A month ago we asked ninemsn readers for the second time whether the $900 stimulus payment should be diverted to the Black Saturday bushfires fund.

The first time we asked the question, in the immediate aftermath of Victoria's devastating fires in February, the result was divided almost evenly.

More than 84,000 people thought the money should be used for the fire victims, while 78,865 wanted to hang on to the cash.

A month later that call had changed dramatically.

Are Twitter users simply narcissists with a perverse urge to broadcast every detail of their pathetically inane lives to an uncaring world?

Well, if that's the case, I guess I'm a friendless, insecure, self-regarding idiot with a penchant for self promotion.

You might think journalists are a sly lot; but the stonewalling and spin we face, even from public agencies, can be nothing less than exasperating.

And it's broader than just a media gripe — in so far as we act as a channel for news or matters of public interest, if we aren't getting the information we seek, neither are you.

Every day, an average of 100,000 readers participate in ninemsn's news vote.

That makes it by the far the biggest daily barometer of opinion in Australia.

It's not a subtle tool. You can only answer "yes" or "no" to the daily question: there are no shades of gray and it's the work of less than seconds to read and vote with a single click.

But I believe that simple click reveals a lot about ourselves — the reflex choice is often a true reflection.*

We've got a new kind of article for you — one that puts pictures at the heart of the news. Nine News at a Glance brings together big, beautiful images and stories in a way that we hope makes a lot of sense.

This is how it works: the big picture in the centre of the page is like a slideshow. Clicking on the right-side button moves on to the next image, the left-side backtracks.

When you get to the end of one News at a Glance article, you can move on to the next just by continuing to click on the same button. You will see an ad, then you move on to the next article.

It's been three years since critics savaged The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, a straight-to-television turkey that could have killed off the long-running franchise once and for all.

But a new viral marketing campaign appears to have injected new life into Jim Henson's much-loved family of weirdo puppets.

Several Muppets characters have "joined" popular video sharing website YouTube, creating their own channels and uploading short clips that have been shot with the internet in mind.

A tear-jerking video that shows a full-grown lion affectionately embracing two men has a fascinating back story — with an Australian twist.

The "Christian the lion" video has been viewed millions of times since it was posted to YouTube in June. In the past couple of days, it has become fodder for breakfast programmes on US and Australian television networks, including Nine's TODAY show.

But while the footage stands alone, the real story starts in London's swinging 60s, when two Australians walked into the exotic pets section of Harrods department store and saw a lion cub sitting in a cage.

An overwhelming majority of ninemsn readers say they're happy to see the back of controversial reality show Big Brother, which was finally given the kiss of death by the Ten Network yesterday.

More than 115,000 people who voted in a poll yesterday said they were glad the show had been axed, while fewer than 20,000 people wanted it to continue.

But despite the show's ratings decline and the overwhelming condemnation by ninemsn readers, news stories relating to Big Brother continue to generate massive interest.

As the New York tabloids worked themselves into a lather about the apparent celebrity-coupling-of-the-century, some of us Downunder were left wondering "A-who?" — or at the very least "how did Andy Roddick manage that?"

But as sporty folk, and baseball fans in particular, will know already, the A-Rod is none other than Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez — an American sporting god.

Rodriguez pulls in $28.9 million a year and — if beefcake is your thing — he is sexy to boot.