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What Were You Searching in 2011?

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What did the world want to know in 2011?

Every year Google lets us know what the world has been searching to find. They publish the most common search terms in their annual zeitgeist.

The top ten things we wanted to know about globally, according to Google, are as follows:

1. Rebecca Black
2. Google+
3. Ryan Dunn
4. Casey Anthony
5. Battlefield 3
6. iPhone 5
7. Adele
8. (Fukushima I Plant)
9. Steve Jobs
10. iPad2

You can visit the zeitgeist page to see results broken down by various regions.

This year Google has also created a video to give us an overview of the year in searches. Watch the video above to see what we wanted to know this year.

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Christchurch Earthquake Update

Feb 26th, 2011

by Rodney Olsen.

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Several days on from the massive quake which has caused so much destruction in Christchurch, I took the opportunity yesterday to update my radio listeners on what was happening in New Zealand.

Tuesday’s 6.3 magnitude tremor is the largest of many aftershocks from the 7.1 magnitude quake in the same area on the 4th of September last year.

At this time 123 people are confirmed dead with 200 still missing and many hundreds injured.

Allan Lee is Director of News and Current Affairs for Rhema Broadcasting Group in New Zealand. He joined me live during my program on 98.5 Sonshine FM the day after the quake as he headed by road to Christchurch. I spoke to Allan again yesterday and he updated me with details from the last couple of days.

Since we last spoke Allan had been into the city of Christchurch and witnessed the devastation as well as travelling through the suburbs and finding out how the people of the area are coping.

You can hear our discussion by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

I also asked Allan how we should be praying for those caught in the tragic events. He reminded us that while the physical needs are being attended to as quickly as possible, the emotional scars will take many years to heal.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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Rescue and Recovery continues in Christchurch

Feb 23rd, 2011

by Rodney Olsen.

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A national state of emergency has been declared in New Zealand following the devastating earthquake that rocked the area surrounding Christchurch yesterday. Horrific images have been beamed into our lounge rooms as the rescue and recovery efforts continue.

Yesterday’s 6.1 magnitude tremor is the largest of many aftershocks from the 7.1 magnitude quake in the same area on the 4th of September last year. At this time 75 people are confirmed dead with 300 missing and many hundreds injured.

Allan Lee is Director of News and Current Affairs for Rhema Broadcasting Group in New Zealand. He joined me live during my program on 98.5 Sonshine FM this morning as he headed by road to Christchurch.

We talked about the feeling in New Zealand today as people continue to come to terms with the tragedy and the dangerous rescue efforts as aftershocks continue to shake buildings that are already on the brink of collapse.

You can hear our discussion by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

I also asked Allan how we should be praying for those caught in the tragic events. He reminds us that while the physical needs are being attended to as quickly as possible, the emotional scars will take many years to heal.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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Brisbane Under Water

Jan 13th, 2011

by Rodney Olsen.

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Large sections of Australia’s third largest city are now under water. This video shows how some areas of Brisbane have become completely flooded.

Even though the Brisbane River hasn’t reached the expected peaks, it’s still estimated that around 15 000 homes and businesses have been hit hard by the rising floodwaters.

The official death toll is currently at 15 but is expected to rise in coming days.

Wherever you are in the world, if you’d like to help you can visit the Queensland Flood Appeal website.

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Amateur Video Shows Flood Devastation

Jan 11th, 2011

by Rodney Olsen.

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2011 hasn’t started well in many parts of Australia. Not even two weeks in and it’s been a fairly wild start to the new year.

Here in Western Australia we’re dealing with destructive fire in our south and floods in our north.

Across the country in Queensland the devastating floods continue. The vision coming out of Toowoomba is astounding.

Check out the amateur video above as a couple of people capture the storm waters swelling and dragging car after car out of a car park and sending them down what moments earlier was just a small creek. At this time, eight people are dead and dozens are missing in that part of Queensland. It’s hard to get your head around the scale of the devastation.

The floods have not yet reached their peak and thousands of people are still being evacuated as the scale of the disaster grows.

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