David Wenham inducted into the Australian Film Walk of Fame
7 June 2025
Talking of the erstwhile Australian Film Festival, as I was earlier this week, word has reached me that Brisbane based Australian actor David Wenham was admitted to the Australian Film Walk of Fame in February 2025. The induction coincided with a screening of Spit, Wenham’s then most recent work, at the Ritz Cinema, in Randwick, Sydney.
Anyone who has seen Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, 300: Rise of an Empire, or Elvis by Baz Luhrmann, will have seen some of Wenham’s work. Oranges and Sunshine, directed by Jim Loach, was one I particularly liked. The pavement outside the Ritz is adorned with the plagues of the twelve Australian actors who have so far been inducted to the Walk.
(Thanks Stef AKA Coffee Girl)
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Australian film, David Wenham, film
Milky Way might not collide with Andromeda, Milkomeda might not form
4 June 2025
Some recently revised calculations, based on some more recent data, have shown our galaxy, the Milky Way, may not collide, or if you prefer merge, with Andromeda, a large galaxy presently about two and a half million light years away.
Astronomers have long believed a merger/collision to be inevitable. Although heading towards to each other — at an eye watering speed of about one-hundred kilometres per second — there’s close to a fifty-fifty chance both galaxies will simply sail passed each other.
Milkomeda, the name given to the would-be merged entity, and something I’ve written a bit about in the past, may never come to pass after all. But then again it might, no one can be one-hundred percent sure. Uncertainty is the only certainty.
If you’re stilling gunning for the formation of Milkomeda though, here’s an animation of the what the collision might look like, from the perspective of a far distant observer. Events play out over ten billion years, but are compressed to a minute, meaning things won’t be quite as violent as they look.
Even if Earth were still around at this point — which seems unlikely in five billion years time — the merger/collision of the two galaxies would probably make little difference to anyone still here. Aside from an upheaval in the way the night sky looks, that is.
Despite appearances, galaxies are mainly made up of empty space, meaning the chances of a star from Andromeda barging into the solar system would be pretty remote.
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astronomy, milkomeda, Milky Way, physics, science
Having flu vaccination, COVID-19 booster simultaneously seems sensible
4 June 2025
Posted the other day by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC):
As winter begins, a new study has found that getting a COVID-19 booster at the same time as the flu vaccination could reduce the rate of hospital admissions for coronavirus. In a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia, Burnet Institute researchers found that offering COVID-19 vaccination boosters alongside the flu shot could reduce the hospital admission rate for COVID-19 by up to 14 per cent.
This is something we’ve been doing for the last couple of years now. We go in for the flu vaccination, and are also given a COVID-19 booster.
I was surprised the first time the medical centre staff offered to do the COVID booster at the same time as the flu shot, since we used to have to wait about two weeks after one, before we could get the next. Not anymore it would seem.
It may not seem like the odds of going into hospital, in the event of a serious infection, are hugely reduced, but every little bit helps.
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All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane, a film by Louise Alston
2 June 2025
All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane is the sequel to rom-com All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane, made in 2007, also directed by Australian filmmaker Louise Alston. The story to Leaving Brisbane, which was also Alston’s debut feature, goes something like this:
Anthea is 25, single and hates her job — and all her friends are leaving Brisbane. Should she follow the herd to the big city? Is there anything worth staying for now that her best friend Michael finally has a girlfriend?
All My Friends Are Back in Brisbane, however, is not a linear sequel. Alston refers to it as a “spiritual” sequel, which tells the story of a woman, Cris, who returns to Brisbane after ten years in London:
Cris returns to Brisbane after being in London for a decade, having just been dumped by her fiancé. She finds herself working alongside her ex who refused to leave Brisbane to be with her ten years ago, and is now married with a child.
I’m yet to see Leaving Brisbane, though I did catch Alston’s 2010 feature, Jucy, at the sadly defunct Australian Film Festival in 2011.
There’s also a few crossovers between Jucy and Back in Brisbane in Nelle Lee, who co-starred in the former, and Stephen Vagg, Alston’s husband, who wrote the screenplays for both, plus of course Leaving Brisbane. No word yet as to when it will screen in cinemas, Back in Brisbane is presently in post-production, but I’ve read sometime in 2025.
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Australian film, film, Louise Alston, Nelle Lee, Stephen Vagg
Harry Potter producers pull lead actors for ten year TV adaptation from hat
31 May 2025
Two years after the announcement of a ten series TV adaptation of the (original) Harry Potter books, members of the primary cast have been announced.
This includes Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton, and Alastair Stout in the roles of Harry, Hermione, and Ron, respectively. Other castings include John Lithgow as Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, and Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape. No word yet on who will portray bad guy Voldemort, though rumours suggest this might be Cillian Murphy.
So, another ten years of Harry Potter on the screen. No doubt fans will be delighted. It is anticipated the first series will be broadcast sometime in 2026 or 2027.
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Cillian Murphy, film, Harry Potter, novels, screen adaptations, TV
If you knew David Siegel, Jeffrey Zeldman, and Jakob Nielsen, you were an early web designer
31 May 2025
Richard MacManus, writes about three of the best known web designers of the late 1990’s. All three were influential (yet were not influencers), though by way of their individual approaches to web design, were sometimes at odds with each other:
With the rise of Flash and CSS in 1997, three web design philosophies emerged. David Siegel advocated for ‘hacks’, Jakob Nielsen kept it simple, while Jeffrey Zeldman combined flair with usability.
It was the thing during those Web 1.0 days to completely ignore Nielsen. It was only later we came to realise he was onto something.
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Converting commercial buildings to private dwellings: difficult but possible
31 May 2025
At first glance, it seems reasonable that disused and empty commercial buildings be converted to residential dwellings to help reduce homelessness. But, commercial buildings are designed to be commercial buildings, and converting them into private dwellings can be far from straightforward.
Make Room — a Melbourne, Australia, based initiative that transforms city buildings into homes — however, demonstrates this is quite possible.
“We’re in the middle of a housing and homelessness crisis… we all need to play our part in creating and finding a solution,” Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece says. Reece presides over a city which has an estimated shortfall of 6,000 affordable rentals. “If we do nothing this will almost quadruple to more than 23,000 by 2036,” he says. Make Room demonstrates, according to Salt, “the viability of converting commercial spaces to residential” and he hopes it will inspire other projects.
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community, economics, technology, trends
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, a film by Laura Piani, with Camille Rutherford
30 May 2025
A scene from Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, trailer, is the debut feature of Paris based French filmmaker Laura Piani.
A desperately single bookseller, lost in a fantasy world, finds herself forced to fulfill her dreams of becoming a writer in order to stop messing up her love life.
Protagonist Agathe (Camille Rutherford), lives in Paris, where she works at (the well known) Shakespeare & Co English language bookshop. She also aspires to be an author, but struggles with writers block. To her surprise, Agathe is invited to join a Jane Austen writers retreat in the United Kingdom. There she meets Oliver (Charlie Anson), a descendent of Austen.
Here might be a Jane Austen inspired rom-com that doesn’t seem to riff too much on the Jane Austen hopeless romantic trope. It doesn’t look like Jane Austen Wrecked My Life will be in Australian cinemas any time in the near future, so this might be one to stream instead.
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Camille Rutherford, Charlie Anson, film, Jane Austen, Laura Piani, literature, Pablo Pauly
Good Internet, an online magazine for personal website publishers
30 May 2025
Good Internet launched this week.
Good Internet is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit print and digital quarterly magazine for personal website owners and those interested in using the internet as a means of self-expression, art, and recreation. The name Good Internet comes from Katie Baker’s The Day the Good Internet Died, hopefully proving that headline wrong.
Good Internet looks like it will be a great resource for indie web/small web publishers.
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Australian productivity falls, despite record long hours being worked
30 May 2025
Bronwyn Herbert, writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC):
Australians have been working record-long hours, which contributed to the productivity slump, the Productivity Commission report found. Those additional hours performed by workers have not been matched by business investment in systems and technologies that would allow them to work efficiently, according to the report.
In some sectors the apparent decline in workplace productivity can be attributed to a lack of investment in new technologies, including AI. But that’s only part of the problem, and workers also need to be upskilled, if productivity rates are to rise.
I imagine it will be of comfort to some people that upskilling workers is being suggested, by employer advocates no less. This as opposed to the idea that much greater use of AI be made to somehow pickup the shortfall in productivity.
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