Australian soap opera Neighbours coming to an end
4 March 2022
After months of speculation, it’s official, long running Australian television soap opera, Neighbours, is coming to an end after thirty-seven years. The call was made after the soap’s production company Fremantle, were unable to find another broadcaster in the United Kingdom to screen the show.
Ironically the only time I ever saw Neighbours was when I lived in the United Kingdom for a few years. There was a curious — to me at least — ritual at one of the places I worked at, where many of the staff would take their lunch breaks a little later than usual so they could watch Neighbours. My colleagues would assemble in a meeting room and look at the afternoon screening on the wall mounted TV, while engaging in animated banter about what was happening.
I’m a little surprised the producers struggled to find British support for the show though. Neighbours, and its Sydney based counterpart Home and Away, were, at the time, broadcast twice daily, in the early afternoon, and then a few hours later in the early evening. If that’s not a gauge of the popularity of a TV show, what is?
The final episodes will be filmed in June this year, according to reports.
RELATED CONTENT
Release of The Batman, and other films, delayed in Russia
4 March 2022
Turning Red, The Batman, Morbius, The Lost City, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, are among films whose releases are being delayed in Russia, in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
RELATED CONTENT
Boy Swallows Universe in Netflix screen adaptation
4 March 2022
Boy Swallows Universe, the 2018 semi-autobiographical debut novel by Australian writer Trent Dalton, is set to be adapted into an eight-part series by Netflix.
While details are still scant, it is believed Australian actor and filmmaker Joel Edgerton will be one of the show’s producers, and we can expect to see it on screens sometime in 2023, or 2024.
This is huge news for fans of Dalton’s book.
RELATED CONTENT
Build, a book by Tony Fadell, co-inventor of the iPhone
3 March 2022
To stoke the collective oblong obsession. American engineer and designer Tony Fadell who invented the iPod, and co-invented the iPhone, has written a book, Build, which is being published in May. This is surely a must read for iPod and iPhone aficionados. The story behind the development of both products, especially the iPhone, is fascinating, especially if this perspective by John Gruber at Daring Fireball is anything to go by.
RELATED CONTENT
Beware HR 6819 is a vampire star
3 March 2022
HR 6819 is a binary star about 1120 light years from Earth. So far so good, binary stars are a dime a dozen in the Milky Way. But one member of the duo — though some astronomers speculate HR 6819 may be a three star system — which is about four times the size of the Sun, is sucking material away from its smaller counterpart. Astronomers have a special name for stars like this: vampire stars.
In binary systems where two stars are close together, it’s not uncommon for one star to “suck” away the atmosphere of the other – a phenomenon sometimes called “stellar vampirism”. The researchers believe they may have observed the immediate aftermath of a stellar vampire attack in HR 6819.
RELATED CONTENT
Why is Russia invading Ukraine?
3 March 2022
An informative overview of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, from the people at Real Life Lore, and an attempt to answer the question: why is Russia invading Ukraine? There’s a slew of issues here, historical, economic, and cultural, meaning there’s no simple answer. This video was made over a week ago, so some of the information presented may have changed.
RELATED CONTENT
Memorable reading suggestions for March 2022
3 March 2022
Reading suggestions from Jason Steger, books editor at The Sydney Morning Herald, this time for the month of March. I have my eye on Loveland, by Melbourne based Australian writer Robert Lukins.
RELATED CONTENT
Naomi Parry Duncan wins Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship 2022
2 March 2022
Blue Mountains based Australian historian and writer Naomi Parry Duncan has been named winner of the 2022 Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship.
The fellowship, which is awarded to Australian biography writers, commemorates late British born Australian writer and biographer Hazel Rowley, who died in 2011.
RELATED CONTENT
Australian writing, biographies, Hazel Rowley, literature, Naomi Parry Duncan
Understanding Ukraine and Russia, some suggested reading
2 March 2022
For anyone interested in reading more about the present situation in Ukraine, Serhii Plokhii, Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University, recommends five books that explore the history, and relationship, between Ukraine and Russia.
It is a situation that probably could be recognized anywhere in the world — because what we see is the process of disintegration of one of the last world empires. The Russian Empire started to fall apart when the Austro-Hungarian, the Ottoman and other empires were falling apart. The Bolsheviks held it together, but it still fell apart in 1991, almost overnight. Everyone was surprised. It was a miracle that there was no major war or bloodshed. Now we realize that the war was just postponed.
RELATED CONTENT
Avoid the loss of your Goodreads data, back up your account regularly
2 March 2022
Alarming news for members of book cataloguing website Goodreads, of which I am one. Be sure to regularly backup your account data, as it may be irretrievably lost in the event of a website glitch, as was the case recently for Nelson Minar.
Goodreads lost my entire account last week. Nine years as a user, some 600 books and 250 carefully written reviews all deleted and unrecoverable. Their support has not been helpful. In 35 years of being online I’ve never encountered a company with such callous disregard for their users’ data.
RELATED CONTENT