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Written by Nicole Alley

Category: All Sites Best of the Web

Published: 31 May 2022

Hits: 100

We Aussies are used to seeing our boxing kangaroos showing their fighting skills, but a viral video of a man taking down an aggressive kangaroo with his bare hands has left even us stunned - and the man with nasty injuries.

The footage captured from a home security camera last week and uploaded to social media shows Heathcote, Victoria resident Cliff Des wrestling with a 6 foot buck kangaroo in his backyard.

The kangaroo chases after Cliff, who slips and falls on the wet grass. The kangaroo jumps on Cliff’s back then turns around and starts to attack Cliff again, who gets up and does his best to defend himself and fight it off.

It's funny in an "only in Australia" kind of way, especially with "Land Down Under" playing over the top, but it's also scary.

The video ends with Cliff tackling the roo to the ground.

But this short clip doesn’t tell the full story of the ordeal nor the seriousness of what happened to Cliff next.

Cliff had a chat to us about the incident, which has left him shaken up even a week later. As the YouTube video description says: "Do your research on kangaroo attacks before you judge. This attack was unprovoked!!"

Cliff said the attack happened after he heard his Staffy dogs barking in their fenced off area and went to investigate. He saw the kangaroo trying to get to the dogs through the fence.

He said he's used to kangaroos hanging around, but this was one was acting different. “It was in a fighting mood," Cliff explained. "It was gunning for trouble."

And as soon as the roo saw Cliff, it went after him.

"You can't outrun a roo"

The dogs can be seen barking behind the fence unable to help their owner as Cliff fights with the kangaroo. He landed on a stick and used it to fight off the kangaroo but it "broke like a carrot in my hands".

Cliff said fighting with the animal was his only option. "You can’t outrun a roo," he said. "It doesn’t matter who you are."

Cliff said his martial arts and boxing background allowed him to get the kangaroo off balance, but even he admitted it was a tough slog given he’s nearly 60.

Once Cliff got the roo to the ground, he spent another five minutes wrestling with it as it got tangled up around him and kept swiping at hime with its sharp claws. 

The roo gouged Cliff’s head, made a 4 centimetre deep gash in the back of his leg, bit his finger and left him with a sore back from when it jumped on him.

Images supplied

Eventually Cliff broke free from the roo and ran around to the side of his other car for protection, but the roo followed and stood and growled at him for a good 30 seconds. Then the cranky roo turned back toward the dogs and starting going at them a bit more before giving up and hopping away towards the nearby creek.

Cliff said it could’ve been worse had it been someone else the roo attacked, like his wife or some of the elderly residents, women or children who walk past their house every day. “It happened to be me, which was fortunate,” he said. “But I’m not a hero, far from it.”

Cliff explained that he and his wife Kaz have lived in the area for 30 years and are used to kangaroos being on their lawns and it's normal and natural but they respect them and stay wary. “They’re a wild animal, people should keep away from them,” Cliff said.

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Written by Nicole Alley

Category: All Sites Best of the Web

Published: 30 May 2022

Hits: 127

Now that covid is easing, the big festivals are returning, and Sydney’s Vivid festival of light has celebrated its comeback in a spectacular way.

The opening weekend featured a stunning light show over Sydney Harbour made with 600 drones.

The aerial display set against a brilliantly lit Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House was the largest drone show in the Southern Hemisphere.

Missed the Paramount+ Drone Show at @vividsydney We've got you covered. Relive all the fun right here ✨ 🎬 💙 #VividSydney #ParamountPlus #DroneShow pic.twitter.com/LRYa0FG3AQ

— Paramount+ Australia (@ParamountPlusAU) May 30, 2022

The collaboration with Paramount+ started with the drones flying into position then showing a 5 second countdown before launching into its display of iconic characters from the streaming giant's catalogue.

Images included the Starship Enterprise, Spongebob Squarepants, Paw Patrol, a fighter jet, NCIS: Sydney logo and South Park.

Who needs fireworks when you have drones, you may ask? It's a good question.

For people concerned about the environmental impact of fireworks, a drone light display might be the answer.

You can watch the full show in real-time here:

Images: Vivid Festival/YouTube 

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Written by Nicole Alley

Category: All Sites Best of the Web

Published: 27 May 2022

Hits: 256

There’s no doubt that Google is our go-to for whatever we need to find on the internet, but did you know it also delivers some fun surprises if you put in the right words?

We’ve compiled a list of the 9 best hidden tricks - known as Easter eggs - sitting inside the search engine that will show up some fun, unexpected and very cool effects.

Some of these have been around for years, while some have come and gone but are still archived for us to play and enjoy.

These will work on desktop, phone or tablet too.

1. Do a barrel roll

This one’s a classic. Type "do a barrel roll" into your search bar and hit enter and hold on tight as your page spins!

You used to be able to do a barrel roll multiple times, but Google removed that functionality. Happily for us though, the effect is still archived for us to see. Head over on this page to see the barrel roll repeat itself 20 times. Warning though - it might make you a bit dizzy!

2. The Friends tricks

Google created this fun Easter egg in 2019 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of iconic sitcom Friends. If you’re a big fan, you’ll love what Google shows when you search for your favourite character from the show. It's actually a good way to test how well you know the characters.

To see it in action, type in the name of a Friends character followed by "friends" and you’ll see a special icon appear next to the character’s search result. Click the icon for some added fun!

For example, if you search for "Joey friends" you’ll see a slice of pizza icon beneath his results. Click on that and… well, we won’t spoil the surprise. Just do it! Make sure you have your sound on too.

Can you guess what the fun extras might be for the other Friends characters? Do the google trick with their names and see!

3. Play PAC-MAN and other retro games

Everyone loves PAC-MAN, and Google created this special doodle for the 30th anniversary of the game that lets you play it right in the browser.

Just google “pacman” and the game will appear with a play button underneath. Hit play and go hunt some ghosts! But keep the sound off if you’re playing at work and don’t want the boss to find out.

Google used to let you play other retro arcade games in the browser, but removed them a while ago. But you can still play them on the archive site, so test your skills with Space Invaders and Atari Breakout.

4. Google Gravity

To see this fun effect, you have to do your search from the Google page, not just in your search bar.

So go to https://www.google.com/ and type "google gravity" then click on the I’m feeling lucky button. The page suddenly gets hit with the full force of gravity, rendering the page useless.

 

5. Play the dinosaur game when there’s no internet

If your internet connection dies, don’t despair - play the dinosaur game instead! But it only works in the Chrome browser.

When you try to load a page when you have no internet, you'll see a cute T-Rex show above the error message.

Click on the dinosaur and you'll start playing an endless runner style game (the precursor to Temple Run!) where you have to make the prehistoric lizard leap over cactus or duck beneath flying pterodactyls with your space bar and arrow keys.

It's simple and fun, and given T-Rex had short arms, there's really not much more he could do. Running is perfect!

If you're feeling nostalgic for the game, you don't have to wait for your internet to die either. Just head over to the Dino Game website and play! It also has different versions of the game, including playing as The Joker or Batman.

There's also a special birthday version of the dino game that puts a party hat on the dinosaur if you run into the cake that appears! 

 

6. Unzip Google

This is a simple but satisfying easter egg - interact with a giant zipper to unzip the Google search page! This is no longer active in Google, but you can see it on the archive page here.

7. Wizard of Oz

This is another fun Easter egg that's been removed but you can find it on the archive page.

Get whisked away like Dorothy did when the tornado took her to Oz - just click on Dorothy's shiny red shoes in the search results. To get home, click on the tornado. Make sure you have your volume on for full enjoyment as you hear Judy Garland's classic line "There's no place like home".

8. Play underwater with fish

Google Underwater is is an interactive time waster - while the search bar itself doesn’t work, click on the I’m Feeling Lucky button and the Search button to change things in the scene.

9. Google in 1998

Do a search for "Google in 1998" and click on the first result and you’ll see what Google used to look like when it first launched 24 years ago.

Yep, back before Web 2.0 with its photos, videos and interactivity. It's not pretty but it's an amazing piece of internet history and has been archived thanks to the WayBackMachine website.

Interestingly, when you go to that page it shows 234,000 results for the search term "google" all those years ago.

These days if you google "google" in Google (did your brain just break?), it will bring up 4,590,000,000 results - that’s 4.5 billion. Yep, the internet sure has expanded!

 

 

Main image: solomon7/Shutterstock.com; screengrabs