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Mental Notes: July 2009

MELBOURNE–Good evening. It’s winter here, so the strangest thing starting at 3am is I finish two hours on-air 5-7am, walk out of the soundproof booth, and it’s still dark. Then finish – theoretically – at 11am. Usually midday. Lunch is midday, cooking for wifey is midnight snacks. Bizzaro.

Mental Notes: July 2009

MELBOURNE–How’s your job? I’m soooo not complaining, but while putting two hours of live news and current affairs radio together each day from 5-7am live – as in warts and all – my 3am walk to a junky/clubber street in St Kilda to get a cab is worse than the the sad stories we cover.

Jackie Chan angles for Chinese politics

What happens when the world’s most famous Chinese movie star, Jackie Chan, inadvertedly belittles a large part of his ethnic audience? As the blogs and China’s widespread diaspora agree, they tell him to shut up and keep kicking the bad guys and not them.

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Glance of human togetherness in Kazakh’s Tulpan

Many people consider the steppes of Kazakhstan as a largely desolate place – the large, flat plains that cover about half of the country being the home of shepherds, sheep and hot dry winds. But last year’s most awarded international film, Tulpan, has shown audiences worldwide that the most simple settings, and the most simple things in life, still hold the strongest bond.

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Australian govt distances itself from ‘children overboard’

Australia’s Home Affairs Minister has continued to stress that this situation should not be politicised, wary of the political repercussions of this latest people trafficking incident. It all stems from several tragedies off Australia’s north coast in 2001, when the last large-scale arrival of asylum seekers occured – swinging whole elections.

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Bali faces rabies outbreak at close quarters

The island of Bali has historically been isolated from much of what happens throughout the larger Indonesian landmass. But as most small islands thoughout the world have found, globalisation and transport does not just bring tourists and business, dollars and tasty new foods – it can also bring disease.

With two deaths last week from an outbreak of rabies, authorities in Bali are racing to educate, vaccinate and control its spread.

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