Society & Culture

In what appears as a faux pas, a Terry White chemist in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, made the mistake of displaying an “Experience a White Christmas” sign with golliwogs underneath it. Local George Helon saw the display and photographed it (shown above). Talking to the Toowoomba Chronicle, Helon said: “I showed a photo to other people and they said, ‘what the hell?’ I don’t think there was any ill intent, it was just inappropriately placed.” The manager of the Toowoomba Terry White chemist store explained to the newspaper that it was unintentional, with the golliwogs removed from the display. Golliwogs were once a popular toy (and an Arnott’s chocolate biscuit) of yesteryear, but since the 1960s have subsequently come to be seen by many as a politically incorrect and controversial caricature of black people with strong racist overtones. Terry White Chemists have now further apologised and withdrawn the golliwog doll from ...

Self-lacing sneakers like those worn by Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part II are finally available in larger, but still limited edition quantities. The future is now, and not just because Biff Tannen was based on Donald Trump. Back to the shoes, and these shoes are called the 2016 Nike MAGs. The MAGs are said to include Adaptive Fit technology which senses the wearer and tightens or loosens the laces accordingly. Meaning you don’t even have to use your hands. Because that’s apparently primitive in the future. The catch is though, to get your hands on (and feet in) these shoes with self-tying shoelaces, involves a game of chance. Only 89 pairs of the sneakers will be available, and there are all to be won in a lottery. Unfortunately, the winning ticket numbers aren’t listed in a future version of Grays Sports Almanac as far as anyone knows. ...

In whatever form it takes, the future zombie apocalypse, often induced by some sort of pathogen, has become something of a mainstay amongst pop culture and the entertainment industry. Granting the ability to tell the story of humanity questioned as survival and morals are tested, with the faint glimmer of hope on the horizon. Yet what of the science behind it? If it’s a pathogen, then it’s not some malevolent supernatural force. With the desperation of necessity being the mother of invention, then maybe science could find a cure and a way to save humanity? A pathogenic fungi of the Cordyceps genus has infected humanity, turning most into zombie-like creatures. Although hope exists with someone who’s immune to the infection, and perhaps a cure can be synthesised from them. Without going too Orson Welles on causing alarmism for the sake of a story, that’s actually the basic premise of the ...

“Tell me, do you work? You will.” Cosplayer Julian Checkley has remarkably managed to combine both form and function into cosplay with his fully functional gadget-equipped Batsuit. Apart from obviously sporting the mother of all utility belts, his costumed efforts also managed to secure him a Guinness World Record for the “Most functional gadgets on a cos-play suit”. Numbering 23 isn’t some cryptic clue from the Riddler, instead it’s the number of fully functional gadgets on Checkley’s Batsuit. Maybe it’s not quite as large a number as Robin’s 356 “holy something” remarks, but 23 functioning gadgets should be more than enough to take even Adam West’s version of Batman safely camping. Batman lightening up, or darkening further, the DCEU movies may be another matter entirely. Besides, Checkley’s Batsuit likely beats the homemade version of the mecha-armour Batsuit with the hammers of justice. For those wondering, yes it is equipped with ...

Labelled the Great Flood of 2016 which washed its way through the southern parts of Louisiana, USA, in August, now carries something else strange with it in the aftermath. As the historic rains displaced people, threatening lives and livelihoods, a group of good Samaritans banded together to rescue those caught in the floodwaters. Known as the Cajun Navy, these people took it upon themselves to help their fellow men and women in their time of need. Using their own boats, and without thought of reward, they ferried often complete strangers to safety simply because it was the right thing to do and there was little time to waste. Cajun Navy member Dustin Clouatre of St. Amant, Louisiana, recounts: “At one time in my boat, I had a guy I dropped off at a Buddhist temple. I had a black guy, and I had a Mexican guy. And when we dropped ...

Tim, one of the oldest and largest bull elephants in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya, Africa, made good on the scientifically validated statement that an elephant never forgets. The male elephant had been wounded by a spear, and sought out human help. Tim had already been speared once before, in the rump, back in the 2014. He needed human help then, and vets aided his recovery. Wounds on the 47-year-old elephant in 2016 included a piece of metal sticking through Tim’s ear and a bleeding injury on his forehead. With the aid of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE) amongst others, Tim was tracked, and upon daylight was tranquilised for vets to tend to his wounds. The Big Life Foundation was also involved in helping to heal Tim, stating that: “To all our relief, the spear wasn’t poisoned, and had gone through the ...

Use a slang or colloquial term enough, maybe it’ll go mainstream. Then if that happens, it could become a proper word, so to speak, officially recognised by dictionaries. At which point, those who originally used it will probably stop using it, even as the rest of the population hitches a ride on the bandwagon. Thumbing through it like the secret thesaurus of a cunning linguist. This has now happened for the phrase-cum-word “budgie smugglers” which has been in use in Australia since roughly the 1990s, being officially recognised and included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as a sub-entry in the new words list June 2016. With budgie smugglers now officially in the dictionary, as opposed to the dictionary being in the budgie smugglers (usually sneakily so around aquatic spelling bees), it doesn’t take much to define that it could be somewhat disturbing. Whether it has something to do with ...

Celebrating 20 years of awarding and honouring the best of British art, the 2016 South Bank Sky Arts Awards were held Sunday, 5th June at the Savoy Hotel. Winners included Eddie Izzard with the Outstanding Achievement Award, and Stormzy who took out the Breakthrough Award. Amongst the nominees though, was another artist whom many were hoping to catch a glimpse of. Known with certainty only as Banksy, the artist’s 2015 Dismaland Bemusement Park artwork was nominated for the Visual Art Award. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye ultimately won the Visual Art Award for her Verses After Dusk, and congratulations are in order. But that hasn’t stopped the wondering about Banksy’s true identity. Banksy is known for having said: “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” Beyond Banksy’s extensive art works, which include street art and graffiti, often laced with social and political commentary on contemporary issues, little is known about the ...

The crocodile believed to be responsible for taking the life of Cindy Waldron has been caught and killed, with its stomach containing human remains. The 46-year-old Cindy Waldron was taken in a crocodile attack, while she was said to be wading up to her waist in the water at Thornton Beach around 10:30pm on Sunday 29 May, 2016. Her friend, Leeanne Mitchell, 47, who witnessed the crocodile attack, suffered shock and grazes and was taken to Mossman Hospital. The 4.3 metre crocodile was the considered by police as a target animal owing to its size and location. It was trapped at Cooper Creek, in the Daintree, in far north Queensland. The animal was subsequently euthanased. A 2.5 metre crocodile was previously caught in a similar manner. Flushing the contents of its stomach revealed no human remains and the creature was said to be released unharmed back into the wild. Following ...

“Hey guys,” David Morrison, the 2016 Australian of the Year and retired Army Lieutenant General, wants to do away with that phrase, and others, in the workplace. Launching the Diversity Council Australia (DCA) campaign WordsAtWork, Morrison wants to build inclusion through the power of language. Morrison states: “DCA’s new campaign is not about being ‘politically correct’ – it is about encouraging people to use language at work which is respectful, accurate, and relevant to everyone.” The WordsAtWork campaign aims at building inclusion, acknowledging that language can be a powerful tool for this. The effect of language and words used ranges from validated and replicated psychological research to well-meaning (but often questionable) pop-psychology anecdotes. Where the latter may be taken as supposed proof of what is someone’s personal opinion, all too frequently when confirmation bias is also in play. Whether the phrase “hey guys” or even “guys” is exclusionary or non-inclusive ...