News.com.au reports that a 16th century map in “a Los Angeles Library Vault” proves the Portuguese were the first to discover Eastern Australia, not Captain Cook.

Problem is, it’s just plain bull.

For starters, the maps are freely available on the net here, they aren’t hidden in a vault somewhere and this isn’t a miraculous discovery.

Peter Trickett claims that he could recognise the headlands and bays in Botany Bay. Now I’m not cartographer, admittedly, but I grew up in the vicinity (Sylvania) and spent many, many years with my family fishing and boating in Botany Bay, so I’ve got a better idea than many people as to how Botany Bay looks, and it doesn’t look like this, although admittedly there is a passing resemblance, but there’s a passing resemblance between my wife and Paris Hilton, but that doesn’t make her Paris Hilton now, does it!

Exhibit A:

or maybe it was this part of the map?

Exhibit B:

What I really think adds to the authenticity of the claims (not) is the paintings of the native population, they’re not only ridding camels (or maybe long necked horses), they’ve also managed to create reigns. (for non-australian readers Camels were introduced to Australia in the 19th Century, Aboriginal people never managed to domestic animals, except maybe the dingo depending on which version of history to subscribe to).

Exhibit C:

Of course, the coastline jutting out at right angles for 1500kms has a logical explanation according to Trickett: the French were to blame.

Don’t go rewriting the history books quiet yet folks, backing Captain Cook will keep you on a winner 🙂

Latest Wii news: Wii is outselling PS3 2 to 1 in the US.

Question for Australian readers: Harvey Norman, arguably Australia’s biggest retailer of computer + electrical goods doesn’t stock Nintendo’s Wii, not just the console but the games either. The mind boggles as to why, but knowing that the Wii is a huge success, indeed supply is still a massive issue where I live from people I’ve talked to, will Harvey Norman not stocking the Wii affect the bottom line and therefore its share price? OK, so folks in Sydney and Melbourne have a huge range of choice in terms of retailers, in Regional Western Australia we don’t, and Harvey Norman is the biggest local seller, and yet I can’t buy Wii games there, I have to go to Target, BigW or EB Games, and that’s time I may have spent in a Harvey Norman store, not only buying Wii titles but also walking past the variety of other goods Harvey Norman sells. It’s money I’m spending with Coles Myer and Woolworths and not Harvey Norman. The PS3 is due out this week for memory in Australia, nearly $1k for the base model, can’t see it being anything but a failure here as its been in the States. Harvey Norman won’t win selling PS3’s when the hottest console in town is the Wii. We get a Good Guys opening here next week, wonder if they stock Wii games? They’ll certainly be getting my business on a range of other goods 🙂

SMH: Aussie dollar hits 10-year high

How do I respond to this without droping the F word over and over and over again. Sure, it might make it cheaper to visit the US, but ALL of my income at the moment is in US Dollars. And lets talk rip offs, I ordered a couple of new boxes yesterday, Paypal converted at 77c and yet I read today the exchange rate is 80c and climbing. For everyone else: sure, imports become cheaper, but exports become less competitive, and did I mention interest rates? The AUD is up because the market is factoring in an interest rate rise in Australia in the very near future, every 0.25 basis points is roughly $45 AUD extra a month on my mortgage, so I lose twice over. GRRRRRR!

Michael Gray doesn’t mince his words, but he is mostly spot on, although I would add that the next Danny Sullivan is probably posting away on some unknown blog as we speak. It’s a catch 22, yes, there’s too much noise, too much junk, but you’ve got to start somewhere as well, and who am I to judge the value of others, after all that’s a function of the market, not the individual, but again, sentiment is definitely in the right direction.

Zefrank’s last show. Sad. Thank you Ze for entertaining us for a year.

NYTimes covers GrandCentral, a new unifed phone number provider in the States. Read the full article, it has an OMG factor to it. Completely brilliant, however with Telstra in Australia we’ll be waiting until 2020 for something like that, and even then it will end up costing an arm and a leg, after all I’m paying $6 a month now just to have call number display on my landline, and about $3 for a silent number, a complete and utter disgrace.

I’d comment on this post, but unfortunately like all Gawker Media blogs you need an invite to comment and so far I’ve only got commenting rights at Valleywag (hint, hint 🙂 ). Congrats though to LifeHacker on picking up the award for best group weblog at The Bloggies. To be honest I probably only subscribed 6 months ago, and some days I wish I hadn’t, it’s far too useful and I probably need less things installed on my computer, not more. It’s also great to see a site that has a positive message going well in an age where snark, gossip and snipping is par for the course. Today I’m hooked, and I hope to be for many years to come. LifeHacker should be the jewel in Nick Denton’s crown because it really is just a completely wonderful site, and if that sounds corny I can only apologise, it’s just that good.

Reuters:

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank is considering a bill to repeal a ban imposed last year on online gambling, said a spokesman for the lawmaker on Wednesday.

“Chairman Frank is considering legislation,” said Steven Adamske, spokesman for the Massachusetts Democrat, who chairs the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

Now if only we had a politician with the guts to introduce legislation to overturn the ban on online gambling in Australia…ok, I’m dreaming, the chances of that happening are the same as having a true libertarian free market government elected later this year as well, zero and zilch.

This is clever:

I’ve been watching with interest the launch by Jeremy Schoemaker of AuctionAds , a sort of eBay meets Adsense product with ads like this:

I’ve held of signing up until now because I was waiting to be convinced by some hard proof that they convert competitively, and it now looks like EarnersBlog has some proof. I’m flat out with 5 things on the go at the moment but I’ll give it a try myself and report back in a week or two. Certainly it seems like it will become another strong alternative in the online marketers toolbox.