The Bureau of Meteorology has released its Tropical Cyclone Outlook which points to an average, or even below average, season.

The season usually runs from November to April and about 1-in-4 cyclones that form in the Coral Sea end up crossing the Queensland coast.

Bureau Queensland Manager Bruce Gunn tells Mark that it is no reason for complacency.

Scrabble is one of the world’s most popular and enduring board games and 2018 marks its 70th birthday.

Invented by American architect Alfred Mosher Butts in 1938 it was called something else until being trademarked Scrabble in 1948.

Mattel Senior Marketing Manager Jacinta Whitehead tells Mark its success is due to the fact that the only things that have changed over the years are the words.

Next week a new Australian film will give moviegoers an unsparing and unflinching look inside the violent and closed world of Australian bikie gangs.

The title 1% refers to the fact that bikies consider themselves society’s outlaws.

The film has been a eight year labour of love for writer and actor Matt Nable and he tells Mark it took work and a lot of help to get into world of bikies.

Roadies are the unheralded heroes of rock n roll. They are the hard working, hard living people who keep the rock ‘n roll circus on stage and on the road.

Leading music writer Stuart Coupe is now taking readers backstage for a close up look at the hidden side of the music industry in his new book Roadies.

He tells Mark it is not all groupies and partying.

Queensland trainers, owners and jockeys are threatening to boycott local meetings coinciding with the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup to protest a new betting tax.

The Point of Consumption tax slugs bookmakers and betting companies 15% on all revenues from Queensland punters, well above the taxes in NSW and Victoria.

Thoroughbred Breeders Association Queensland president Basil Nolan tells Mark the industry is angry that none of the tax raised will come back to it.

Queensland Rail is now looking for a new Chairman after the shock resignation of Philip Strachan and two other board members.

The resignations came in the wake of the state government’s decision to block $3.6 million in bonuses the board approved for around 380 senior staff.

Robert Dow from lobby group Rail Back On Track tells Mark it is time commuters and people with real rail experience were finally given a voice at board level.

Labor leader Bill Shorten has proposed extending subsidies for preschool to include all three year olds from the year 2020.

The Commonwealth currently funds places for four year olds and Labor’s policy would cost the budget another $1.75 billion over four years.

The idea came from a 2016 report for state and territory education ministers called Lifting Our Game and co-author Prof Deborah Brennan tells Mark there are real benefits for three years attending preschool.

The World Parachuting Championships begin on the Gold Coast on Saturday, the first time the event has been held in Australia since 1999.

More than 600 skydivers from 27 nations will compete across a range of 10 events including speed skydiving.

Event organiser Brad Turner from the Australian Parachute Federation tells Mark the championships will showcase southeast Queensland to the world.

New figures show Queenslanders lost a record-breaking $227 million on the pokies in August, the biggest month for pokies revenue since records began.

That is an average of $305,000-an-hour and more often than not those losing the most are the ones who can least afford it.

Dr Charles Livingstone is a leading expert on the impacts of poker machines and he tells Mark that for some it becomes a very real and destructive addiction.

It’s an award no Australian company wants to win.

This year’s entrants in Choice’s Shonky Awards hall of shame include a major bank, a portable cot, a magnetic therapy and toaster that doesn’t toast.

Choice chief executive Alan Kirkland tells Mark there are some pretty simple rules for companies not wanting to be named and shamed.