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Australia Post have revealed when you'll need to send (or order) your Christmas goodies for them to arrive in time, and boy you better get organised!

Despite countless snap-lockdowns, concert cancellations, travel bans and the whole onslaught of COVID consequences, this year has kinda flown by!

In just under two months we'll be celebrating Christmas, and with all of the recent courier strikes and border closures, you best start thinking about getting those chrissy gifts ordered!

via GIPHY

To make sure all your goodies arrive in time, Australia Post have released their domestic and international parcel cut-off dates.

If you're sending parcels to/from anywhere in Australia (except WA and NT), the deadline for regular parcel post is 13 December while express post is 20 December.

For those wanting to send some love to their mates in Western Australia or the Northern Territory, regular parcel post needs to be sent by 8 December and express post by 15 December.

via GIPHY

For those sending out Christmas cards and letters (nawww), you'll need to work to 20 December for same state deliveries and 16 December for interstate.

If you're planning to send or receive post from overseas, the cut-off dates aren't so concise.

'International Christmas deliveries may be affected by factors beyond our control, like customs delays, overseas postal disruptions, and COVID-19 restrictions in other countries,' says AusPost. 'We recommend sending as early as you can.'

To check out specific details for international deliveries, visit AusPost.

Happy shopping!

Image (Orderinchaos, CC BY-SA 3.0 / Wikimedia Commons)

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An embattled Facebook Inc. is changing its name to Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short, to reflect what CEO Mark Zuckerberg says is its commitment to developing the new surround-yourself technology known as the "metaverse".

But the social network itself will still be called Facebook.

 

 

Sceptics on Thursday immediately accused the company of trying to change the subject from the Facebook Papers, the trove of leaked documents that have plunged it into the biggest crisis since it was founded in Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room 17 years ago.

The documents portray Facebook as putting profits ahead of ridding its platform of hate, political strife and misinformation around the world.

Marketing consultant Laura Ries likened the move to BP rebranding itself to "Beyond Petroleum" to escape criticism that the oil giant harmed the environment.

"Facebook is the world's social media platform and they are being accused of creating something that is harmful to people and society," she said.

"They can't walk away from the social network with a new corporate name and talk of a future metaverse."

Facebook the app, where users post personal updates and register likes, is not changing its name. Nor are Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

The company's corporate structure also won't change. But on December 1, its stock will start trading under a new ticker symbol, MVRS.

The metaverse is sort of the internet brought to life, or at least rendered in 3D.

Zuckerberg has described it as a "virtual environment" you can go inside of, instead of just looking at on a screen. People can meet, work and play, using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps or other devices.

It also will incorporate other aspects of online life such as shopping and social media, according to Victoria Petrock, an analyst who follows emerging technologies.

Other tech companies such as Microsoft, chipmaker Nvidia and Fortnite maker Epic Games have all been outlining their own visions of how the metaverse will work.

Zuckerberg said he expects the metaverse to reach one billion people within the next decade and that he hopes the new technology will creates millions of jobs for creators.

The announcement comes amid heightened legislative and regulatory scrutiny of Facebook in many parts of the world because of the Facebook Papers. A corporate rebranding isn't likely to solve the myriad problems revealed by the internal documents.

Zuckerberg, for his part, has largely dismissed the furore triggered by the Facebook Papers as unfair.

Some of Facebook's biggest critics seemed unimpressed by the name change. The Real Facebook Oversight Board, a watchdog group focused on the company, announced that it will keep its name.

"Changing their name doesn't change reality: Facebook is destroying our democracy and is the world's leading peddler of disinformation and hate," the group said in a statement.

"Their meaningless name change should not distract from the investigation, regulation and real, independent oversight needed to hold Facebook accountable."

 

 

In explaining the rebrand, Zuckerberg said the name Facebook doesn't encompass everything the company does anymore. In addition to its social network, that now includes Instagram, Messenger, its Quest VR headset, its Horizon VR platform and more.

"Today we are seen as a social media company," Zuckerberg said.

"But in our DNA we are a company that builds technology to connect people."

© AP 2021

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Tiger King 2 Official Trailer

You thought you’d seen it all, but they've only scratched the surface! The Tiger King saga continues with Netflix releasing the official trailer for the second instalment of their original hit documentary miniseries, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness.

The second series was announced in September and now Netflix has given fans a first look at what Tiger King 2 will entail.

The original series released in 2020, became a global sensation and focussed on the Tiger King, Joe Exotic, an eccentric zoo owner who was caught up in a murder-for-hire story revolved around big cat rescuer Carole Baskin. The series received six Emmy nominations including Outstanding Documentary Series.

Tiger King 2 is a continuation of the original series, where Joe Exotic is currently in prison for the attempted murder of Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin along with 17 convictions for animal abuse.

The trailer for Tiger King 2 starts of with a phone call from Joe Exotic himself from prison. The automated voice begins, “You have a prepaid call from…” “Joe Exotic”, he adds.

The voice of Exotic continues:

"There’s an innocent man in prison. Everybody from the zoo is out there making money and I’m paying the price for every one of them people. If you give a damn, it’s time to speak up."

The trailer continues with Jeff Lowe, who took over the park explaining how the series changed their lives with sudden fame. He says, "Tiger King changed our lives overnight. We have more money than God right now."

We are then re-introduced to Carole Baskin again in the montage of clips with a voice-over bringing back the story of the death of her husband Don Lewis saying, "What happened to Don Lewis? Carole knows something. He was dealing with some shady characters down in Costa Rica."

The new series will appear to delve deeper into the plot to kill Carole Baskin, as well as the mystery of what happened to her husband Don Lewis. It also appears to show Joe’s campaign for freedom as well as reintroducing old characters such as Jeff Lowe and Tim Stark. "The further you go. The wilder. The deeper. The deadlier it gets,” the captions say.

It then ends on Exotic’s voice saying:

"If I have to make a deal with the devil, I will make a deal with the devil."

Tiger King 2 premieres on November 17, only on Netflix.

 

Image Credit: (Netflix / Youtube)

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Think you know what makes for a good scary horror flick that will give you the best scares?

A company in the US has done some research and found out that horror movies with lower budgets got the heart rate jumping more than movies with millions of dollars thrown at them for things like special effects and CGI.

The company, FinanceBuzz, paid a movie-goer, Maddi, to sit through 13 high and low budget movies while wearing a FitBit to record her heart rate to see which movies scared her the most. Maddi also had to rate how scary she thought the movies were before seeing the results of the monitor.

Three movies made Maddi’s heart rate jump into the triple digits: Saw, Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project. All three movies had the lowest production budgets of all the movies she watched. (See the list below.)

What’s interesting is that Maddi didn’t think these movies were particularly scary despite her heart monitor saying otherwise. She gave them all low scare scores.

She ranked A Quiet Place 2 and Insidious equal scariest, followed by A Quiet Place, Sinister and Get Out.

The company puts the difference down to the fact that “the mind and body aren't always in sync when it comes to assessing our own fear”.

So why doesn’t more money mean a better movie? Their theory is that scary movies are good because of the story they tell, not the special effects. "Jump scares and slow-building dread can get the heart racing as well as high-cost CGI effects," they said.

So there you go: find a movie with a good story, some jump scares and a relatable feeling of dread and suspense.

Here’s the list of movies Maddi watched, along with their budgets in USD adjusted for inflation.

1. Paranormal Activity - $19,693
2. The Blair Witch Project - $1.08 million
3. Saw - $1.78 million
4. Insidious - $1.83 million
5. The Purge - $3.53 million
6. Sinister - $3.56 million
7. Get Out - $5.1 million
8. Annabelle - $7.5 million
9. Halloween (2018) - $10.85 million
10. A Quiet Place - $18.61 million
11. Candyman - $25.07 million
12. Amityville Horror (2005) - $26.78 million
13. A Quiet Place Part 2 - $64.86 million

 

Do you do Halloween?

Love it or hate it, Halloween is back for another year. With the holiday growing in popularity each year in Australia, you may have a few adorable mini vampires or ghouls knocking on your door!

So whether you’re excited to be welcoming the trick or treaters, or don’t want to get involved, we’ve got a poster for you!

Simply download your chosen poster below, print it out, and stick it to your door or mailbox.

th Halloween Poster Welcome.    th Halloween Poster NoThanks.    th Halloween Poster Shhhhh

Download the WELCOME poster

Download the NO THANKS poster

Download the BABY SLEEPING poster

 

Image: adike / Shutterstock