A new "behavioural capability framework" proposed by the administration at RMIT University in Australia would require professors to be "positive" and "optimistic," as a rule. It would mandate niceness, in academia.

Breaking news out of Australia offers a fascinating glimpse of how your folk hero sausage gets made.

You may have noticed posting was a little sparse today on Gawker. That was mainly my fault: Today was my designated "Traffic whore" day, and I was supposed to post many cat videos and British tabloid stories about people being impaled in interesting ways, so that my colleagues could take time to concentrate on more in-depth stuff, like accurately predicting the reaction if various actors or actresses the day before the Oscars. Maybe Horse_ebooks cast a curse on me, or I ate a bad grape at breakfast. I just couldn't churn them out today.

There is just something arresting about the work of Australian "Smutographer" Elivs Di Fazio. It's a pretty simple formula: hot stud, short shorts, athletic kit, some toplessness, a wacky pose, and bam, you have something I just want to look at all afternoon. Here's the rest of the shoot.

It's pretty well-known that hardcore has been awful basically ever since Earth Crisis jocks started ruining shows in the early 90s. But out of Australia comes its savior: eight-year-old Juliet, who loves slam-dancing, half-time breakdowns, and her dog Robert, and hates hypocrisy, frat boys, and the smell of her pet fish. Talk about "youth crew," am I right? "Youth crew"? Right? [via @Alex_Ogle]

Here's a sweet Australian ad for—well, I don't want to ruin the surprise (you will probably be able to guess what's going to happen anyway), except to say that the United States could stand to see more campaigns like this.

While Australian TV news journalist Alison Ariotti reports from "the frontlines" of Perth or whatever, a black car rams right into the back of a red car and ha, the person who owns the red car will probably be surprised when they watch the news, eh? Focused Alison doesn't let the crash interrupt her reporting in any discernible way—she just keeps on talking about "the impressive crowds" of English people who are doing something somewhere that maybe involves tombstones. "Curiosity made me want to turn around but professionalism told me to just keep talking," she says. [YouTube]

Australian director Baz Luhrman, who never met a quick cut, flashing light, or Botox-deadened Nicole Kidman forehead he didn't like, started filming his adaptation of The Great Gatsby in September. But what is it going to look like?

Meanwhile, in Australia, an ultralight plane has flown—quite literally—into a ferris wheel, requiring the rescue of four people—the plane's two passengers and two kids who were on the ride. No one was hurt, except for anyone who might have been wanting to go on the ferris wheel and now will not be able to do so.

The Australian clothing store Gasp Jeans—which, if you're not familiar (or just some fashion-illiterate hobo), is "the brand behind fashion['s] newest genre 'Playful Couture'"—has become a total joke thanks to its completely idiotic way of handling a recent customer service complaint. Companies wishing to alienate the public, take note!

Gender categories on Australian passports have now been expanded to include "indeterminate," to be marked as "X," so long as a doctor's statement is provided. Looks like at least one country paid attention in Gender and Human Sexuality sophomore year!

Be honest: If you had a green marker, and you saw the weird-looking car-mounted camera used to take pictures for Google Maps Street View, what would you do? I'm thinking, you would probably not write out a situationist slogan. No, you would probably draw a dick, like the unidentified Australian prankster whose work will forever grace the Google Maps Street View of "Sparrowhawk Road" in "Maiden Gully," Victoria. What is it with the Antipodes and their quest to put as many crudely-drawn dicks as possible on Google Maps? [Google Maps via BuzzFeed]

Looking to re-ignite your childhood fear of sharks? Look no further! A tourist bodyboarding off a beach in western Australia was killed in a gruesome shark attack on Sunday, the first in the area in some two decades.

Donald Trump is going to Australia this September, and he's invited a select group of business leaders to meet with him while he's there. Oh, except he's expecting that they'll pay at least $10,000 just to hang out with him.

Australians are renowned for having contributed a great many things to the world, such as [TK/research intern], but cultural sensitivity is, alas, not one of them. For example, last June we noted one newscaster's lighthearted description of a Chinese lotto winner as having "slanty eyes and yellow skin." Reaching back further, in 2009, a variety show called Hey Hey, It's Saturday caused a bit of an international stir when a Jackson 5 tribute group came out in blackface, horrifying guest judge Harry Connick Jr. Well, it seems not much has changed, as Qantas has named the winner of its Twitter contest to send two lucky fans to an international rugby match, and it's...yet two more guys in blackface and afro wigs. Wait! Let them explain! They were actually paying lighthearted and respectful homage to...uh...Oh, never mind. If you have to explain it, it's already lost half the joke. Their teeth! So white! BLOL! [tracker.org.au]

Not quite sure what to make of this one, but the AC/DC brand is diversifying:

A new study shows that watching one hour of television can shorten your life by 22 minutes. According to research done in Australia (so how trustworthy can it be?), sitting on your fat ass in front of the boob tube for an hour is deadly, not because you're watching TV, but because you aren't doing anything.

One of the summer's weirdest stories—the Australian teenager who had a "collar bomb" strapped to her neck for ten hours, only to learn it was fake—took another weird turn on Monday when the first suspect arrested the case turned up in... Kentucky?

The "collar bomb" fastened to the neck of 18-year-old Madeleine Pulver by a "masked man" on Wednesday afternoon was not, in fact, a bomb—though authorities were forced to treat it as real until they got it off her neck ten hours later.

An Australian mother is pitching a fit because her daughter won "Best Personality" at a children's beauty pageant, which is evidence of anti-meritocratic judgment, she says, because her daughter's personality sucks. The Herald-Sun reports,