Jessica Watson sets sail

Solo sailor Jessica Watson has sailed out of Sydney Harbour to begin her round-the-world attempt. The 16-year-old is trying to break Jesse Martin’s record as the youngest person to sail solo and non-stop around the world without help. New South Wales Maritime enforced a strict exclusion zone around her yacht as she sailed out of Sydney Harbour. Media spokesman Andrew Fraser says the maritime escort is for safety purposes. "We’re expecting a lot of of vessels to be out there this morning in the Heads and it’s just a precautionary measure really to keep people at a safe distance, we don’t [want] a whole bunch of boats coming right up alongside her," he said. He says it has been an emotional farewell for the family. "It’s just naturally a pretty emotional time for the family. As a parent of three, you’re facing the reality that you won’t see your daughter for eight months," he said. Ms Watson has faced several disruptions.Last month her yacht collided with a cargo ship off southern Queensland and last weekend one of her mentors, Andrew Short, was killed in a yacht accident. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has told Channel Nine a lot of Australians are nervous for Jessica Watson. "If there is one message it would be keep safe, do everything she needs to do to keep safe," Ms Gillard said.

"If that means that at some point she has got to abandon the journey, then the most important thing here is a young person’s life."

 

Source: ABC NEWS

Tourism Australia find ‘Best Job’ helper Barbie Defeo

TOURISM Queensland has finally tracked down the winner of a global competition to find a helper for Best Job in the World island caretaker Ben Southall.

The tourism body has avoided an embarrassing redraw after Californian Barbie Defeo stepped forward to claim her prize – a seven-week, all expenses-paid holiday in the state for her and three friends. The online competition closed on October 9 but Tourism Queensland could not find the winner, drawn from more than 23,000 entries from about 150 countries. Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor revealed on Saturday that Ms Defeo worked as a compliance manager in Huntington Beach, southern California. "She discovered she had won after reading that an American women was yet to claim the prize," Mr Lawlor said in a statement. "She then checked her emails which confirmed she was the lucky winner of the Best Experience in the World (competition). "I’m told she was ecstatic and in complete shock. "She will bring her husband and two teenage daughters and it will be her family’s first trip to Australia and the southern hemisphere." Ms Defeo’s only responsibility is to help Mr Southall write about Queensland in guest blogs. Tourism Queensland said this week it would re-draw the competition if the American winner failed to claim the prize before October 23. Ms Defeo said she had been following Mr Southall’s blog since he took up the dream job of island caretaker on July 1. "This will be our first visit to Queensland so there is just so much we want to see and do,” she said in the statement released by Mr Lawlor.

"My family and I love the outdoors and can’t wait to go bike riding, swimming and snorkelling.

"Most of all we’re really looking forward to meeting Ben and exploring the islands of the Great Barrier Reef." Mr Southall, a 34-year-old charity fundraiser from Hampshire in England, will receive a salary package of $150,000 for a six-month contract to promote tourism in Queensland. He’s living in a three-bedroom beach home overlooking the islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

Pentax K-x Robo Edition Launching

The Pentax K-x is a new camera that was announced just a month ago. The announcement said that it comes in the usual black colour along with white and red options being available. Now we hear that a new version has been launched in a Kore Ja Nai Robo toy set of colours.

The colourful model of camera resembles the toy robot that was first introduced in Japan back in 2001 and aims to be more of a fun entry level digital SLR camera. Other than the fancy colour casing there are no other differences on this camera.

The special edition robo Pentax K-x will cost $880 when launched and only 100 units will be made with pre-orders beginning early next month in November. As of now it seems that all 100 units will be staying in Japan unless you can find some way of getting your hands on one of them through someone else if you want to take part in the mad array of colour.

 

Source CrunchGear

Hyper Blast

It really is impossible to talk about Hyper Blast without talking about 1-2-3 Stomp. These two games are made by Wild Planet, and they have the same basic concept.

Each one comes with a talking base, powered by 3 AAA batteries (not included). At the base’s command, the player stomps on the center, and stuff goes flying. In the case of 1-2-3 Stomp, it was numbers that had to be put back in the proper place. In the case of Hyper Blast, it is numbered balls that also have to be put back in the proper place. You can’t see from the picture here, but each of the HyperBlast balls has a hole in the back so that it will only fit in its proper numerical order.

Unlike 1-2-3 Stomp, there doesn’t seem to be much of an educational value to the game other than learning colors and numbers, which ought to be known already from those ages six and up. No, the point of Hyper Blast is to simply to beat the previous time of putting the balls back. I’m not really certain why it was slapped with a “six and up” warning label, because a five year old could do this, really. The only complex action consisted of setting the balls in, which as to be done a certain way or it will not count.

This could be a great gift for children. I would say children of all ages, but I’m not certain what the “cut-off” age would be for a product like this. After all, I certainly had a fun time playing it. Anyway, it is available at the Wild Planet Shopping site for a sales price of $29.95.

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