Australian scientists at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology have made discoveries that could ultimately lead to laptops that charge when you type on them or phones that charge when you swipe their touchscreens. The trick is piezoelectricity. If you’ve ever used an electric cigarette lighter, you’ve seen this at work. Piezoelectric materials can turn mechanical energy (like pressure) directly into electricity. This technology has been around for over a hundred years, but typically the electricity is generated from fairly large pieces of piezoelectric materials, crystals usually. But now, scientists have quantified the capabilities of a piezoelectric film, which would have wider applications in mobile technology, like being slid underneath a keyboard or touchscreen.

Next month, two of Australia’s largest Internet service providers, Telstra and Optus, will begin blocking over 500 websites that they have voluntarily agreed to censor. The sites in question have the common theme of child abuse, and a list of the sites will be given to the ISPs by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, as well as other sites compiled by unnamed international organizations.

As anyone who regularly uses the Internet can probably assume, blocking 500 sites won’t exactly prevent any greenhorn eyes from potentially laying upon the blackened depths of the Internet, but more casual users may see the move as a positive step toward cleaning up the web, or at least a savvy public relations move by the two ISPs.

The fine art of planking, where people are photographed face down with stiffened arms and legs, has already swept out of Australia and taken the world by storm. Formally called “the laying down game,” it has encouraged people to produce surprising and surreal images that have entertained millions. This, our humble collection, chronicles what we regard as the finest plankers the Internet has to offer.

Of course, you’ll read on after the break. But we must caution that if you’re inspired to plank yourself, do so with caution; planking has already cost people their jobs and their lives.

Residents of Brisbane, Australia are bracing for what’s expected to be the worst flood to hit the region in over 100 years. Flash flooding caused by weeks of rain has pushed the nearby Wivenhoe Dam to its capacity, and the local government has urged residents not to panic. The local government estimates that as many as 40,000 homes may be affected by the flood, 9,000 “significantly,” and power is being cut for 100,000 city residents due to safety concerns. New Scientist calls the phenomenon occurring in Northern Australia an “inland tsunami.”

And it’s not an exaggeration: The video above, taken by a resident of Toowoomba 80 miles to the west of Brisbane, shows floodwater picking up cars in a parking lot like toys. According to the New York Daily News, river water near Toowoomba hit heights as high as 26 feet. At least ten people in the area are dead and dozens are missing.

(via Reddit)

The Australian government has approved a proposal to implement an R18+ rating for video games, which, if approved by state and territory governments, could pave the way for a lot of popular video games to finally appear on shelves in the country.

Currently, games must be rated by Australia’s system in order to be sold in the country. No rating: no shelf space, physical or virtual. The biggest problem with this for Australian gamers has been that the country has no rating above MA15+, so a game is effectively banned if it is not considered appropriate for a fifteen-year-old.

No, that’s not an Intel trade name: A team of researchers from the University of New South Wales and the University of Wisconsin-Madison managed to build a transistor using just seven atoms, according to the AFP.

Created by using a scanning tunnelling microscope to manipulate silicon and phosphorus atoms, their transistor comes in at roughly one-sixth the size of current commercially-used transistors.

File this under ‘awesome’: Living in the big city tends to have it’s own perils, being mugged not being the least of them. So it’s understandable that places like Gotham, Metropolis, and NYC have superheroes to cover you better than insurance. Still, it’s nice to know that life can be as badass as fiction. A German med student down in Sydney, Australia was defended from muggers by a team of ninjas. No joke. I am so jealous!

GPSes are wonderful things — In New York City, they’re essential for navigating the labyrinthine hell known only as “West 4th Street,” but their convenience is diminished by their unfortunate tendency to attempt to lead us to our dooms.

A group of tourists in Australia needed to be rescued by police after they too-literally followed a GPS’ directions, even when it told them to bypass danger signs, move rocks obstructing the road, and drive into a nearly inaccessible gully in the woods.

news.com.au:

South Korean tourists travelling from Brisbane to Rockhampton had to be rescued from a remote track in a forestry reserve in southeast Queensland after they tried to follow the directions given by their car’s GPS system.

The three followed gravel roads, then dirt roads, then went through a couple of gates, and ended up bogged in a gully in Cordalba State Forest, near Childers.

The men, who did not speak English, ignored danger signs and moved rocks blocking a road, to get to an isolated point that was practically inaccessible, the Bundaberg NewsMail reports.

It is worth remembering that while you can pick up a lot of free comics on Free Comic Book Day, the holiday does not mean that everything in the store is free. This subtle nuance was apparently lost on one Australian man, who tried to make off with a $160 (in Aussie money) volume of the X-Men Omnibus.

He was stopped in his tracks by, I kid you not, Spider-Man, The Flash, and two Jedi.

Hugh Jackman is a jack-of-all-trades sort of actor, as comfortable playing the action hero in a modern special effects blockbuster as he is playing the lead in a period musical.  The best thing about this (I mean, aside from good acting) is that he’s done a lot of period films.  He’s also the live action face of one of the Marvel Universe‘s nearly indestructible probably immortal badasses: Wolverine.

This lead me inevitably to the conclusion that you could pretend that some of his period films were also about Wolverine.  Secretly.

You couldn’t call it canonical, since movie Wolverine spends his entire post-X-factor life with his half-brother Sabertooth (until the 1970′s or so).  But you could call it amusing.

Here’s the Netflix queue for your fanfiction adventure: