Punch Lists

Seriously guys, just be COOL.

Not ‘cool’ in the private-school-jock-sense of being cool - teasing you for your rust-red hair, exceptional clarinet skills and impressive inability to speak to women without your voice cracking - but cool in the nice-person-sense of being cool.

Apparently, despite the fact that it doesn’t cost you anything, nor does it require intelligence or skill, many people find it difficult to simply be nice to others.

Continue reading "Seven ways to be a nice guy" »

US Celebrity news website TMZ has a deliciously succinct three word poll today. It reads, quite simply: Harry. Awesome? Disgraceful?

After tens of thousands of reader responses, “Awesome” is winning by a ratio of around 70:30. This confirms something Australians have felt instinctively for some time, which is that the day of the stodgy royal is over. We don’t want beefeaters, we want beefy young blokes with lusty appetites.

The world has changed since the merest sighting of a begloved royal sent us into apoplexy. We still want them to reign over us, or some of us do, but we want them real. When Harry is done inspecting the royal guards and helping the victims of landmines, he’s perfectly entitled to have a nude romp in Las Vegas. In fact, many of us expect nothing less.

Continue reading "The dirtier he is, the wilder we are about Harry" »

In surprising and disturbing news, it is becoming apparent that an Australian athlete’s appearance in a Telco ad is no guarantee of a London Olympic medal. Worse, it seems other nations have also turned up to compete.

In all seriousness, we’re five days into this thing now, and it’s getting to that point where minor annoyances are becoming irritating, and irritating things are becoming completely intolerable.

Like these things…

Continue reading "Random Olympic stuff which is becoming quite annoying" »

In a major Olympic shock, it was revealed overnight that many of the 11,000 athletes descending upon London this week will exchange bodily fluids, and not just with drug testers.

The reports that people with hot, fit young bodies will be sexually attracted to others of their ilk were an astonishing revelation.

Except that they weren’t. Every Olympiad, as the Games near, the same old stories get trotted out with the predictability of London drizzle. And it’s not just boom boom in the athletes’ rooms. It’s also…

Continue reading "Eight Olympic stories you knew before they happened" »

Today’s parents are doing it hard. Stranger danger, cyber-bullying, childhood obesity, choosing the right school and guaranteeing academic success add to a litany of fears and worries about parenting.

As they say, the past is a different country. Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s children were free range, seen and not heard and parents had a life of their own.

While parents took their duties seriously, as long as we were fed, washed and healthy they left us alone and got on with their lives. How things have changed. Instead of running free, today’s children live in a virtual world surrounded by computer games, videos, the internet and e-readers.

Continue reading "10 simple strategies to start parenting like a champion" »

The idea that the pursuit of money can destroy the human capacity for good is not a new one. Stories about the evils of greed start with the fairytales we’re told as young children. 

But there’s something about the arguments in Michael J Sandel’s new book, What Money Can’t Buy: the Moral Limits of Markets that shines a new and pretty shocking light on this ancient theme.

Sandel is an American philosophy professor, whose popular lectures are said to draw regular crowds. He aims to challenge the way we think about the place of money in society by questioning the way we place value on things.

Continue reading "There are still some things which money cannot buy" »

Long term disease states including diabetes, cancer and heart disease do not develop overnight. Each and every day we are making health-based decisions which ultimately impact on the risk of developing such conditions.

In addition to this, daily health related complaints including fatigue, constipation, bloating, lack of energy, poor libido, painful menstrual cycles and insomnia are all relating directly or indirectly in some capacity to poor lifestyle habits and weight issues.

So, rather than waiting until you need to lose weight, or until you are so tired and stressed that you are forced to reevaluate your lifestyle, here are the top few daily health and nutrition habits that will go a long way in helping you to be at your best, every day, not just tomorrow.

Continue reading "10 ways to stop health problems creeping up on you" »

At the moment, we’re all spending a lot of time debating gay marriage and climate change. Meanwhile, other issues aren’t being debated as vigorously as they might be.

Today The Punch team has each selected two issues which get us hot under the collar, and which we feel deserve more airplay.

What are your thoughts on the issues we’ve chosen? And what other issues do you think we should all be talking about?

Continue reading "12 bigger issues than gay change and climate marriage" »

Esteemed cosmologist and popular atheist Lawrence Krauss wrote: “It sometimes surprises me, although it shouldn’t, how religious devotees feel the need to regularly reinforce their own convictions in groups of like-minded individuals”.

It is curious then, that he has made the long trip down-under to join the faithless as part of the weekend’s Global Atheists Convention.

Following a debate with analytic philosopher William Lane Craig last year, a frustrated Krauss took a passing swipe at the historical evidence for Christianity. As a student of history, I am getting weary of the a priori assumptions of secular fundamentalism that infect the blogosphere and are routinely trotted out as fact. Don’t get me wrong, theists circulate more than their fair share of bullshit too - but it benefits nobody when the discussion degenerates into the intellectual equivalent of a freestyle gangsta rap battle.

Continue reading "Five irrational myths peddled by lazy atheists" »

Overnight, we had two significant reminders that we are now in that special time of year called football season.

Firstly, Ben Cousins was busted with a stash of meth. Meanwhile in the NRL, a journalist asked a player some tough questions, which the player answered honestly, and the exchange was labelled “an ambush”!

Actually, it’s kind of comforting. Life is so fast-paced these days with all these newfangled iThingos and tweetiewebs, it’s soul-nourishing to discover once again the telltale signs of the annual sporting wheel clanking around. Like these things…

Continue reading "Eight telltale signs that football season is here…" »

So you want a career like the legendary Ian Turpie, who died on the weekend.

And you’re thinking, how hard can this thing be? You put on your Karandonis shoes, your fat tie, your suit so shiny it negates the need for studio lighting, and bingo! You’re ready to come on down.

Not so quick. This is tough work. To make it in the cut throat world of game show hosting, you’ll face some real heat. More heat than those namby-pamby miners up in the Pilbara. OK, so admittedly, most of that heat will come from tanning salon lamps, but all the same, this gig is harder than it looks. Here’s what you’ll need…

Continue reading "How to be the perfect game show host in 16 easy steps" »

The yips. It’s an old golf term which refers to golfers who lose the ability to putt. They stand over the ball and they tremble. They quake. They can barely hold the damn club, let alone propel the ball into a hole that suddenly appears the size of a thimble.

The term has since migrated across to other sports. Beijing gold medallist Steve Hooker today admitted that he has the pole vault yips. He just can’t place that pole in the right spot anymore, and his London campaign is in severe jeopardy.

If it’s any consolation Steve, you’re not the only person struggling to get your mojo back. Several other prominent Australians across all walks of life have totally lost the ability to do the thing they were once pretty good at. Here are five more prominent cases of the Yips. The Punch heartily invites more suggestions from you.

Continue reading "Six prominent Aussies with a case of the dreaded “yips”" »

Went to a Super Bowl once. Hung out afterwards with 160 kilo nude, crying black dudes in the losers’ dressing room. Oh, but you don’t want to hear about that. The Super Bowl is all about the ads, which this year are said to cost $3.5 million for 30 seconds. Some recession they’re having in America.

When the 100 million Americans watching the Super Bowl go to the toilet in the ad breaks, they say city sewerage systems overflow. That’s actually a myth. No one takes a pee during the ad breaks. The ads are too good. The Super Bowl is the opposite of normal telly. That pesky football keeps interrupting some damn fine viewing.

Super Bowl ads are so highly-anticipated that you get teased beforehand. This year we’ve had the (thankfully false) threat of a Ferris Bueller remake and a sneak peak of David Beckham’s undies ad, which to be frank is more torture than tease. Fortunately, there have been some brilliant ads down the years. Let’s go the video(s).

Continue reading "Pass the Doritos… the greatest 13 Super Bowl ads" »

We thought you might be looking for some entertainment to get you through the post-lunch afternoon slump.

Here’s just a taste of some of the great writing we’ve posted on The Punch this year; it’s our top 25 list (in no particular order):

Continue reading "Punch list: 25 top reads from 2010, Christmas edition" »