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

• Yawning at the press gallery

  By tigtog on 2012-02-06 • ( 7 )

  

  I didn’t read, listen to or watch a thing over the weekend about the oh so crucial Labor caucus that was supposedly set to challenge Gillard seriously on her fitness to lead the party etc etc etc etc. It all smelled of such desperate hype, recycled hype at that.

• Have just discovered a thing full of puppies

  By tigtog on 2012-02-06 • ( 1 )

  

  All you North Americans who already know about this can look smug now. Puppy Bowl VIII. And Animal Planet isn’t showing it here in Oz! Not Fair!

• Quicklink: One’s A Crowd

  By tigtog on 2012-02-06 • ( 3 )

  

  The mere thought of living alone once sparked anxiety, dread and visions of loneliness. But those images are dated. Now the most privileged people on earth use their resources to separate from one another, to buy privacy and personal space. Indeed, living alone seems to encourage more, not less, social interaction.

• Gratuitous Tim Minchin blogging: Not Perfect

  By tigtog on 2012-02-04 • ( 7 )

  

  Because I went to see his show in Sydney last night, and it was hugely enjoyable, and he sang this song which I’d temporarily forgotten about, and it’s just lovely.

• Pinkwashing cancer – Pink Ribbons, Inc. asks who’s benefiting most?

  By tigtog on 2012-02-04 • ( 16 )

  

  Pink cancer marketing globally diverts generous people’s donations away from the organisations doing most of the work towards organisations who are just better at marketing – the filmmakers determined only 15% of monies raised in North America go to research prevention, and 5% to research environmental causes of breast cancer. Does this sound like the best use of donors’ money? And what about all the non-pinkified cancers?

• Reminder: 9 of the 10 hottest years on record occurred since the year 2000

  By tigtog on 2012-02-03

  

  And that’s just one of the datasets supporting the fact that the planet’s climate is warming. The Bad Astronomer provides a case study of the tactics of climate change denial: it’s a textbook case of denialist sleight of hand, of distraction, distortion, error, and misdirection.

• Scarily, this is NOT a parody

  By tigtog on 2012-02-02 • ( 6 )

  

  This is people saying what they really truly think – 700 Club on Why Atheists Should Hate Trees

• Susan G Komen Foundation Follows Pro-Life Line; Stops Contributing to Planned Parenthood

  By tigtog on 2012-02-01 • ( 14 )

  

  Yet again, the pro-life movement betrays its classism – forget all those other reproductive health care services Planned Parenthood provides – services that help poor women survive and thrive in pregnancy and birthing, and that keep them healthy to raise their children.

• The Return of the Femmostroppo Reader

  By tigtog on 2012-02-01 • ( 7 )

  If you follow me (@vivsmythe) on Twitter, you may have already seen these: items of interest come across recently in my feed-reader (mostly). What did I miss? Leave your own interesting links in comments. Shameless self-promotion entirely welcome!

• Meh

  By tigtog on 2012-01-31 • ( 5 )

  

  I have a stuffy nose and a fuzzy brane that has not come up with much in the way of thinky-thoughts today. I don’t like it.