Author Archives

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

• Hippos: sometimes scary, sometimes cute

  By tigtog on 2013-05-05 • ( 2 )

  

  Two hippo stories.

• WTF, Australia?

  By tigtog on 2013-05-02 • ( 1 )

  

  Fiona Katauskas nails it.

• Queuejumping rhetoric a new low in fight against reproductive rights

  By tigtog on 2013-05-01 • ( 9 )

  the Member for Dawson said priority should be given to other drugs, particularly those that helped cancer patients and extended the lives of people who were sick.

  “I simply don’t understand why this particular drug would find its way to the head of the queue before those drugs,” Mr Christensen told the Daily Mercury.

• Spacecraft exploring the Solar system

  By tigtog on 2013-05-01

  

  Last week’s news of plans to clear up humanity’s space-junk, aka orbital debris, currently cluttering up Low Earth Orbit, alarmed quite a few folks. In better space news, the many non-junk bits and bobs we’ve got floating around up there are busy gathering data so that we can learn more about our planetary and stellar neighbours.

• Evidence-based medicine

  By tigtog on 2013-05-01 • ( 2 )

  

  With the (non)efficacy of homeopathy making the news again (with rumblings that the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is considering delisting various homeopathic remedies), I was reminded – after I wondered how in hell they got listed by the TGA in the first place – of a post I first published four years ago:

• Media Circus: Off-shore Hellholes and Budget Black Holes edition

  By tigtog on 2013-04-30 • ( 6 )

  

  As usual, the topic of these media-circus posts is just a discussion-starter. Please discuss any sociopolitical issue currently making the news, or highlight egregious churnalism and those far too rare instances where the MSM rises above it.

• So who won’t be flying Virgin until they make seat-to-seat delivery opt-in?

  By tigtog on 2013-04-27 • ( 10 )

  

  Do you want your airline encouraging strangers to use their inflight “entertainment” system to send their fellow passengers unsolicited gifts of drinks or food (with all the accompanying expectations) in a metal cage high in the air from which there is no way out?

• RocKwiz and other seasonal delights

  By tigtog on 2013-04-26 • ( 6 )

  

  Sydney has moved into my favourite season for this city – autumn. Bright blue skies, crisp mornings and balmy days: and in the evenings, some better TV…

• Bye Mum

  By tigtog on 2013-04-25 • ( 22 )

  

  Mum was the first hoyden I ever knew.

• The words people cling to

  By tigtog on 2013-04-11 • ( 1 )

  

  The important point here is that we shouldn’t accept superficially casual dismissals of ‘vocabulary wars,’ ‘fetishization,’ or ‘language policing.’ We should look closely at the words people cling to with the most tenacity, even as they try to sound blas? about it..