Olivia's World: - 'Tuff 2B Tender'

Recorded a floor below a newborn at Incremental Studios with Cameron Smith, Tuff 2B Tender contemplates time, age, disaster and death in whip-smart pop fashion. Olivia’s World’s cutting lyricism and clear-eyed melodies ponder on alternate timelines, question the empty gestures of virtue signaling and grasp with impending catastrophes. Alice Rezende pictures a post-apocalyptic plantopia on “Grassland,” an image cast back by the songwriter as a desire to skip the city for a more tranquil and sprawling scene. “I’m just looking for a place to call my grassland/Everybody just wants a place to call their grassland.” Opening track “Debutante” recounts Rezende’s experiences playing in bands and what it means to start over, considering the cyclical tilling of ideas, spaces and musicians in nostalgia-tinged harmonies from guitarist Tina Agic and bassist Joe Saxby. With Ben Napier filling out percussion, the quartet order anthemic pop hooks between sharp and upbeat punk, channelling the overt charm of Tiger Trap’s brightest tunes and the push of Sleater Kinney’s knottiest riffs. Again pairing up with Seattle-based tape label Lost Sound Tapes (Richard Album, Temporary Eyesore), Olivia’s World continue to glimmer as one of the most exciting twee-revivalist acts in operation. Aside from the band’s innate knack for catchy arrangement and undeniable charisma, Alice Rezende’s thoughtful, empathetic lyricism further sets Olivia’s World apart from their contemporaries. Rezende’s perspective-seeking words reveal lush and imaginative imagery; literary and pensive verses mirroring the author’s transoceanic experiences through time and space. Tenderness sure can be tough but Olivia’s World possess the sensitivity and awareness to assess big-picture issues of the future, present and past. Despite its exterior pop sheen, Tuff 2B Tender is a ruminative exercise in existing - existing as a bandmate, as a friend, as a human.

NASA has created oxygen on Mars

NASA’s new toaster-sized machine MOXIE has converted carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere into breathable oxygen. 

MOXIE can produce ten grams of oxygen per hour and will be run nine times over the next two years under a variety of conditions as proof of concept.

MOXIE principal investigator Michael Hecht said it’s estimated one metric ton of oxygen would be needed to support astronauts living and working on Mars for one year.

Children of Chernobyl disaster clean up crew unaffected by radiation

The first ever study to screen the children of parents who helped clean up the Chernobyl disaster has found no mutations were associated with their parent’s high radiation exposure.

The children were all born between nineteen eighty seven and two thousand and two, and had their genomes analyzed for any mutations.

The study finds the parent’s radiation exposure had no impact on the children they conceived.

 

Australia rejects US call to increase greenhouse gas emissions target at Climate Summit

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison disagreed with US president Joe Biden’s calls for increasing greenhouse gas emissions targets at a UN Climate Summit this morning. 

Australia will continue to aim for a reduction of between 26-28% on 2005 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, almost half of the US’ proposed revised target of 50-52%.

Morrison reiterated Australia would take a “technology, not taxes” approach to climate change. 

 

New crime series to bring jobs to the economy

The Queensland government has announced the ABC will be filming a crime series exclusively in Queensland, with locations stretching from the South East through to the tropical Far North.

The series, called Troppo, is based on a bestselling novel by Candice Fox called Crimson Lake

The project is expected to bring $10 000 000 dollars to the Queensland economy, and create over 130 jobs

Calls for caps on Sunshine Coast rental prices

National Shelter, a non-for-profit organisation lobbying for affordable housing access, says legislation needs to cap exorbitant rent increases on the Sunshine Coast.  

Executive officer, Adrian Pisarski, says the rent rises of one hundred or two hundred dollars a week for people who have just emerged from a pandemic is shocking.

The Queensland Residential Tenancies Authority says tenants should discuss rent increases with their property manager if they feel it is excessive.

 

Recycled water pipeline planned for the Lockyer Valley

A 300km network of pipelines is planned for the Lockyer Valley region to help grow the agricultural and horticultural industries.

The project will use purified recycled water, whilst also sourcing up to 34000 mega litres from the Wivenhoe Dam.

The Lockyer Valley, which produces some of Australia’s most diverse fruits and vegetables, has become overly reliant on groundwater supply in recent years due to ongoing droughts. 

UK Government apologises for WWI deaths not recognised due to racism

A new report has found that up to 350,000 thousand soldiers who died for the British Empire in World War One were not given recognition due to racism.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he offers an unreserved apology for the troubling findings. 

The United Kingdom’s Commonwealth War Graves Commission is expected to act on ten recommendations including seeking out names and adding explanations at gravesites.