Photo by Beth Kanter I'm here in Brisbane, Australia where I will deliver a keynote presentation at the ConnectingUp Conference which begins tommorrow.  The conference is the premiere event in Australia for nonprofit technology professionals.  

[Updated to add Mad Momma's wonderful post on ways to curb wastage].

Arab Women's Network Laurel Papworth, an Australian who blogs at Laurel Papworth - Social Networks is an online community strategist. She teaches social media at the Univerity of Sydney and is a social networks trainer. It's her role as a social networks trainer that landed her a job in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, teaching blogging tools and techniques to Arab women.

I wasn't going to write about the game of cricket, a) because it's being written to death in India and Australia, and b) not many of my readers follow the game in America; but the intensity with which a disastrous tour by the Indian team down under is being blogged about, I can't but talk about it.

Sometimes I suspect news stories must be generated by anti-feminist forces to further foment resentment against feminist causes and arguments, because who on earth would otherwise be so ridiculous? A prime example of one of these suspicious events took place last week in Sydney, Australia. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), prospective Santa Clauses have been warned not to say, "Ho ho ho," as some women may deem it offensive:

Barbara from the New Zealand food blog Winos & Foodies has transferred the technique that swept the world for No Knead Bread to chicken.

Food blogs are everywhere, literally! I continue to be surprised how many there are, how good they are, how passionate they are -- and how much they reflect the 'fruit salad of our era', a mix-it-up world with people leaving their home countries for opportunity, love and work (both, yes, opportunities?) to live elsewhere, for awhile or for all time. So to mark Blog Day 2007, let me introduce you to some amazing 'fruit salad'.

Bindi really didn’t need to be appointed to a position like that at the age of 8 years old. People claim she is overworked and shouldn’t be doing such a heavy press tour of America so soon after her father’s death (even though she had planned to take this trip with her father), but she has been in front of the cameras from the minute she was born, and that’s where she is most comfortable.

Australian sheep farmers are trying to survive a millenium's worst drought any way they can. Among those struggling to keep their farm and animals alive are the Kielys, who have taken the public step of creating a blog and asking the world to Adopt A Sheep.

[img_assist|fid=2486|thumb=0|alt=Bron Marshall|caption=Photo by Bron Marshall ] So last week Mother Nature turned off the power here in St. Louis and five days later, 100,000 homes are still cold-cold-cold. I'm still warming up and decided to look south for a warm up. Here's the inspiration ... all with ingredients we can find in northern climes, too.

The Australians and friends from across the world have been frittering away their time ... making fritters for the sixth edition of Donna Hay Day, hosted by JenJen from Milk and Cookies. Vegetables, fruit ... the variety is worthy of foodie attention. [img_assist|fid=2136|thumb=0|alt=Kitchen Wench Fritters]And move over Simon Cowell, in American Idol-fashion, the winner will be determined by public vote. Polls close October 29th. [photograph courtesy of Kitchen Wench, a participant]

[img_assist|fid=1736|thumb=1|alt=goat cheese] Organic Goat Cheese photo by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once. Haalo lives in Melbourne, Australia and produces photos of amazing food. I've been enjoying her series of posts on the cheese produced in her area, and I'm learning a bit about Australia too.