When a shutdown becomes a slimdown. And you thought the United States government was going through some kind of shutdown. Well get a grip on yourself and start watching Murdoch’s Fox News. There’s no shutdown. It’s a slimdown. Shutdown is just the Obama administration’s preferred term and at Fox they’re having none of it. From the website last night:

Which followed a day when all the reports from newsagency AP had the “shutdown” word replaced with “slimdown’.

Albo continues to lead. No change this week in the probability assessments of the Labor leadership contest.

Gone but not forgotten. Giving him one for old time’s sake. The Sydney Terror this morning:

Silencing Barnaby. Let’s call it broken promise number one. The Tony Abbott commitment to orderly decision making by cabinet did not last beyond the first need for political expediency. Ignoring the concerns of Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce about Indonesian purchase of Northern Territory cattle stations was a small concern compared with the need for a little appeasement towards an Indonesian government capable of making mischief over boat people. And the good Senator Barnaby knows that once Abbott’s pre-emptive strike was made he had no choice but to pretend he agreed with it. But rest assured that behind the supportive words of yesterday there lurks resentment. The time for a get-square will surely come.

News and views noted along the way.

  • Tattoos must reflect owners’ averageness — “Tattoo parlours will be made to use designs that accurately reflect their recipients under new guidelines … Tattooist Wayne Hayes said: ‘It’s really affecting business and I’m already getting bored of inking “I am an attention-seeker” over and over again’.”
  • Shutdown: A fight with no room for compromise — “To end the government shutdown, all Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) needs to do is let the House of Representatives vote on a budget. It would pass within 30 minutes … But no. Boehner and other Republican leaders refuse to do that because they are in thrall to Tea Party conservatives.”
  • Some online journals will publish fake science, for a fee
  • Daily Mail hates everyone in Britain — “The Institute for Studies was unable to identify a single demographic that the Mail does not loathe with a pathological intensity and concluded that the paper was engaged in a form of ‘psychological terrorism’.”
  • Norway to air five-hour ‘slow TV’ knitting show — “Norway’s state television channel is to broadcast an evening-long programme featuring a group of eight people knitting … The team are trying to beat the four hour fifty one second record set by an Australian team, meaning the programme should continue until past midnight.”