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China trying to buy some Facebook. News has surfaced that a sovereign wealth fund representing the Chinese government wants to buy a substantial amount of Facebook stock. According to anonymous sources who spoke to Business Insider, China wants to own enough of Facebook "to matter."

Is China's interest in Facebook a simply a government-sponsored group of venture capitalists looking to get a piece of the upcoming Facebook IPO or is there something more complicated at work behind the scenes?

Australia has begun employing the Web as a major tool in gathering, preserving and sharing the cultural traditions of its native peoples. The religious, personal and individual stories of Australia's native peoples, their visual art and worldviews are globally acknowledged to have a powerful presence. However, as with most now-minority peoples around the world, the forces of centralization and modernization have taken their toll.

Now, Web technologies are allowing the peoples in question to dynamically capture and pass on the wisdom and experiences of their culture as a whole and those of their elders in particular. Here are two particularly exciting examples of how technology has been used in Australia to achieve these goals.

StartMate, a new seed fund that has brought the Y Combinator-model of incubator program to Australia, has just graduated its first class of startups.

StartMate's three-month program offers mentorship and investment to five selected startups. The program culminates in a two-week trip to Silicon Valley, which the startups are now in the middle of. And like most incubators, StartMate culminates in a Demo Day, one in Sydney and one in Silicon Valley, where participants in the program get an opportunity to present in front of early stage investors.

Most of the time we only get one view of a disaster like the floods ravaging Queensland, Australia. Media organizations convey the news but seeing people in harms way posting reports for a crowdsourced map is a new form of reporting that gives immediacy, a sense of connection and a fast way to assess the magnitude of a disaster.

Over the past several weeks, the Australia Broadcast Corporation (ABC) has been doing something a bit different by using Ushahidi to create a data visualization of the Queensland floods that have left the region covered in water. The crowdsourced map is powered by people in the region and professional journalists covering the disaster. It's an encompassing view of the disaster, evoking a sense of real-time drama and a full context about the flooding's impacts.

A group of Australian tech investors and entrepreneur have formed a new seed fund that will offer a Y Combinator-style incubator model, with small early stage investment and up-close mentoring to Australian startups.

Startmate will hold its first program in the first quarter of 2011, and the application process will begin in October Startmate plans a three month program with five selected startups and will offer a $25,000 investment, mentorship from a long list of successful founders, and a two-week trip to Silicon Valley. There will be two demo days at the end of the program - one in Sydney and one in Silicon Valley, where participants will present in front of early stage investors.

Bangladesh lifts Facebook ban. Following a similar agreement with Pakistan, Facebook has agreed to more self-censorship. It has removed the Everybody Draw Muhammed Day page in Bangladesh and Bangladesh has removed the block on Facebook.

Australia joins list of nations investigating Google. Australia announced it is officially investigating Google for its collection of personal information. The company used its Google Street View cars to map Wi-Fi locations but picked up personal information as well. Other countries investigating include the U.S., Germany, Italy, France and Canada.

The Australian Federal Police insist that Facebook hire a compliance officer and install a "rat button" on its site that will allow Australians to report anyone to the police with click.

The social media company and the AFP have been going back and forth over the responsibility Australian law enforcement believes the company has in regards to local law enforcement.

The next time you find yourself claiming to not have enough time or money to form a startup, just remember the name Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin. While it may not be the easiest name to remember, it could certainly come in handy if you ever want to learn to quickly launch a startup on the cheap.

Eckersley-Maslin, an Australian entrepreneur, has challenged himself to take a startup from idea to business in just seven days on a $500 budget, all while blogging about his progress on the homepage of Australian entrepreneurship magazine Anthill. He says he is tired of hearing would-be entrepreneurs complain about a lack of time and money, so he has set out to prove that all it takes is some will and dedication.

Ben Southall, a charity worker from the United Kingdom has been appointed the new caretaker of the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, after beating 34,000 other applicants to the post dubbed "The Best Job in the World."

This new position requires Southall live, swim, and play every day, then record his adventures for the world via blogs, photos, video updates and media interviews. Not bad for AUD $150,000 and six months worth of work.

We know that Oprah Winfrey's brought a lot of new users to Twitter in the U.S., but according to Hitwise, the popular microblogging service is currently seeing some of its most impressive growth outside of America. In Australia, where Oprah Winfrey doesn't command the same kind of daytime television audience, Twitter grew over 1,000% since the beginning of 2009, and its annual growth since last April tops 3,200%. In Australia, Twitter is now the 37th most visited web site.