Yahoo!7 Answers Australia

Wow what a weekend. It had it all – nail biting football, surprise celebrity weddings and sadly, the death of an icon.

The AFL final between Geelong and Hawthorn certainly had all the elements of a great match. Not only did the favourites get defeated (always exciting in a country that loves the underdog), but it was neck and neck for much of the match.

The Norm Smith Medal went to Luke Hodge, however one Answers user wondered whether anyone has ever won the Norm Smith Medal and the Brownlow in the same year? The answer is no, although some have come pretty close:

Greg Williams won the Brownlow in 94 and won the Norm Smith in 95 and same thing happened to Simon Black in 2002 – he won the Brownlow and won the Norm Smith the next year and so did Chris Judd in 04 and 05. More

For those of you who think enduring a football match is about as exciting as watching paint dry, you may have been interested to learn that Scarlett Johansson and fiancé Ryan Reynolds tied the knot over the weekend. At only 23, Scarlett Johansson is one of a few Hollywood stars who have chosen to marry young. As Ally asked, why do you think it is now trendy to marry young in celebville?

Finally, sad news for film fans with the death of screen legend Paul Newman. The star of classics such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Hustler died of cancer in his Westport, Connecticut home. He’s not only known for his films but also his relentless charity work, including donating all the proceeds of his Paul Newman Own foods to local charities. While some are debating their favourite Paul Newman films, others are speculating that celebrity deaths come in threes and are wondering which legend will be next through the pearly gates?

Caitlin
Community Manager

As the weather gets warmer and the beach becomes more tempting, quite a few Aussie girls (and probably a few blokes) are looking down at those bat wings,  cottage cheese thighs and muffin top and thinking: “there’s no way I’m going anywhere near a swimsuit until something has been done!”

For all around fitness, I’ve always found that going to the gym starts off well, then a few months into it you’re bored of pounding the treadmill and the elliptical trainer has lost its gloss. And with the weather so lovely, who wants to be cooped up indoors? Some swear by boot camp although people yelling at me tends to make me want to hit them rather than run around the block 20 times.

A varied routine that includes different workouts each day works for people who get bored easily like me. Some recommend a combination of cardio and pilates and others say trying something new like dancing or spinning does the trick.

If it’s a specific area you want to work on, there are lots of different exercises to help tailor your workout. To tone the underside of your arms, mrsross22 recommends:

Military squats- Find a stable piece of furniture like the edge of a sofa and sit on the ground in front of it facing away. Put your arms up behind you and place them on the edge of the sofa. Lift yourself up till your arms are fully extended then drop back down but do not land your butt on the ground, just hover. Then repeat this. I do about 3 sets of 20 reps. More

For that pesky stomach area, yomama recommends a variety of exercises, including:

Resistance training: go for more reps (less weight), try drop sets, try circuit training. All of these are useful for getting more lean and ripped (and as a result will burn fat off your abs). Remember the more muscle you build, the more fat you’ll burn (muscle burns fat). More

The good thing about getting your fitness advice from Answers, is that you know it’s worked for real people out there and the advice isn’t from a stick-thin-never-eaten-a-timtam-in-his-life type of person. Time to grab those sneakers!

Caitlin
Community Manager

Hollywood shined in its finest designer frocks today at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards. Although these television awards don’t get anywhere near the amount of publicity or kudos as their filmic counterparts, the Oscars and The Golden Globes, I still enjoy watching them. Admittedly the main attraction for me is the red carpet dresses but I like some of the awards and presentations too, especially to see what new shows will capture our attention in the next year.

This year there were some gorgeous dresses on women including Brooke Shields from Lipstick Jungle as well as the Desperate Housewives girls and Kate Walsh from Private Practice. Of course, who doesn’t love looking at the worst dressed list, which included Alyssa Milano among others. Considering all the freebies they get in their pre-emmys preparations, you wonder how they manage to look so bad at such an important event.

There was plenty of debate about who would win best comedy and best drama but in the end it was 30 Rock and Mad Men respectively. Other winners included Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Glenn Close and Kathy Griffin for My Life on the D List, which I guess means she’ll have to change it to ‘My Life on the A List’. Unfortunately our own Rachel Griffiths didn’t win for Brothers and Sisters.

The Emmys reminded me of all my favourite TV shows that aren’t currently screening in Australia such as Brothers and Sisters and Grey’s Anatomy. What’s going to happen in the next season of Desperate Housewives after seeing the women five years into the future? When will Supernatural come back to TV?

One thing I have noticed with a lack of my favourite American shows on TV (chances are it’s related to last year’s writer’s strike) is that there seems to be a lot of Australian content to watch. Packed to the Rafters has captivated my attention, as well as the Australian Project Runway and the new crime show City Homicide.

What TV shows do you like at the moment and what would you like to see more of?

Caitlin
Community Manager

Here at Answers we’re always working on new features and enhancements for the site, but we also recognise sometimes things do go wrong and need fixing. Earlier this week we addressed a number of outstanding bugs that we know have been bothering many of you. They are:

• Emails are now sent to your contacts when you submit a question. When you receive an email about a new answer, the text properly describes the answer.
• We have significantly enhanced the breadth of the dictionary in the spell check function when asking and answering a question.

We are committed to fixing the outstanding bugs on Answers, as well as developing possible new other features, but in the meantime we wanted to share this news with you and thank you all for your patience while we addressed them.

Regards,

Caitlin
Community Manager

Visiting a wine tasting region is one of my favourite ways to spend a weekend. I love heading out of the city late on Friday night with the express intention of tasting a variety of different vinos. Experience has taught me that it is also de rigueur to return home on Sunday night with a full stomach and car boot laden with wine that I “just had to buy”.

The great thing about being a wine enthusiast in Australia is that there are so many places to try, many of which are in driving distance from a capital city. The Hunter Valley obviously has a great reputation, as does the Margaret River and the Barossa Valley. There are also perhaps lesser known wine growing areas, such as Swan Valley in WA, a variety of areas in Victoria and even Queensland is getting into the spirit of things.

Although wine tasting used to have a stigma attached to it, it is gradually losing that reputation and wineries are encouraging those who haven’t tried it to give it a go. To experience the full taste of the wine however, there are few things to keep in mind.
One tip from Oldmalibu57 is to:

Always hold a wine glass by the “stem” and never put your hands on the bowl as you want to “see” the wine and not your fingerprints. More

Walking on Sunshine says there are 5 S’s to consider:

SEE- The colour and clarity of a wine gives you several clues about it.
SWIRL- Swirling the wine in your glass aerates it, bringing oxygen into the wine and allowing it to release its aroma.
SMELL – This is the most important part of wine tasting. You can only perceive 4 basic tastes, but you can smell 2000 smells, and wine has over 200 of its own.
SIP- Be sure to move the wine around in your mouth to cover all of your taste buds.
SAVOUR – Sit back for a few minutes and savour the taste. More

Want to put your wine knowledge to the test? Yahoo!7 Travel is giving away a holiday to the Hunter Valley. The prize includes:

•  Two nights accommodation at Harrigans Irish Pub and Accommodation
•  Breakfast at Harrigans Irish Pub
•  Two tickets to the Hunter Valley Gardens
•  Two bottles of Hunter Valley wine

Click here to enter this fabulous competition! Terms & Conditions apply

Caitlin
Community Manager

We all enjoy connecting and communicating with friends and peers. Answers empowers you to gain experiential knowledge from the community but while it’s great for research and problem solving, sometimes when the urge to connect, chat or canvas opinion strikes, other parts of Yahoo!7 are a far better fit.

First there is Yahoo!7 Mail, which we’re all familiar with. If a person has turned on his communication settings on Answers, then you can also contact him by email. Messenger is also a great tool to connect live with your friends 24/7. There’s also Yahoo!7 Groups, with thousands of subject areas to choose from.

If you’re into polling there is also another Yahoo!7 destination site you might want to try. Bix.com is a place to “create, enter, and judge.” You’ll find contests for anything from top 10 cutest dogs to all time greatest Superhero.

The next time you want to find out what is the best sand structure or the most annoying celebrity why not check out Bix.com for yourself and put your creative skills to the test in a friendly face-off.

We all know how ideal Yahoo!7 Answers is for answering those curly questions. From trivia to travel, it’s a great place to go to an objective answer from all sorts of people who have a variety of experiences and knowledge.

Which is why it was nice to see Yahoo!7 Answers being featured in an article in this month’s Australian marie claire magazine. Answers was used as a resource for solving a relationship problem that was concocted by one of their journalists.

The general premise was a girl was deciding whether to stick with her boring but stable long term relationship or to get out while she could to pursue pastures green. To make her decision, she visited a psychotherapist, a holistic counsellor, a tarot card reader and she posted the question on Yahoo!7 Answers.

Her experience on Answers was a positive one; she even said she got involved in responding to a few other questions in the relationships section. Her opinion of Answers echoes mine – the advice given is genuine because unlike friends and family, they don’t have to sugar coat their response to ensure you still like them at the end of the conversation.

The questions are varied and cover a variety of different life experiences. From teenage crushes to wayward husbands to text message etiquette to best friend dilemmas, there’s barely a human relationship that hasn’t been debated and analysed on Yahoo!7 Answers. Talk about paradise for all those wannabe relationship counsellors out there!

Caitlin
Community Manager

Have you noticed it’s 9th of the 9th? Granted, not quite as exciting as the 8th of the 8th 2008 but it’s an extra special day for my baby sister as it’s her 18th birthday. When she was born on the 9th of the 9th 1990 at 6:03am, we thought that the number 9 would definitely play a part in her life. All signs are pointing to that, right?

Well not according to the numerology experts on Answers. In fact, according to this answerer, it’s all a bit of a coincidence. Hmm that’s not very exciting, although I think I prefer that logic over the British answer to this question:

Question: Since 9 is the number of death and endings, is anyone else worried about what will happen on 9/9/’09?
Answer: I’m sorry to say I’m terrified of that date for the simple reason that in America their emergency number is 911. The terrorists did 9/11. But what about our emergency number: 999. I believe they are planning something big for us as well on the 9/9/09 More

All I can say is good thing our emergency number is 000 – no significant dates could possibly be connected to it!

Numerology started me thinking about Astrology and what it means to some of us. There is many a question on Answers about what the rising sun is and what each house means. If you know all of this information, you can get a pretty definitive guide to who your future partner should be and what career would be a good choice.

If you want to get even further into astrology, you could go to see a psychic. I’ve seen a few in my time, and although it’s difficult to know how accurate they are, sometimes you get a real sense that they know what they’re talking about, particularly if they tell you something no one else knows. This particular palm reader told me the exact dates I would travel for then told my friend that she’ll have twins one day. We’re still waiting for that one to eventuate!

Have you ever had a psychic reading that came true?

Caitlin
Community Manager

It’s that time of year again. The day when you hone your breakfast making skills, serve beer before midday and hunt through Kmart for socks, fishing paraphernalia and ugly golf related ties. Yes Father’s Day is upon us, hope you haven’t forgotten to make the homemade card!

The origins of Father’s Day seems to be a bit confused. There is a story about a little girl called Sonora Smart who wanted to honour her father, so created ‘Father’s Day’ in Spokane, Washington. Many, however believe it was invented as a greeting card holiday. The Mothers already had a day (it originated England as officially Mothering Sunday is a synonym of Laetare Sunday in the Christian liturgical calendar), so they wanted to even it out a bit.

Whatever it is, Dad isn’t complaining! Millions of Aussie families use the first Sunday in September as an opportunity to thank Dad for just being him. Appreciating your Dad doesn’t have to be expensive or commercial, in fact many in the Answers community have given great ideas about homemade presents.

For new Dads, some Answerers have suggested a digital slide show or a homemade photo album featuring the new bub. There are also some sentimental ideas, such as framing a sweet poem from his son or daughter or printing t-shirts with hand prints or footprints of his children. Dads definitely love food, so don’t forget a different breakfast in bed idea such as Mile High Quiche or some unique bbq ideas.

For some who have lost their dad, Father’s Day is a difficult time. To help honour a father who has passed away, Answers member eaglestar14 says:

Some people wear roses on Father’s day and Mother’s day in honour of their parents. Red rose mean that parent is living. White rose means that parent is deceased. So if your father is dead you could pin a white rose to your shirt in memory of him. More

To all those Dads out there – hope you have a wonderful Father’s Day!

Caitlin
Community Manager

This week’s featured user is revoltix, a devoted member of the Video & Online games section of Answers. At high school, he was known as ‘Mr Internet’ and ‘The Cool Nerd’ and has now found an outlet for all his knowledge on Answers.

Revoltix is 26 years old and grew up in the south west suburbs of Sydney. His main interests are computers, gaming technologies, playing the guitar and motor sports however above all, his main passion is video games. Whether they’re the latest releases or old school eighties classics, he loves them all.

He certainly brings his knowledge to the users of Answers. From technical questions about online PS2 networks, Playstation patches and reformatting super nintendos to specific game questions such as Halo 3, revoltix has all the Answers. He says:

I give advice on these categories as they are of interest to me and they are things of which of have a vast knowledge of. I’ve setup most video game consoles online, networked computers for LANs and gaming parties, solved problems that Internet Service Providers couldn’t solve, as well as manufacturers of hardware and software. All my friends, either in the real world or in ‘cyberspace’ ask me for the answers before they read their manuals. And if I don’t know, I know where to look for the answer.

It isn’t all computers and gaming in revoltix’s life. He also likes answering in different categories such as pets, philosophy and history to keep things interesting. He even once used Answers to help a work colleague find a friend from ten years ago who was living in a different country. His colleague ended up ringing his long-lost friend and arranged a reunion, all thanks to revoltix finding him.

It’s these sorts of experiences that make Answers worthwhile for revoltix:

Answers gives me the satisfaction that I helped someone. I know how frustrating it can be to seek for something that you think you will never find. You get a great feeling when someone lends you a hand, and that’s what I like to share.

Thanks, revoltix, for being such an important member of our community. For those curly networking or gaming questions, we all know who to ask!

Caitlin
Community Manager