Since the days of Alexander the Great, binge drinking has been a very popular past time - leading to him apparently killing a friend and burning down Persepolis while drunk.

Those are some Great shoes to fill.

Yet, governments, schools and the media have repeatedly tried to teach us of binge drinking's dangers. 

Dartmouth University has taken the lead, instigating a new nationwide policy to curb heavy drinking by their students.

Pour me another glass.

Binge drinking is defined as "the consumption of five or more drinks in a row by men — or four or more drinks in a row by women — at least once in the previous 2 weeks. Heavy binge drinking includes three or more such episodes in 2 weeks."

Seems I don't know anyone who isn't a heavy binge drinker.

Do you think this definition should be changed or should we change people's attitudes? Or should you follow HPD's no fools guide to drinking a lot but not dying?  . . read more

When "Sgt Pepper's", the Beatles' most ambitious album at the time, was released it's said that you could walk around Swinging London and hear splinters of the songs from every apartment and house you passed.

Such was the success and beauty of the album it became the soundtrack of '67.

Today with Radiohead's newest release in "The King of Limbs", history is being repeated. Facebook and Twitter are full of kids writing about it, the internet is full of illegal downloads and houses all over the world are full of Thom Yorke's haunting voice.

Kind of makes you feel comfortable to know there's something our generation shares.   . . read more

I can't think of anything more perfect than 180 seconds. It seems like a pretty short amount of time, but three minutes is my favorite chronological interval. Three minutes can bring about peace, it can save lives or it can do something even more important. It can communicate.

At first, three minutes was an artificial limitation. When we finally accepted that 78 RPM records weren't just a toy, we also had to streamline our attention span to fit the shortcomings of the medium. A normal 78 has an upward limit of just over three minutes a side. Later, after LPs came out, you could fit ten times as much music on just one record, but the preferred method of consumption, 45s, still couldn't handle anything longer than four minutes per side.

Nowadays, digital distribution means that we can make songs as long as we want, but almost all songs still conform to the magic number. After a century of music measured in units of three, the length of a single is ingrained in our ear canals. We tend to feel cheated by anything less than two and a half minutes, and we start to tune out after four. 

This might seem like discrimination against full-length albums. An hour of music is a force to be reckoned with, at it's best it's a great way to investigate and explore deeper questions. But the shuffle setting on iPods and selective downloading have put a stop to this kind of listening in the mainstream. If you can't say it in three minutes, then you might as well not try.

This isn't a complaint. The medium changes, our attentions spans expand and contract and music will inevitably cater to its audience. It's easy to think of this as a limitation, but when you look back at the past hundred years and all of the things that have been done in intervals of 180 seconds, three minutes can be a very long time. 

Lorenzo Wolff is a musician living in New York. He can be reached at: lorenzowolff@gmail.com    

There are few people in this world who would defend Gaddafi as a sane and viable leader of Libya; but I think there would be even less that would see the logic in the U.S selling guns to someone as psychotic as him and then parading about as world police.

It's the equivalent of a sheriff giving an outlaw a six-shooter and then acting surprised when he starts popping off the town folk. 

The second one U.S plane gets shot down by one U.S surface-to-air missile, all the military big wigs should get together and make a decision once and for all - "we have to stop shooting at tyrants we've given guns to".

What do you think about Libya? What do you think about the obvious contradictions in U.S foreign policy and how do you think they should be addressed? Tell us and remember...Disqus!  . . read more

In October 2007 the company Easy Being Green went bankrupt after exploiting a loophole in government legislation that allowed them to hand out energy efficient light bulbs and in turn claim carbon credits on their usage. In 2006 alone, EBG had generated and sold over 3 million NSW Greenhouse Abatement Certificates (proof of carbon credits) at an average price of $14.50 each. When it was revealed most of the light bulbs they were handing out were not being installed the company’s business plan imploded and all staff were made redundant. With companies exploiting environmental concerns to make profit the public is losing faith in the government, and even in itself to bring about change.

Today we look at the 60’s and remember it as a time that nurtured the values and ideals of free thinking, radicalism and activism in reaction to unpopular government agendas. I only hope that in 2050 we don’t look back in regret. . . read more

For those of you who don't know her, know that she is one in a million. She is sexual, fast, loud, exciting, viceral, vibrating- man she's everything.

And the thing that struck me (and I could be wrong) is that she seems beyond tags like 'man' 'woman' 'old' or 'young'.

When she sings a song like 'shake your dix' she does exactly what she wants, regardless of what anyone might expect of her.

It seems like the normal rules don't apply and she makes them seem ridiculous for seeming to exist in the first place.  . . read more

This is the challenge which we face right now. To see the world around us with new eyes and to create a story which changes the anonymity we are so used to with a new personality, perhaps one that draws on our indigenous history and the diversity of our people. . . read more

The result for Sydney's under-funded, under-played and under-appreciated music scene is that bands might finally have more than a handful of venues to play at, and the idiots that live next to these new late night hot-spots will have even more reason to bitch, moan and file noise complaints.

Expecting fun times, and whinging ahead in equal measure.   . . read more

By Max Skilbeck-Porter

In my living room with the light down low, i am enjoying Amy Winhouse's record "Back to Black". To many around the world, this would not be much of an event; she was one of the most recognised figures in popular culture and with her untimely demise came obituaries in just about any publication at the news stand.

But for me it is strange, before her death i had barely acknowledged her existence.

Little did i know of her incredible emotional and lyrical depth to her work; it truly does stand up to many of the greats that have come before her, people like Patti Smith and Janis Joplin, she had that sort of magic.

Besides her obvious afflictions, she was an artist with true talent. I suppose if her death taught me anything it's that sometimes the mainstream does get it right, and obstinately blinkering it can block you off from some great stuff.

From here on in I'll be paying a little more attention to the hair dressers radio, and i'll be enjoying Amy, and maybe even more; time will tell.

R.I.P.

Does the catch word of the "mainstream" ever blind you to seeing great art? Do tragedies like the death of Amy Winehouse ever lead you to reconsider a body of work that you hadn't given any attention? Tell us and remember...Disqus!