of Douglas in action. But whoever thought that coffee making could be a spectator event?
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Amasia, the next supercontinent, will form in 300 million years
6 October 2022
The ground beneath our feet is constantly shifting. In around three-hundred million years, all the landmasses we’re familiar with today will have merged to form a supercontinent some are already calling Amasia. So fas as geologists can tell, there have possibly been six such supercontinent formations in the past.
The three most recent supercontinents were Pangea, Gondwana, and Pannotia. Geologists think there were other supercontinents before these three, which are called Nuna (or Columbia), Rodinia, and Ur.
The formation of Amasia is going to involve a lot of tectonic activity between now and then. Too bad no one here today will be around it see it.
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Surging inflation is changing the way books are published
6 October 2022
Not even books are immune to the ravages of surging inflation, and increasing prices in the shops is only one problem afflicting the publishing industry. As production costs rise, printers are being forced to look for ways to reduce overheads. These include using cheaper paper stock, and smaller fonts along with less page margins, so books can be produced using less resources.
Blow on its pages and they might lift and fall differently: cheaper, lighter paper is being used in some books. Peer closely at its print and you might notice that the letters jostle more closely together: some cost-conscious publishers are starting to shrink the white space between characters. The text might run closer to the edges of pages, too: the margins of publishing are shrinking, in every sense.
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Not Now, Not Ever, a book edited by Julia Gillard
4 October 2022
Sunday 9 October 2022 marks ten years since then Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered a scathing speech berating blatant instances of misogyny and sexism from the then opposition party, and its leader Tony Abbott. The address — which became known as the misogyny speech — is among the most significant ever made by an Australian Prime Minister.
Not Now, Not Ever, Ten years on from the misogyny speech, a book which will be published on Wednesday 5 October 2022, and edited by Gillard, examines what has changed in Australia since her speech, and what still needs to come.
On 9 October 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard stood up and proceeded to make all present in Parliament House that day pay attention — and left many of them squirming in their seats. The incisive ‘misogyny speech’, as her words came to be known, continues to energise and motivate women who need to stare down sexism and misogyny in their own lives.
With contributions from Mary Beard, Jess Hill, Jennifer Palmieri, Katharine Murphy and members of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Julia Gillard explores the history and culture of misogyny, tools in the patriarchy’s toolbox, intersectionality, and gender and misogyny in the media and politics.
Kathy Lette looks at how the speech has gained a new life on TikTok, as well as inspiring other tributes and hand-made products, and we hear recollections from Wayne Swan, Anne Summers, Cate Blanchett, Brittany Higgins and others of where they were and how they first encountered the speech.
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Australia, books, Julia Gillard
7000 free to read online children’s books from the 19th century
4 October 2022
Don’t we love freely available collections of digitised artworks or books? Well, here’s another one, seven-thousand historical children’s books, courtesy of the University of Florida’s Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature.
Most titles in this collection were originally published in the mid to late nineteenth century, so will doubtless differ somewhat from what is seen in contemporary children’s fiction.
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