When a Nickname Hurts

March 13, 2013 in Body Image, Gender, Health, Mental Health, Sexuality

This post may contain words offensive to some readers. Nicknames: most of us have one, maybe more. Usually those around us give them to us. When I was born, I was a solid baby, and a long baby. My first nickname given to me by my parents was ‘Big Bird’.  And to this day, they still bust it out, now and again. Once I started school, I was quickly named ‘Mars’ or ‘Mars Bar’ by my primary school peers.  Harmless and fun. Nothing hurtful about these nicknames. Then came high school- ‘Bostik’ (the glue stick, as I was straight up [...]

This Week: Australia Day, Gay Teachers, and “Dumped”

January 25, 2013 in Current Affairs, Gender, Lifestyle, News, Politics, Sexuality, Society

Here’s JJ & T with another weekly chat about life, the universe…and well, anything… JJ: Hey T – looking forward to the long weekend? T: You have no idea! Packing a whole Summer holiday’s worth of activities into 2 weeks with a kid is pretty tiring! Are you doing anything for Australia Day? JJ: Shopping…ha ha…it’s just a normal Saturday for us…it’s weird having Australia Day on a Saturday…everything’s open. T: I know! And then it’s the whole thing of do you do the “traditional Australia Day” thing on the Saturday or the public holiday? JJ: Do you celebrate Australia Day? T: No, not really. [...]

5 Reasons Zombies Rock!

August 17, 2012 in Health, Humour, Lifestyle, Nutrition, Society

Last week Tamsin wrote a highly inflammatory post about how to survive the Zombie apocalypse. In that post, full of human prejudice and spite, she describes how she and her husband practised their Zombie Evacuation Plans, even suggesting that “a machete will serve you well, especially if you know how to swing it.” Yes that’s right – she was advocating violence against innocent Zombies. Zombies are a hugely misunderstood population in our society. There are so many myths perpetuated by the human-biased media about how evil Zombies are and how they must be stopped. Well, it’s about time all this anti-Zombie bigotry stopped. To try and [...]

Who Was Alan Turing, And Why Is He Still Important?

June 22, 2012 in Human Rights, News, People, Sexuality, Society, Technology

Tomorrow, the 23rd June 2012, will be the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alan Turing. Who was Alan Turing? Well, he was one of the most amazing minds of the 20th Century. He was a mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. His list of achievements are astounding: At the young age of 22, he was elected a fellow at  King’s College, Cambridge. During WWII, he worked at Bletchley Park, Britain’s codebreaking centre, where he devised a number of techniques for breaking German ciphers, including creating an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine. In the latter part of the war, he [...]