Women of Letters – Melbourne’s news literary event curated by Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire #geekgirl

Women of Letters, Melbourne’s newest literary event, is an afternoon that celebrates a diverse range of strong female talent whilst simultaneously raising funds for Victorian animal rescue shelter, Edgar’s Mission. Women of Letters will be held at Bella Union in Trades Hall on Sunday, March 28, 2010 beginning at 2.30 pm.

Curated by Age writers Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire, this monthly occasion will bring together five of Melbourne’s best and brightest writers, musicians, politicians and comedians in celebration of the beautiful lost art of letter-writing. 

The afternoon will bring the traditionally private endeavour of letter writing into the public arena, seeing each woman address the topic with their unique blend of insight, humour, lewdness and warmth.

The inaugural March Women of Letters will see musician Angie Hart, Black Text publisher Caro Cooper, the Green Guide’s Lorelei Vashti, television’s Myf Warhurst and respected comedian Judith Lucy each reading a letter they have penned to “The Night I’d Rather Forget.”
 
A rotating roster of the city’s finest musicians and DJ’s will provide a musical interlude, during which time the audience are encouraged to indulge in some letter writing for themselves.

Stamps and envelopes will be provided, and in the spirit of participation attendees are further encouraged to pen short notes to Women of Letters themselves. Michaela McGuire will then use these points of discussion as the basis of a free-wheeling panel chat to conclude the afternoon.

Tickets are just $10 and available at the door – Sunday March 28 at 2.30 pm at Bella Union, Trades Hall, corner of Victoria & Lygon Streets, Carlton South, Melbourne.

Edgars Mission

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Humane Chain forum – stop Australian exports of live animals #fb

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore is hosting a Humane Chain forum to highlight the ongoing inhumane and economically damaging live animal export industry in Australia.

The event will also present evidence collected during WSPA’s recent investigation into the mistreatment of Australian sheep. Investigators have documented cruelty throughout the live export supply chain, from transportation on ships, through to holding yards and abattoirs in the Middle East.

Grant Courtney, Federal President of the Australiasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU) will be discussing the negative economic and social impact of live animal exports on rural communities. And will highlight the more humane and economically viable alternatives to the trade and how the Australian Government can protect Australian jobs.

All are invite to come along and learn more about the live sheep export trade, meet like-minded people and find out how you can help end the intolerable cruelty of live exports.

Where: Parliamentary Theatrette, NSW Parliament House, Macquarie St, Sydney, Australia

When:  10am for a 10.30 start until 12pm, Wednesday, March 10, 2010

RSVP: Limited seats available and allocated on a first come, first served basis.  Please RSVP by emailing jessicaborg@wspa.org.au. WSPA will email all RSVP’s approximately one week prior to the event to confirm seat allocation.

Together we can end this unnecessary cruelty – http://www.humanechain.org.au/

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Tweeting Dog Collar Posts Your Dog’s Movements to Twitter

Mattel is about to launch a toy that will brighten the lives of some dog lovers — but act as a sign of the coming apocalypse for folks who aren’t so keen on cute pet gimmicks. It’s called Puppy Tweet, and it gives your dog the ability to send Twitter updates about what he or she is doing.

Well, sort of.

The collar detects when your dog moves or make a sound, then randomly selects one of 500 pre-written tweets to post to Twitter. Your dog has to be within a reasonable distance of the room with your computer in it, though; the tweets are sent wirelessly from the collar to a USB receiver that has to be plugged into a supported Internet-connected device.

More from Mashable

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Stop Iceland’s #whale hunt – Act Now!

Iceland’s whaling season began recently, kicking off a bloody whale hunt that could lead to the death of 100 minke whales.

Iceland is one of only two countries (the other Japan) worldwide that still authorizes commercial whaling. About half of the whale meat from this year’s hunt is intended for domestic sales in Iceland, while the rest of the quota will be sold to Japan.

Sign the petition and tell the Icelandic government to reduce this year’s whale hunt quotas immediately – and to ban whaling forever.

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Blog: Politicians Failing Whales #fb #geekgirl #fail #whales

One of the things that most annoys me about politics is the destruction the political system leaves in its wake. And why no matter whom we seem to vote for, all groups and individuals should be judged on the immediacy of what they do, and how they can mitigate the risk of inheriting the rubbish of former regimes. Simple, but having integrity is a great place to start!

I think this would have to be a universal doctrine of how one calculates the success of the incumbent. With a lot more scrutiny, immediacy and distribution of communication, we ‘the people’ are able to denounce the tardy, stupid, ineffectual and incompetent politicians we vote for.

We can’t seem to win: the right royal bunglers of this world just keep on coming. I think this may have to do with the type of people who work in Government and the type of people it attracts. Certainly, I’ve been told a good many times it’s hard to get good people in Gov’t: but surely there needs to be a bit more of a litmus test employed when employing people.

My vote for bad pollie of the week: it’s a close tie between the procrastinating K.Rudd dud (http://twitter.com/KevinRuddPM) or that arrogant plonker twit (http://twitter.com/TonyAbbottMHR). The latter got into the hot-seat by lying, the former making noise (centre-right) until he too can potentially lie legitimately. I doubt Australians are mad enough to vote for Abbott, who has a track record of not being able to separate Church from State, and btw looks shockin’ in his speedos!

Rudd refuses to get legal with the Japanese (who sank the Sea Shepherd’s Ady Gil) even though he keeps making veiled threats to do so, and leaving Ms Julia Gillard (Julia.Gillard.MP@aph.gov.au) in charge (who now also makes veiled threats on his behalf).

Abbott doesn’t want to offend or hurt the Japanese Gov’t feelings. OMG perhaps he can organise a pity party!! #fail

It’s just crap city for the whales, being killed illegally by the Japanese in the Southern Oceans for meat. Leaving little choice for direct action groups like Sea Shepherd or Bob Barker, who are having to up the ante on gaining attention to save and defend whales.

I’m amazed no one has been killed, and I think this has more to do with sheer bloody luck than strategy or intention.

We have to continue to speak on behalf of animals, and we have to continue to let politicians know they are not doing a good enough job!!

I don’t care about Kevin Rudd climbing rocks (on Cradle Mountain) with his kids on holiday. Get off down the mountain Kev and do some bloody work! You made election promises you won’t keep!

Veiled threats are causing the situation to escalate by not having the courage as a Gov’t to defend Southern Ocean whales and Australian citizens. I am disgusted by your ineffectiveness K.Rudd and that’s why you get my vote for shit pollie of the week!

Links:

Tumblr | Stop Killing Whales

Blogspot | Save the Whales Please

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World War Whale download and godinpants plankton juice

In a future much like the present, the Earth is host to a variety of Cetaceans within its seas. These giant fleshy beasts of the deep have long been sought after sources of riches, providing enough oil to lubricate a robot army for weeks, and enough pre-digested plankton to fill a million sea monkey tanks.

It is in this future we find godinpants, documenting the great downfall of mankind against its Cetacean foes.

You gotta love this! x

More more more from 8bitcollective. And yes apart from being a very fanciful story of whales-at-war it’s also a Free download of ‘World War Whale’ – new release from experimental / chiptune artist

Twitter name @godinpants

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Wildlife rescuers #Melbourne Xmas Card, cute as!

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Blog: throw another tofu-burger on the barbie will ya mate. #Geekgirl on behalf of #tcktcktck

Tcktcktck invited me to write a blog on climate change. I knew immediately what I wanted to pen about – animals!

Have you ever tried to get your head around what it actually takes to feed the planet!? It’s something I find difficult to come to terms with.

Even my little shopping village of Northcote, Melbourne, Australia opened a new butcher the other day. Another one! You’d think 4 existing butchers plus all the restaurants in the area would provide enough meat.

I’ve become more educated lately on the nature of food production, and films like Food Inc are a good start to understand the process from pasture to plate.  Although, I still don’t quite understand who is feeding, farming & processing the 60 billion animals we kill each year.

It’s horrific that most of this is inhumane and, to be quite frank, not producing animals that even taste good. I’m not a vegetarian (yet) but I have massively reduced my consumption of meat and although I try and stick to the MOOS principle (Meat Only on Sunday). I have a lot of reverence for what I eat, and I am conscious of what it takes to get my food on the table.

I know most people eat meat for the flavour and texture. And my smart vegie friends know a lot of tricks developed by Asian food producers who provide some meat-tasting alternatives. Unfortunately, most of this is soaked or prepared in soy sauce and as a Coeliac I can’t go there. But, there must be a huge potential in coming up with an alternative to meat, which tastes like meat, but ain’t. As much as the electric or hybrid cars are being driven (excuse the pun) by an industry that has to, perhaps rather than wants to. There’s a huge market in developing electric sheep, too.

As Copenhagen (COP15) rapidly approaches I would think that food production especially animal production would have to be high on the agenda. But, if ordinary folks like me can’t persuade the masses to re-think what they eat, what about politician turned good guy Al Gore, musician Moby or even PETA pet Pamela Anderson?

Australia needs to take part on a moral and uber-logistical stand on this issue. We can no longer farm or export meat in an inhumane fashion. Even if we do get our farming processes to the point it is compassionate, we need to become sustainable: that means all of us need to reduce our consumption of animals! “Throw another tofu burger on the barbie will ya mate”, might have to become our new national saying!

So, consume less & be informed more!

My personal top ten
1) stop live animal exports (join the Humane Chain)
2) make choices that respect animals; don’t eat them – or at least buy free-range, organic etc
3) moderate your meat consumption
4) support organisations that are compassionate re: ‘farming’  like Campaign for a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare (UDAW)
5) support organisations that also protect our marine life like Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd
6) keep having a go at growing your own food and find out what and when to plant
7) read labels when buying food and insist that labels reflect ingredients like palm oil
(de-forestation is destroying the natural habitats of Orangutans)
8)become a volunteer join local organisations that protect animals and wildlife (Wildlife Victoria)
9) keep informed of campaigns and if need be, write or tweet our Australian politicians

10) On Dec 12, 2009 join the world for a global day of Action

With much love & respect, RosieX

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Help Sea Shepherd raise funds for Waltzing Matilda #Fremantle #Western Australia

Perth Operation Waltzing Matilda Benefit
Fremantle, Western Australia

Wed, 2 Dec, 2009 6:45 PM – 11:45 PM

The evening will be entertaining and provide information on Sea Shepherd’s forthcoming Antarctic Whale Defense Campaign. The MC for the evening will be the Hon. Ian Campbell who is a member of the Sea Shepherd Advisory Board. Special guests include Brad Pettit, the new Mayor of Fremantle, Senator Rachel Siewart, Greens Spokesperson for Whaling, along with current Sea Shepherd crew. There will also be a silent auction and various raffles! Music for the night will be provided by Aiden Varro.

The primary purpose of this event is to raise much needed funds for Operation Waltzing Matilda – Sea Shepherd’s 6th Whale Defense Campaign which is being launched from Fremantle on Monday 7th December. This year, Sea Shepherd’s flagship Steve Irwin, will be accompanied to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary by the Ady Gil. The Ady Gil is a futuristic trimaran which recently set the world powerboat record for circumnavigation. Due to its speed capabilities (up to 50 knots) Captain Paul Watson (Sea Shepherd President and Founder) intends to use the Ady Gil to intercept and physically block the harpoon ships from illegally slaughtering whales.

The Japanese whaling fleet will be targeting 935 Piked (Minke) whales and another 50 Fin whales, and has threatened to add Humpback Whales* to their quota as well. Sea Shepherd will once again attempt to block the whaling fleet’s efforts to kill these innocent animals and in doing so negate their illicit profits from the so called lethal research.

* Sources suggest Humpback Whales are not being targeted but all whales are beautiful and deserve defending!

Wed, 2 Dec, 2009 6:45 PM – 11:45 PM
Location: Fremantle Town Hall, William Street, Fremantle, Western Australia
Fees: $20 per person, tickets available at the door
Contact: jeff@seashepherd.org
http://my.seashepherd.org/

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To my Japanese friends you know I love you. Have a #whale of a good time.

With the historic change of government in Japan, Greenpeace is intensifying its efforts to bring whaling to an end. The new Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has already shown he is more concerned about Japan’s international reputation than his predecessors. Join over 140,000 people and send the new Prime Minister your Origami Whale, asking him to end the corrupt whaling industry once and for all.

Send your Origami Whale

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