Glassing attacks in Australia

Still on the subject of anti-social behaviour, the phenomenon of glassing is really disturbing. Here's the latest example: Some poor bloke had his face slashed in the Ambar nightclub in Perth.

Of course this is not an isolated incident. It's happening alarmingly often all over Australia. I heard of many such incidents when I was in Sydney, too. It's almost as if the phenomenon is contagious!

Events like this were rare as hens' teeth when I was growing up. It's a completely different social environment out there now. There are heaps more angry young blokes with no capacity for restraint, and a nightclub culture that celebrates binge drinking.

It's a real worry.

Mandurah not so peaceful any more

Ages ago, when I was a teenager heavily into surfing, I would hitchhike all the way from Perth down to Margaret River. I would pass through Mandurah, which was an idyllic little town situated on an inlet. Because it was so peaceful it was favoured by seniors who wanted to have a nice quiet time in their final years.

Since the resources boom, however, it's been buzzing. And with the railway line now in action it gets a helluva lot more people coming down from Perth for some R and R.

I went down to Mandurah one day for a couple of hours over summer, and couldn't believe how much it had changed. These big hotels dominated the skyline there, and there were other high rise buildings on the way.

The town centre, right near the bridge, was chockas with people. And there were at least five times the number of shops and cafes than when I used to go there in my youth. It still had a nice relaxed holiday atmosphere, but the place was clearly well on the way to becoming a mini Surfers Paradise.

And it's not just the population that has exploded. There's also been a huge rise in anti-social behaviour. Reports like this one come out increasingly often.

Sad, really.

Getting into social media

Just as the blog title states, I'll post about a wide range of stuff on this blog. So, this is about social media.

I've been blogging for several years now, but I've only just recently gotten into social media. I wish I'd started eralier because it really is fantastic. It's kind of like surfing. The knack is to paddle around looking for a wave to catch. If you can get the right one at the right time, it can take you quite a way.

I'm starting to get some momentum happening on Twitter. I've also started a site on Tumblr. I'm not really sure where I'm going with it yet; just getting my head around how it all works. It seems to be very similar to Twitter except that there aren't nearly as many users, and it doesn't limit you to 140 characters. I've just got a little microblog happening bookmarking odd and interesting stories I find. It might morph into something else in time. Or maybe I'll start another Tumblr site that's more specific content-wise.

I've also just started with Gather.

Newtown train station fatality

Some poor bastard has been killed by a train near Newtown Station. I know this station well; I used to get on and off there everyday for years.

It's a horrible thing to happen, but clearly the person shouldn't have been crossing the rails. And you've got to wonder why he and his friends tried. There's an underpass just nearby, as well as King Street, which goes over the top of the rail line.

Crazy.

Fast food leads to fast life

It seems that consuming fast food can make you impatient in other aspects of your life.

Well we are what we eat, after all.

Weekly World News

Have a look at the news site Weekly World News. Any site that has categories titled "Aliens" and "Mutants" can't be all bad.

List of failed terrorists

Fundamentalist Muslim terrorists have been detonating bombs all over the place for many years now. And there have been several cases in recent years in which they haven't gone off, or the perpetrators were caught before being able to carry out their sick plans.

Here's a list of them - along with three non-Islamic terrorists from much further back in the past.