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writer, singer, webwrangler, blogger, comedy tragic | about.me/vivsmythe

• This is the first of no doubt many occasions that I will utter my husband’s new perfect curse

  By tigtog on 2009-02-11 • ( 25 )

  THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found.

• Life is too bloody short to faff around with this stupid Nokia 6120

  By tigtog on 2009-02-10 • ( 5 )

  This new phone had lots of bells and whistles, and some of the features are indeed very clever, but somewhere along the line they lost the plot with structuring the menu. The new interface offers a highly counter-intuitive menu, one that makes me want to hurl my phone with great force several times a day as I search through each fecking submenu to find what I want, and which unbelievably offers no way that I or anyone else can find of turning off the “predictive” text unfeature.

• Blub

  By tigtog on 2009-02-10 • ( 12 )

  If you’re in the bushfire zone looking for something to do to help and you’ve already donated to the Red Cross and the CFA, your local wildlife rescue service could probably do with a hand – ring them and ask them if they need some eucalyptus leaves from your garden trees, or some help filling water containers in the shelters, or just a cash donation.

• Quickhit: How Hollywood made its heroines weight-obsessed and man mad

  By tigtog on 2009-02-09 • ( 20 )

  From the Guardian/Observer:

  Hollywood heroines are being increasingly portrayed as neurotic, idiotic and obsessed by men, weight and weddings, a professor at Oxford University has claimed.

  Dr Diane Purkiss, who is a fellow at Keble College, argued that over the past five decades the film industry has made its female characters “dumber and dumber”. The latest slew of chick-flicks, including He’s Just Not That Into You and Confessions of a Shopaholic, fall prey to the “worst kind of regressive, pre-feminist stereotype of misogynistic cliche,” she added.

• Note to sportscasters

  By tigtog on 2009-02-06 • ( 7 )

  A batsman being bowled at 98 is not accurately described as “tragically failed to make his century”.

• Quickhit: freebies to a Sydney comedy show

  By tigtog on 2009-02-06

  There’s a limerick contest over at my comedy guide site, with a double pass valid for the next 2 months as the prize, so if you’re able to get to Sydney on a Tuesday night sometime in that time period, why not have a go?

• QotWeek

  By tigtog on 2009-02-06 • ( 1 )

  Pavlov’s Cat, over at LP’s discussion on Helen’s post about the Rudd government’s failure to lift our Australian version of the Global Gag Rule:

• I defy you to not at least contemplate trying #15

  By tigtog on 2009-02-06 • ( 11 )

  25 Things I Didn’t Want to Know About You

  Honestly, the way some journos react to Facebook memes is a dead giveaway that they’ve only just joined the digital social revolution.

• Natural vs Artificial Selection

  By tigtog on 2009-02-06 • ( 27 )

  I caught some of an interview on RN yesterday morning with an erudite bioscience type, who made some very nice distinctions about what does and does not constitute evolution, including the provocative statement that in the West, humans have virtually stopped evolving as the term is normally understood (there are caveats and clarifications).

• Another slice of stupid

  By tigtog on 2009-02-05 • ( 2 )

  Look, even in these tough economics times we can still find the time to be contemptuous of women and their frivolous pursuits