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

• Hottest September in Sydney since records began

  By tigtog on 2013-09-30 • ( 4 )

  

  So, how’s that “global warming hiatus” (aka a small slowdown in the rate of warming although the globe has continued to heat up during this “hiatus”) looking now, denialistas?

• Friday Hoydens: Lakota and Dakota Grandmothers vs Neo-Nazis

  By tigtog on 2013-09-27 • ( 4 )

  

  These women from the Standing Rock Indian Nation in North Dakota are only holding this Nazi flag up to the camera because they’re about to burn it, having captured it from public display on the property of a white supremacist in the nearby very small town of Leith, ND.

• repost: I ♥ axial tilt and elliptical orbits

  By tigtog on 2013-09-23 • ( 5 )

  

  Because without them we wouldn’t have seasons. Happy September equinox, all.

• Media Circus: Gleefully Gutting The NBN Edition

  By tigtog on 2013-09-23 • ( 13 )

  

  First the LNP confirms their downgrade of the NBN to FTTN rather than FTTP, now the entire board of the NBN is offering their resignations (jumping before they’re pushed)?

  What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?

• Today in smackdowns: Matt Yglesias rolls his eyes at Pax Dickinson’s ‘pernicious nonsense’

  By tigtog on 2013-09-17 • ( 5 )

  

  Pax Dickinson, whose employment as CTO at Business Insider was abruptly terminated when the board’s attention was drawn to some of his bigoted jackass tweets and the potential liability risk they could present to the company, had an interview in nymag entitled Pax Dickinson on His Regrets, the Media ‘Witch Hunt,’ and What Women Need to Understand About Men (so not doubling down in any way at all) where Pax shares his fear that “turning [tech] into a politically correct wasteland” will take away “the freewheeling nature of [tech that] leads to innovation [which is] really important to this country and to the world”.

  Matt Yglesias calls bullshit…

• Media Circus: Oops 1003 Mislaid Votes in Indi Edition

  By tigtog on 2013-09-11 • ( 26 )

  

  Well, whodathunkit?

  What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?

• On using online petitions to harangue Hollywood

  By tigtog on 2013-09-09 • ( 7 )

  

  I had a lot more sympathy for the petition against the casting of Ben Affleck as Batman in the upcoming Batty vs Supes movie than I do for the new petition against the casting announcement for the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey movie. Perhaps only because the petition against Affleck’s casting was better written, which makes me a snob, I know.

• Election Day 2013! #ausvotes #votebelowtheline

  By tigtog on 2013-09-07 • ( 26 )

  

  A dedicated thread for election day commentary.

• Something Not-Election For Pity’s Sake

  By tigtog on 2013-09-04 • ( 9 )

  

  Oh please I really need some escapist distractions. Here’s something for you, what have you got for me?

• Don’t mistake losing *an argument* with losing your *right to argue*

  By tigtog on 2013-09-03 • ( 20 )

  

  We see it too often online, and more than we’d like to offline too: this idea that “I’m entitled to my opinion” means something more than merely being entitled to express an opinion one holds – that somehow all opinions are equally entitled to respect from other people, or that all opinions are equally entitled to be treated seriously.

  Patrick’s post lays out why this frequently whimpered whine is nonsense.