The Week in (rough) Review

This week has been one much like any other, so here is a rough assortment (our top five, in no particular order) of what we found interesting in the blogosphere, in the news and beyond – enjoy!

1.Oh My GoogleFail.

The devastating has happened. We all know that if there was ever a way to ensure worldwide chaos, destroying Google would be it. According to The Herald Sun, last night, Google was out of service. Staff writers report that -

Internet users worldwide were given a short taste of life without Google overnight.

Needless to say, they didn’t like it.

The internet giant experienced technical problems which brought down its own homepage and virtually ground to a halt services such as its search site, email, YouTube and Google News performing sluggishly or unavailable to some users.

Goodness. Apparently there has been backlash from users whose advertising revenue from Google’s Adsense program lost sales during the fall out. Well, I guess this is what happens when you put all your faith in a higher Google power.

2.Budget Woes

It seems a bit of a downer to kick this list off with some rather dry political finances, but for us Aussies, the Federal Budget which was released on Tuesday has been subject of much debate. The Budget will send Australia spiralling into debt and deficit but even opposition leaders are unhelpful in providing any solution. Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, as reported by the SBS, proclaimed that

Malcolm Turnbull’s budget reply speech was full of empty rhetoric, with no solutions to reduce government debt.

Turnball has since been reported by The Daily Telegraph that

MALCOLM Turnbull called the Government’s early election bluff last night by pledging to gut $2 billion in Budget savings.

Read more about that news here.

To find out how the budget will affect you, check out the NAB Budget guide for some insight.

3.Body Image Issue Back in Fashion

Girl With a Satchel has featured two blog posts this week surrounding the magazine industry’s recent make up free moves. GWAS writes -

The irony of this is that the glossy industry has set the bar so high when it comes to the images it produces for consumption (and comparison) that even the editors who call the shots are subject to the same image manipulation as their cover subjects. There’s something quite disheartening about seeing your image on a proof page after an art director has had his/her way with a red pen correcting your ‘flaws’ (remove shadows, even out skintone, remove blemishes,smooth lines, whiten teeth and eyes…). It’s like being subject to an overzealous cosmetic surgeon’s pen and coming away with a greater sense of your physical shortcomings. Humbling, to say the least – “Dolly shuns Photoshop”, Wednesday 13 May

An interesting and clever new take on the issue, both posts are worth a read this week! Check out ‘Cover Talk: Mags Without Makeup‘ and ‘Dolly shuns Photoshop’.

Arianna Huffington

Ashley Qualls

4.Inventive Income

Income Diary this week released its list of their Top 30 Female Internet Entrepeneurs. The list includes a wide array of noteworthy women who have pioneered new ways of doing things online. Those on the list include Ashley Qualls of Whatever Life, Caterina Fake one of the co-founders of Flickr and Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post. It’s a fascinating assortment of females and brilliant source of inspiration.

5. Australian Fashion on The Sartorialist
One of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Design Influencers, The Sartorialist has featured, in addition to the dozens of international fashion inspiration, some beautiful images of street fashion taken straight from the streets of Melbourne and Sydney.

Check them out here!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!