CATHY FREEMAN LOOKS AHEAD TO 2022

It was dubbed by officials as the 'best Olympic Games ever' and now a decade later, our nation will celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games on Wednesday 15 September. This comes as we continue our bid to bring the FIFA World Cup™ to Australia in 2022.

 

And one of the heroes of Sydney 2000, Olympic 400m champion Cathy Freeman, is also strong supporter of the bid.

"Australia is the best choice to host the FIFA World Cup™ in 2022 because we have experience that we have grown out of the Sydney Olympics in 2000. We are a sports loving nation and football is our growing passion," Freeman said.

 

"I have experienced the power and passion of an Australian crowd; I only have to draw on my experience from the Sydney Olympics 2000."

 

As a show of her support, Freeman met a delegation of FIFA inspectors in July this year, when they visited Australia to examine the credentials of Australia's bid.

 

"This is our opportunity to showcase to the world the very best of who we are. I encourage all Australians to support our country's bid by adding your name to www.australiabid.com.au," Freeman said.

 

What is it about cruising?

The Queen Mary 2 arrives in Sydney on her
maiden world voyage, February 20, 2007

Guest blogger and adventure cruiser, Roderick Eime, offers us this introduction to the growing phenomenon of ‘expedition and adventure adventure cruising’.

In case you’ve been living under a stone this last year or so, you may have missed the fact that cruising – in big ships and small – is on a rocket at the moment.

One of the reasons that we Australians are seeing a surge in cruise activity is that Americans withdrew almost unilaterally from the travel landscape after the GFC. Some are creeping back, picking up huge discounts, but most stay close to home. Remember that only around one in five Americans own a passport.

Consequently cruise lines are moving their spare floating inventory to our waters to capture our undiminished lust for travel. P&O, Royal Caribbean, Princess and now Cunard have announced expansion to their Australasian programs.

Personally, I’m less of a fan of the big ship experience than the small ship one. Small vessels, sometimes called expedition or adventure ships, are the sort that head off to remote islands and exotic locations where there is often no tourism infrastructure at all. Places like Papua New Guinea, remote Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomons are easy for us to get to but still deliver true ‘wild adventure’.

There are four Australian cruise companies that quickly come to mind as market leaders in this field: Orion, Coral Princess, North Star and Captain Cook. Each have their own particular brand and style that has helped them develop their own loyal following.

Orion Expeditions is, in my mind, something of a crossover, product. It has all the big ship trimmings, but still ventures into ‘uncharted’ waters. It probably has the best ocean-going capability of the segment which allows them to make the voyage to deep Antarctica each year.

Coral Princess were the first to initiate true small ship boutique cruises in this country with overnight cruises on the Great Barrier Reef back in the early eighties. Now their three vessels venture throughout our regional waters to PNG, Vanuatu, New Zealand and the Kimberley.

North Star Cruises operate the gorgeous True North, a compact 36- passenger luxury motor yacht that operates our waters on similar itineraries. It often carries a helicopter and is possibly the most experienced operator in our hugely popular Kimberley region.

Captain Cook Cruises appeal to the 4-star market, offering a more affordable product without the marble bathrooms and gold plated taps. Their Murray River cruise is a leader as is their Fiji sailings, especially the annual ‘Dateline’ adventure that pushes out into the more remote islands.

Still reading? Well why not pop over to the Adventure Cruise Guide to see whether you are really an adventure cruiser?

Roderick Eime reports regularly on adventure and expedition cruising for consumer and trade media. Read his reports in Cruise Passenger magazine, Cruise Weekly, Escape and Ocean Magazine.

TOYOTA AUSTRALIA TO INVEST IN THE NEXT GENERATION ENGINE

Toyota Australia will begin manufacturing a new fuel efficient and more environmentally sustainable engine for its Camry and Hybrid Camry sedans at its long established engine plant in Altona, Melbourne.

More than 100,000 engines will be produced each year at Altona, commencing in the later half of 2012. Approximately $300 million of project expenditure will be injected into the Australian economy.

Securing the next generation engine provides a foundation for on-going vehicle production at the Altona plant. It also provides Toyota Australia with significant opportunities to export the new engine to other Toyota manufacturing plants in ASEAN countries that produce Camry and Hybrid Camry.

The new leading edge and more environmentally sustainable engine will deliver reduced carbon emissions and improved fuel consumption.

Toyota Australia President and CEO, Mr Max Yasuda, welcomed the decision and praised the efforts of Toyota Australia's employees, unions and suppliers in ensuring the project proceeded.

"Securing the investment to produce the next generation engine is a huge vote of confidence for our local manufacturing plant and our employees, who have worked tirelessly to improve operational performance to demonstrate our ability to compete with Asia Pacific counterparts.

"Toyota operations around the world are constantly vying for new investment to ensure local manufacturing operations can participate in the global car making industry."

Toyota Australia acknowledged the strong desire of both the Federal and State Governments to see new, more environmentally friendly technologies introduced to Australia.

"The support provided by the Federal Government's Green Car Innovation Fund and the Victorian Government was a major factor in this project proceeding. A partnership between local car makers, the government and suppliers is fundamental for ensuring we evolve our industry to deal with the challenges of a carbon constrained world."

Toyota Australia's engine production has been the cornerstone of its automotive manufacturing since 1978 and was Toyota's first engine manufacturing plant built outside Japan. The facility currently produces the AZ 4 cylinder engine for the current generation Camry, and is operated by 320 employees.

Toyota Australia is Australia's largest car manufacturer and market leader. This year, the company celebrated the launch of Australia's first locally built hybrid, the Hybrid Camry. In 2010 the company exported 63,345 vehicles to more than 20 countries, mainly to the Middle East.

RENAULT, OFFICIAL PARTNER OF THE 36TH DEAUVILLE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL

From 3 to 12 September 2010, for the 11th year running, Renault is the official partner of the 36th Deauville American Film Festival (France).

15 Laguna Saloon 2.0 Bioethanol is escorting the biggest stars of American cinema and the members of the jury as far as the red carpet.
The stars include: Emmanuelle Béart, Terry Gilliam, Zac Effron, Gad Elmaleh, Gregg Araki, Annette Bening, Kim Cattral, Chace Crawford, Roxane Mesquida, Joyce Carol Oates, among many others!

This version of the Laguna Saloon has been accredited with the Renault eco2 signature: equipped with a high performance drive system, manufactured in a French plant that is ISO 14001 certified and made of 17% of recycled plastic materials; it contributes to protecting the environment.

Renault has demonstrated a firm commitment to supporting film and television productions for over a hundred years and actively confirms its policy of sponsorship and product placement.

Shelly Palmer: Majority of Internet Users are Victims of Cybercrime

Source: Shelley Palmer


 

Majority of Internet Users Are Victims of Cybercrime
Two-thirds of Internet users globally and three-fourths of U.S. Internet users are victims of online crime according to a new study from Norton. Viruses and malware are the most common sources of an attack. On average it takes 28 days to resolve a cybercrime and costs $334 per case.

Google’s Instant Search
Google unveiled a new search feature, “Google Instant,” which displays search results as a user types in a query. As a person is typing, Google tries to predict what they’re looking for and reveals the results instantly. A normal Google search takes approximately 25 seconds, but “Google Instant” could save an average of 2-5 seconds per search.

Designer 3-D Glasses
Don’t like how the disposable 3-D glasses at the movie theater fit? Buy your own. Companies like Marchon3D are introducing a line of high-end, stylish 3-D glasses priced from $99-$125. Only problem? They’re only compatible with RealD, the system used in the majority of movie theaters, but not used in most 3-D television sets.

Two Teens Rack Up $9700 Phone Bill
Two American teenagers vacationing near the Dead Sea racked up a $9700 phone bill from Verizon Wireless. The brother and sister were using their cell phones to text, play online games and check Facebook, without realizing how expensive the roaming charges would be. Verizon is deducting $4000 from the bill due to the mother’s claim of not receiving any notification of roaming on her phone.

At The Bar

Need a second opinion on that life-changing decision you've been contemplating? Feel the urge to confide about your latest break-up/make-up? Everyone knows that bartenders give the best advice, but in Melbourne this varies widely depending on which bar you choose to lean on.

Ascend into the leather-scented wings of The Supper Club and its rooftop sister Siglo to find out how a modest snifter of aged whiskey can improve your life. The people at Madame Brussels will willingly give tips on tennis outfits, or ask them about their regular back-room philosophy discussion group. At Hell's Kitchen, where beers are often served by Melbourne singer-songwriter Pikelet, the world-view can basically be distilled as "rock 'n' roll". Meanwhile, at mixology headquarters 1806, they might quote Terry Pratchett: "Never trust any complicated cocktail that remains perfectly clear until the last ingredient goes in."

To locate these great bars, click here.

Discover more of Melbourne's Bars at visitvictoria.com

Google prepares to launch TV service

Google CEO Eric Schmidt delivers a speech at the
Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) consumer electronics fair
in Berlin, September 7, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Thomas Peter

By Nicola Leske

BERLIN | Tue Sep 7, 2010 2:36pm EDT

BERLIN (Reuters) - Google Inc will launch its service to bring the Web to TV screens in the United States this autumn and worldwide next year, its chief executive said, as it extends its reach from the desktop to the living room.

CEO Eric Schmidt said the service, which will allow full Internet browsing via the television, would be free, and Google would work with a variety of programme makers and electronics manufacturers to bring it to consumers.

"We will work with content providers, but it is very unlikely that we will get into actual content production," Schmidt told journalists after a keynote speech to the IFA consumer electronics trade fair in Berlin.

Sony said last week it had agreed to have Google TV on its television sets, and Samsung has said it was looking into using the service.

The announcement comes less than a week after rival Apple

unveiled its latest Apple TV product and will intensify a battle for consumers' attention and potentially for the $180 billion global TV advertising market.

Schmidt also said Google would announce partnerships later this year with makers of tablet computers that would use Google's Chrome operating system, due to be launched soon, rather than its Android phone software, which has been used for mobile devices until now.

The Mountain View, California-based company plans to make Chrome, which competes with Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox, the center of an operating system that would offer an alternative to Microsoft Windows.

The world's No.1 search engine is hunting for new revenue opportunities as growth in its core Internet business slows and as new technologies such as smartphones and social networking services transform the way consumers access the Web.

Schmidt declined to comment on Google's plans for a social network of its own, and while he said there were plans to expand in music, he would not elaborate.

Reuters reported last week that Google was in talks with music labels for a music download store and a digital song locker.

Asked about criticism over Google's Street View in Germany, Schmidt said he had anticipated it and that he had talks with some members of the German government during his stay in Berlin.

"What's unusual is that we've given you (the Germans) the possibility to opt out before (the launch); we have never done that anywhere else."

Google's Street View cars are well known for crisscrossing the globe and taking panoramic pictures of the city streets, which the company displays in its online Maps product.

Critics say the tool invites abuse. They argue thieves can search for targets, security firms could use the data for sales pitches, job seekers might find their homes scrutinized by employers, and banks could inspect the homes of loan applicants.

Google ran into trouble in Germany in May after authorities found out that Street View vehicles were collecting private data sent over unencrypted WiFi networks.

"I was very angry about that," Schmidt said, adding that once it was discovered, Google put an end to it.

(Editing by Hans Peters and Will Waterman)