Rob, and I mix up the rugby ideas in Duxton, expound on matters rugby.
The beer for review is the Forbidden Fruit Pear Cider.
The music is by Fires in July.
You can download it now.
Our tips for this weekend are:
Rob: crusaders, tahs, brumbies, force, cheetahs, stormers, bulls
John: crusaders, tahs, blues, highlanders, cheetahs, reds, bulls
Tim: crusaders, tahs, brumbies, [...]

[ 1 June, 2013; 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. ] All right thinking people agree kites are cool.

ArtsACT is giving notice of a kite flying day by Lake Ginninderra:

Kites will fill the skies on Saturday 1 June at Belconnen Arts Centre’s WIND AIR WATER – CENTENARY KITES at LAKE GINNINDERRA. Join Belconnen Arts Centre to celebrate the kites, colours and the cultures from around the [...]

Chief Minister Gallagher has launched a new program today:
Chief Minister Katy Gallagher together with The Governor General, the Honourable Quentin Bryce AC CVO today formally opened the Intentional Community, a new public housing development designed to better support the needs of people with disability in our community.
The Intentional Community in Phillip is a unique development [...]

ACT Policing responded to two suspicious packages in Hume today (Monday, May 20).
ACT Policing received the report of the suspicious packages, believed to be ‘pipe-bombs’, in Alderson Place, Hume, about 10.15am.
ACT Policing General Duties members attended and cordoned the area, requesting the assistance of the Specialist Response Group (SRG) Bomb Response Team.
Businesses within the cordoned [...]

The Herald Sun reports on the local police just happening to catch the high flying Lass from Wycheproof Peta Credlin for a low range DUI.
Mr Abbott’s office earlier confirmed Peta Credlin was caught outside her home with a ”low-range reading” after returning from a dinner in the capital last week.
ACT Police have since confirmed a [...]

[ 31 May, 2013; 7:00 pm; ]

Facebook brings word that the obscure Magpies Club downstairs next to Gus’s is going to give live local music a shot under the brand of “City Underground”:

Magic Rob Universe, The Feldons and The Naddiks are venturing into the Magpies City Club (City Underground) in Civic for the first time to see if we can vibe [...]

Amazing things happen at the monthly outings of In Canberra Tonight.
One of them was I had my photo taken wearing a Skywhale hat.
More remarkable still was the photo being picked up first by the Terror’s blogs. And now by the Australian.
It’s fair to say Skywhale has exceeded all expectations. Now can we please have some [...]

Illicit drug users in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Northern Territory are paying more for cocaine than the rest of the country, the Australian Crime Commission’s (ACC) Illicit Drug Data Report 2011–12 has revealed.
In 2011–12 the territories recorded the highest street price for cocaine, with users willing to pay up to $500 for one [...]

Ben Dover spotted this one:
Healthy eating at the Basketball
Spotted last night at Belconnen Basketball Stadium. Yummy!!
Got an image of Canberra you want to share with the world? Email it in to images@the-riotact.com .

Liberal Senator Gary Humphries is eulogising the remarkable Lorna Hazel Craig who passed away on Sunday:
Miss Craig was first appointed to the personal staff of Prime Minister J A Lyons in 1937 and then after his death she remained on the personal staff of his successors, R G Menzies, A W Fadden, J Curtin, J [...]

ACT Policing has arrested a 31-year-old Kaleen man after he assaulted a police officer following multiple burglaries in the inner south early this morning (Monday, May 20).
After receiving multiple calls to burglaries earlier in the night at about 4.47am police were called to an alleged burglary at an apartment in Kingston.
A woman woke up [...]

Peter has sent this in:
While walking around the lake this pm, I walked past this.
It is of course the National Gallery’s Diamonds by Neil Dawson.
Got an image of Canberra you want to share with the world? Email it in to images@the-riotact.com .

The Centenary have youtubed a lovely timelapse of Skywhale liftoff!
Skywhale – Centenary balloon rides (Time-Lapse)
Skywhale – Centenary balloon rides at Reconciliation Place on Sunday morning 19th May 20123
Music – William Orbit. H – Pieces in a Modern Style, Ludwig van Beethoven – “Opus 132″

Foxsports has the unhappy reading of the tattooed terror at the suspect Sharks doing the business:
NSW Origin hopeful Todd Carney was again the maestro for the home side, who provisionally moved into the eight for the first time since round five.
The victory was not secure until a 70th minute try to barnstorming prop Andrew Fifita, [...]

Foxsports has the happy news that the Brumbies have added Christian Lealiifano and Ben Mowen to their ranks of Wallaby selected players with the naming of the squad to take on the Lions.
A well deserved honour and it will be great to see them showing what they can do.
Ben Alexander, Stephen Moore, and Joe Tomane [...]

We’ve just returned from the very fulfilling and slightly exhausting Million Paws Walk for 2013.
The Kelpie of Few Accomplishments was resplendent in his bandana and plodded dutifully along for the entire inner lake loop.
As a fundraiser for the local RSPCA it was a great event.
Getting there at 9.30 it was already busy with dozens of [...]

As Canberra’s very own zombie flick trundles to completion they’ve released the above “Cannes Trailer”.
Looking forward to seeing what all the hard work and enthusiasm comes to!

ACT Policing is seeking witnesses after a car arson in Tharwa damaged important road infrastructure for local residents on Friday night (May 17).
Around 11.30pm a light blue 1991 Mitsubishi Magna station wagon (New South Wales registration WPB 384) was driven onto the Gudgenby River bridge along Smiths Road in Tharwa and deliberately lit. The vehicle [...]

ACT Policing is seeking witnesses to a robbery that occurred around the Manuka shops last night (Saturday, May 18).
Around 6.35pm a woman had withdrawn money from the Commonwealth Automated Teller Machine (ATM) on Bougainville Street when she was accosted by a man who snatched her purse and ran to a car parked nearby. Two men [...]

Mike Kelly has announced that local radar boffins CEA are getting into the dollars to make the radar the next generation of Australian Frigates will be built around.
For those still pining for the 1930s the radar is these days not so much a sensor as a major weapon of most major military platforms.
It’s a big [...]

Keo reports on how the Brumbies overcame many advantages to give victory to the NSW Waratahs.
They’ll need to play some good rugby to make the finals from here. And if they’re good enough to play it they’ll deserve it.
UPDATE: Foxsports have got more with video.

The ACT Rural Fire Service will tomorrow, Sunday 19 May, 2013, conduct two hazard reduction burns at Kowen and Nicholls.
The Kowen burn will commence at 9.30am east of the Yass and Sutton Roads intersection, between the Molonglo River and Railway line.
Two heavy tankers, two command vehicles, one medium tanker, one light unit and 15 personnel [...]

LAB has sent this in:
Skywhale landed at the Telopea school oval this morning having flown from
somewhere out round Yarralumla.
Drew a large crowd.
Got an image of Canberra you want to share with the world? Email it in to images@the-riotact.com .

I wasn’t going to rise to the bait of Joe Hildebrand’s latest effort to troll Canberra.
When your complaint about a city comes to it having a winter season (as do New York, London, Paris and Tokyo) and laws about smoking in pubs the complainant is the one coming across as a yokel in the big [...]

ACT Fire & Rescue and ACT Rural Fire Service are currently responding to a mulch fire at Parkwood Road, Recycling Circuit, Belconnen.
One pumper, two Compressed Air Fire Units (CAFS) and four tankers are on scene.
Update to follow.
3:29 PM
—
Firefighters are using Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) to knock the fire down.
The fire is approximately 100 square [...]

Word Play is the latest outing from Boho Interactive and is running at the CSIRO Discovery Centre.
As an experience it is certainly novel. Downright unusual in fact.
On arrival you’re instructed how to get the appropriate app on your phone (SMS to a number can be done with those stuck on ancient platforms who still want [...]

ACT Fire & Rescue are currently on scene at a house fire in Somerville Street, Spence.
The fire is well alight and has gone through the roof space.
Three fire pumpers on scene, with the Breathing Apparatus Van and a Command vehicle.
All occupants evacuated with no injuries reported.
Time of Emergency Triple Zero (000) call 7:39am.
Update to [...]

The ACT Government would like to advise motorists and other road users that Bailey Bridge over the Gudgenby River along Smiths Road has been closed until further.
The closure is due to damage from a vehicle fire.
Alternative access is via Angle Crossing Road and Sunshine Road.
[Courtesy TAMS]
UPDATE: This in from TAMS:
The ACT Government would like to [...]

ACT Policing is seeking witnesses to an incident early this afternoon (Friday, May 17) in which a man seriously assaulted a 52-year-old female receptionist and ransacked a professional office looking for cash and drugs.
Police were called to the professional office suites in Grattan Court, Erindale, around 12.40pm today after it was reported that a man [...]

Now that we’re excising Australia from the Australian Migration Zone (because we’re snivelling racists) detention centres could be anywhere.
A reader who wishes to remain anonymous wonders if that’s what’s going on down Petrie Plaza in Civic.
Got an image of Canberra you want to share with the world? Email it in to images@the-riotact.com .

Macrobusiness have a detailed look at the increasing supply of housing in the ACT at the same time the Abbott juggernaut threatens to depopulate the city.
It doesn’t take an economic genius to guess what’s going to happen next.
Picking the bottom of the market to start buying however is always harder. The lessons of ’96 are [...]

This just in from our friends at the ABC:
1. Make this House their Home: an innovative housing arrangement for young people with severe disabilities; their own houses with a live-in carer – in a complex of public housing where the tenants sign on as volunteers.
2. [...]