QANTAS attempt at Twitter promotion a PR disaster

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22 November 2011
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QANTAS’ attempt at social media promotion has turned into a classic PR disaster, with users hijacking the promotional tag to insult the airline.

The airline’s official Twitter account asked its followers: What is your dream luxury inflight experience? (Be creative!) Answer must include #QantasLuxury.

But things quickly turned sour as many Twitter users barraged the airline’s account with negative submissions, as disputes with workers’ unions drag on.

User smurray38 wrote #qantasluxury is seeing your planes on Getaway not Four Corners.

Another user Beta_Boy said #QantasLuxury is grounding the fleet so I can fly with @VirginAtlantic instead.

#qantasluxury is outsourcing your unionized workforce but keeping your marketing team, said Obfusc8 — via

Create a Time Based CSS Style Sheet Switcher

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22 November 2011
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Style switchers have become a popular feature on websites these days. CSS style sheets allow a Web Designer to change the look and feel of a website with little effort. Some sites use Day and Night type of style switchers that automatically change the site theme based on the time of day.

This tutorial shows you how to create a time based CSS style sheet switcher using PHP that lets you change multiple style sheets at once at specific times of the day. There’s also a little bit of jQuery UI thrown in just for fun — via Nettuts+

Movie Rights Group website shut down, VP leaves

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22 November 2011
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In Business, Entertainment, Rights, Technology
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The website for controversial anti-piracy organisation Movie Rights Group has inexplicably vanished from the Internet and its vice president of sales and marketing has quit, leading to speculation that the organisation has been shut down for good.

The website had previously featured a prominent notice informing visitors that one of its chief services was settling lawsuits with Internet users who had allegedly infringed its clients’ copyright. However, Reddit users noted in the past several days that the organisation’s website had disappeared from the Internet.

In addition, Walker, who had acted as the company’s only known spokesperson, has updated his LinkedIn profile to note that he no longer works for the company as at November and was now a small to medium business development business consultant based in Brisbane. Walker has not responded to an emailed request for comment on the issue — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Studio portrait of big, brainy octopus

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22 November 2011
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This remarkable image comes from Sea, a collection of photographs that is published this month by Abrams. In it the fantastic and unusual marine creatures have been treated as still life objects by American photographer Mark Laita.

Underwater photography often gives animals a blue-green tint, because of absorption in the red part of the light spectrum. To show colours as they actually are, Laita photographed the creatures in tanks using studio strobe lighting — via New Scientist

Embroidered Felt Headband / Elsa Mora

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22 November 2011
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Check out the amazing detail on this embroidered headband from Elsa at Elsa Mora’s Blog! Her beautiful embroidery work on the tiny felt shapes is absolutely gorgeous, and the incorporation of beading adds such great texture to the headband. I am sincerely jealous of her perfect stitch spacing — just look at those flowers — via CRAFT

Huge scrapyard tech could hurl giant lightning bolts

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22 November 2011
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For years, San Francisco-based electrical engineer Greg Leyh has harboured ambitious plans to build the biggest lightning generator in the world. When New Scientist talked to him in 2006, he was planning to construct two giant Tesla coils that would launch electric arcs crackling across a space the size of a football stadium at an estimated cost of $8.9 million.

Leyh’s hope of funding that project faded when the recession hit. Now he’s trying crowdsourcing to get it up and running within two years. He is seeking donations for the Lightning Foundry, an equally impressive but lower-budget version costing about $350,000. New Scientist asked him about his plans — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Heinz hits out at home brands

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22 November 2011
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The chief executive of HJ Heinz, one of the world’s biggest food manufacturers, has again taken aim at Coles and Woolworths for flooding the market with private label goods, which has forced it to shut one factory and downsize two others as its margins are squeezed to breaking point.

William Johnson, executive chairman, CEO and president of the $US16.4 billion Pittsburgh-based Heinz, told investors the company has had to rework its strategy in Australia to cope with the growing domination of private label goods and the never-ending discounting on branded goods by the supermarket chains.

The reality on Australia [is that it has] almost come to the point that it’s … immaterial to us going forward because it has taken such a hit, Mr Johnson said. We are confronting a combination of weak categories, relentless promotional pressure and growing private label, as well as executional issues — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Terminator-style info-vision takes step towards reality

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22 November 2011
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In a study published today in IOP’s Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, researchers constructed a computerised contact lens and demonstrated its safety by testing it on live eyes. There were no signs of adverse side effects.

At the moment, the contact lens device contains only a single pixel but the researchers see this as a proof-of-concept for producing lenses with multiple pixels which, in their hundreds, could be used to display short emails and text messages right before your eyes.

The device could overlay computer-generated visual information on to the real world and be of use in gaming devices and navigation systems. It could also be linked to biosensors in the user’s body to provide up-to-date information on glucose or lactate levels — via redwolf.newsvine.com

African Pygmy Hedgehog / Cincinnati Zoo

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22 November 2011
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Shane, the baby African Pygmy Hedgehog, is about one quarter of his adult size in these recent photos. In the wild these hedgehogs are incectivores, dining on worms and grubs, but in Zoos, they typically are fed kibble, closer to what a pet dog or cat may eat. Shane will be part of Cincinnati Zoo’s Outreach Program, which introduces school students and zoo visitors to varied kinds of exotic animals — via ZooBorns

Twitter, Facebook to be in government phone book?

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21 November 2011
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In Politics, Technology
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The Federal Government’s phone book of all Australian telephone numbers could include users’ social networking details in the future, depending on the outcome of a review of the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND).

The IPND covers all Australian telephone numbers and subscriber information. Its basic functions include determining callers’ locations when they dial triple-zero and assisting law enforcement agencies in their investigations. It also is used to publish telephone books and provide directory assistance, although access to certain information in these instances is reduced.

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has recognised that the IPND is in need of a review due to developments in the telecommunication industry since the database was first established in 1998. Consequently, it has released a discussion paper (PDF) inviting community comment on how the IPND should be improved.

One of the topics for discussion is the prevalence of social media and other internet-based services, and whether it should be included as part of the IPND — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Médecins sans Frontières book reveals aid agencies’ ugly compromises

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21 November 2011
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A controversial new book produced by one of the world’s best-known aid agencies, Médecins sans Frontières, lifts the lid on the often deeply uncomfortable compromises aid organisations are forced to make while working in conflicts.

How humanitarian aid organisations work — and the sometimes unintended consequences of their actions — has been brutally cross-examined in recent years, not least by the critical Dutch author Linda Polman.

MSF’s collection of essays, Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed, has provided the most detailed and self-critical inside account of the deals aid agencies are forced to negotiate, often with groups and regimes which abuse human rights, to continue their work — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Science to help HIV positive men conceive

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21 November 2011
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Melbourne researchers have made a significant breakthrough which will see men with HIV able to conceive children through artificial insemination, without infecting their partners and babies.

Doctors at the Royal Womens’ Hospital Victoria have developed a program where men with HIV have the virus eliminated from sperm samples before insemination.

The hospital’s Dr Michelle Giles says the program is about helping couples get pregnant safely — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Copyright isn’t working, says European Commission

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21 November 2011
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People have come to see copyright as a tool of punishment, Europe’s technology chief has said in her strongest-yet attack on the current copyright system.

Digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Saturday that the creative industries had to embrace rather than resist new technological ways of distributing artistic works. She added that the existing copyright system was not rewarding the vast majority of artists.

Is the current copyright system the right and only tool to achieve our objectives? Not really, Kroes said in a speech to the Forum D’Avignon thinktank. Citizens increasingly hear the word copyright and hate what is behind it.

Sadly, many see the current system as a tool to punish and withhold, not a tool to recognise and reward, Kroes added — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Mondrian coffee table set / Made

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20 November 2011
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No need to tell you why this Mondrian coffee table set at Made is so named.

But we will anyway, The idea is, presumably, to create a suite of tables that mimic the artwork of Piet Mondrian in the 1920s. Not a new idea, we featured a similar concept at Liberty last year, but it’s still very well done and a nice ways to add some practical modernism to your home for not a lot of cash — via Retro To Go

USC Scientists Make Fuel Cell Breakthrough

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20 November 2011
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A group of scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have figured out a way to effectively, and more safely, use hydrogen as a fuel source, according to the University’s news site.  Hydrogen is easily converted to electricity in a fuel cell and it is carbon free. The only problem is hydrogen can only be stored at high pressure. Until now.

The team of researchers have found a way to release hydrogen from chemical form so it can be stored as a stable solid. In addition, they have developed a catalyst system that releases enough hydrogen from its storage in ammonia borane to make it usable as a fuel source. What’s even more exciting is the system is stable in air and reusable — via Earth Techling

Villa Ex / Claude Parent

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20 November 2011
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How the other half live? If your numbers come up on the Lotto this weekend, you could set yourself up in the 1960s Villa Ex in Cap D’Antibes, South Of France, which happens to be up for sale.

A very distinctive design, dating from 1966, the work of architect Claude Parent, who designed the property for sculptor André Bloc with a view of both the bay of Antibes and Golfe-Juan.

How much? That’s not clear. It’s one of those price on application listings. But as we said, if the Lotto numbers come up, you might want to give the agent a call — via WowHaus

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