Bloomberg donates $715million to climate change
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, has contributed $715million towards closing coal-fired power plants across the United States.
Bloomberg Philanthropies said the Beyond Carbon initiative would close about 250 coal-fueled power plants by 2030 and make the country fully reliant on clean energy.
Michael Bloombery was the UN Secretary General’s special envoy on climate change last year.
8AM ZEDLINES
[Image source: Flickr]
New green bridge connecting West End and Toowong
The Brisbane City Council is interested in landing a pedestrian bridge that would connect West End and Toowong on the site of the now-demolished ABC Toowong building.
Deputy mayor Krista Adams said the council wouldn’t purchase the full site, but is interested in buying a portion after negotiating with the private owner.
The West End-Toowong bridge would be one of the five new green bridges part of a pledge made by lord mayor Adrian Schrinner three months ago.
Yellow CityCycle bikes will change to blue bikes.
The yellow CityCycle bikes will be turned blue following a partnership between the Brisbane City Council and NRMA Insurance.
Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner said the shared bike scheme will provide residents an affordable and healthy way to travel around the city.
The partnership is set to double revenue and would help cover the initial financial losses from when the bikes were introduced in 2010.
Drain socks attracts the world
The drain socks designed by the Western Australian City of Kwinana to fight river pollution has attracted attention from around the globe.
The city had nets attached to the mouths of two stormwater drains March last year to catch litter and debris that contaminate the system.
Kwinana Mayor Carol Adams said they posted a picture of the low-cost solution to social media, and upwards of 25 million people have interacted with it so far.
Google drones in delivery business
Google drones are above Canberra’s skies for an air delivery business delivering items to people’s homes moving into a phase in the economy where everything is delivered.
Google’s overarching company Alphabet has been trialling delivering burritos, coffee and medication for a year and in April, the company was approved to start.
The Civil Aviation and Safety Authority officials said the question of who gets to play in drone airspace is yet being considered.
International space station open to public
The International Space Station will be opened to tourists by NASA from 2020 to give the general public the experience of space.
Tourists would be expected to pay $35,000 a night for water and use of life support system and can stay up to 30 days.
New tourists will not be the first to visit the International Space Station, as the United States businessman Dennis Tito took that honour in 2001.
G20 raises global risks
The G20 leaders meeting in Japan has raised the problem of Japan’s rapidly ageing population and shrinking birth rates which are an economic burden.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and development, the global above-50 population is expected to double by 2050.
The senior Japanese Finance ministry official said countries are already facing the rapid demographic change and will have to prepare better for the financial future.
'Amyl and the Sniffers' - Album
Sometimes the more snot nosed and bratty a punk record, the better it is and this eponymous full- length from Melbourne quartet Amyl and The Sniffers might as well have a cold. That's brought about by the fresh breeze they’ve let in through leaving the windows to their share house open, now flitting through their soon-to-be-iconic mullets. This album isn’t constricted by its glaring DIY aesthetic: it revels in it. The band lean strongly into the form previously established by previous grassroots releases and it only amplifies their brash attitude. Not to be continually on the nose, there are hooks buried amongst a whirlwind of outwards energy.
A bouncing riff pulled right out of Red Fang’s beer cooler does double duty as the apt album opener and something that would bring in a live set perfectly; a rare feat that immediately spawns the image of physical performance. Taking its name from a pair of roller skates Starfire 500 swings from extended, throttling instrumentals into the body of the song, with the guitars foreshadowing the ensuing vocal melody after a searing, albeit brief solo. That pre-emptive move smooths over the otherwise jarring transformation from belting pub-rock to a more direct sound.
After an explosive entrance you get the chopped and muted guitars of Gacked On Anger. It’s an anthem for those of the perennial underclass: those who are scraping by, almost on the precipice of being deemed untouchable. Down-strummed fury couples with the lyrical tirade and it all gets pounded into being by a two-step friendly beat. Monsoon Rock captures the humorous panic of tour-related, weather enforced cabin fever which ultimately finds salvation in the live show.
It’s not all strident spats, melody driven gems shine like the bright points in X’s back catalogue. The backing harmonies on the chorus of Angel contrast well with the gang vocals of I Got You and indeed they offset each other with different takes on long relationships. The gentler vocal performance and soothing harmonies on the former gives an otherwise neglected sense of humanity. The song laments the emotional toil needed to keep love going in the face of more negative emotions. Such revealing moments are few and far between however. Catchphrase choruses are hooks in themselves on Punish and Shake Ya. Here, much like the album opener, simplicity and repetition will be employed to great effect once brought from record to stage.
Held together with production that raises the bar of fidelity over their previous EPs just a little, Amyl and The Sniffers distil their much lauded live show into a concise album. Throughout this debut, you can’t hear a song without the vision of four bodies thrashing on stage in unison with the crowd in front of them. All it does is make you want to see these high octane songs live; and really, what better way to get people to your shows than to put out a great record?
- Matt Lynch.
10th June 2019
Local Artists:
Post-Dusk: Half Past Three (Independent)
Half Past Three by post-dusk
GALLVS: The Flood (Single) (Dew Process)