Big Cat Scares Woman From Woods!

Hello! Forthcoming comp. zine requires contributions (please!).

Fearsome Hunger

All about food & eating, bodies, self-image, misdirected hunger (e.g. addictions), and so much more besides.

For further information & deadline, go here:

http://uk.geocities.com/fearsome_hunger_zine/

Just got this e-mail from a mate of mine, regarding asking M&S to stop stocking a paper (well, more of a crap-rag than anything else). Although i'm not all that impressed by 'Object', for various little reasons, this seems like a good point, so here are the details. I hope you'll all show your support.

---------- ---------- ----------

Ask M&S to withdraw the STAR

YOUR M&S

OBJECT wrote to M&S about withdrawing THE STAR newspaper (with the most graphic covers of all newspapers) in light of research by the American Psychological Association showing that the objectification of women harms girls emotionally, sexually and physically.

M&S sent an astonishingly encouraging response, clearly suggesting that if they received enough complaints they would consider a withdrawal. To date they have received little complaint about THE STAR.

WHY M&S?
M&S have already withdrawn various lads' mags because of customer's concerns. The only high street retailer to do so. We suggest exactly the same principles apply to THE STAR as lads' mags - if not more so - surely having this in a newspaper normalises the objectification of women even more to adults... and to children.

We are urging as many people as possible to write to M&S by post (or if not by email). Please pass this email on to anyone else who you feel might like to write.

RAPE CRISIS and other women's organisations are also joined the campaign.

WRITE TO M&S

Here is a letter template. Points you might wish to include are:

Why you feel THE STAR is inappropriate in an ethical store

Why you might not have complained previously about THE STAR

How the absence of lads' mags makes you feel about shopping in M&S

Please consider writing and please pass this email on to any one else who you feel might support this action.

CONTACT DETAILS

If possible, please write by post to:

Matt Rogers
Chair & Chief Executive's Office
Retail Customer Services
Chester Business Park
Wrexham Rd
Chester
CJ4 9GA

Alternatively, e-mail Customer services:

http://www.marksandspencer.com/gp/contact/actions/subject-form-actions.html/026-6243150-6722827?ie=UTF8&mnSBrand=core

Please mark FAO: Matt Rogers

About OBJECT
OBJECT challenges the objectification of women. We are advisors to Amnesty International UK, partners with the Women's National Commission (the government's advisor on women), members of the End Violence Against Women campaign and mandated to work with the National Union of Students.

Object
women not sex objects

OBJECT
ido@object.org.uk
http://www.object.org.uk

Not sure if this is the most up-to-date info but it's the last thing i heard from the intermerweb somewhere:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6673549.stm

I forgot to tell most of you, issue 5 of Chronicles of a Cheating Heart is ready for public consumption. Do you want a copy?

If you do, please remind me of (t) your existence, and (u) your address, including full postcode. Better still, send me an SAE - details on
http://uk.geocities.com/kittychronic/

If you can't send me an SAE, don't worry, just let me know (t) and (u) above. But you will have to wait a couple of weeks till i get paid, as i have had what you might call A Bad Month (even more so than usual) and therefore have no money left.

I'm not convinced i have anything else to say, so now might be a good time to sod off. Bye!

Just got the following e-mail from a vegemotarian here at work about the crapness of Masterfoods and thought some of you might be interested:

The following are no longer vegetarian as they now use animal rennet.

Mars, Snickers (Was Marathon) , Maltesers, Milky Way, Bounty, Minstrels, Celebrations chocolates, Mars ice cream, Tracker nut bars, Twix are all included, as are various other products made by MasterFoods.

Good job I only like the quality stuff then!

And a big Boo! Hiss! to Masterfoods- you can comment at
http://www.advisory.masterfoods.com/ContactForm.aspx?ContactReason=Comment&Market=GB&Language=gb&Brand=ConsumerCareComment&WS=http://www.masterfoodsconsumercare.co.uk

Ahoy me hearties, aVAST behind! etc...

Just a little reminder that you, yes YOU, still have time to sponsor me for the Stonewall Equality walk this Sunday, if you haven't already.

http://www.justgiving.com/kittychronic

http://www.stonewall.org.uk/

http://elrestodemivida.livejournal.com/75853.html

Thank you my lovelyduckies!

Hello all,

I’ve been bitten by the sponsored-event bug, and am off on a 10km stomp around Brighton on Sunday 6th May for the Stonewall equality walk. That’s less than two weeks away!

If you’d like to sponsor me, i’d really appreciate it, no matter how small the amount, because every little adds up. You can either do this on-line:

http://www.justgiving.com/kittychronic

...Or if you prefer to use the old-school paper sponsorship form, i’ve got some of those too. Just collar me next time you see me and let me know.

It’s a smashing cause and furthermore you’d be helping to ease the prospect of achey feet i’m getting from this verging-on-insane love of walking (and Brighton). Please be kind and part with just a little of your hard-earned cash.

More information on Stonewall can be found here:

http://www.stonewall.org.uk/

Thanks loads

Another call for contributions for Fearsome Hunger - please write, draw, tell yr mates, and so on!

I've sorted out the link now. More info here:

http://uk.geocities.com/fearsome_hunger_zine/

Happy Chinese New Year! I have already done pigs, look, http://animal-of-the-week.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_archive.html, there they are.

So this week's animal of the week is not inspired by the Chinese zodiac. Rather, it is Rheobatrachus silus (platypus frog, southern gastric brooding frog). This tiny Australian frog sadly is no longer with us, but until the early 1980s the Blackall and Conondale Ranges in Southeastern Queensland, Australia, rang with the chirruping of thousands froggies going a courting. Small, green, and quite froglike, they would be unremarkable but for their novel approach to reproduction.

Once her clutch of eggs was fertilised, the female would proceed to eat them. But rather than being dissolved by stomach acids, a compound secreted by the eggs switched off the female's normal digestive function and there the eggs developed. Tadpoles then hatched from the eggs and developed into little froglets. The female could not eat while brooding her offspring and her stomach would swell to fill nearly the entire body cavity, to accomodate the froglets. When the young had developed into fully formed little frogs, the female then would vomit up her children ("midwife, can I have a glass of water, I have a froglet in my throat")!

If surprised or threatened, the gravid female could vomit up her young at any time, and the young could mature successfully outside of the body. Although they laid about 40 eggs, only 20 or so young would ever hatch, perhaps the earlier eggs were digested and were sacrificed in order to switch off the usual gastric machinations, or perhaps the tadpoles and froglets used them as a source of food whil confined to the maternal belly.

I am not the only person captivated by these bizarre things, I found this on a site dedicated to refuting evolutionary science with the argument of irreducible complexity. Although it is an old piece, there argument is slightly undermined by the last sentence of the first para, the frogs have not been seen since 1981 and are listed as extinct by the IUCN.

http://www.darwinismrefuted.com/irreducible_complexity_09.html

"The miraculous reproduction system of Rheobatrachus silus explicitly invalidates the theory of evolution, since the whole system is irreducibly complex. Every step has to take place fully in order for the frogs to survive. The mother has to swallow the eggs, and has to stop feeding completely for six weeks. The eggs have to release a hormonelike substance to neutralize stomach acids. The addition of the extra protein-rich yolk to the egg is another necessity. The widening of the female's oesophagus cannot be coincidental. If all these things failed to happen in the requisite sequence, the froglets would not survive, and the species would face extinction [he says: face it, they're looking at its rear view].

Therefore, this system cannot have developed step-by-step, as asserted by the theory of evolution. The species has existed with this entire system intact since its first member came into existence. Another way of putting it is, they were created."

Not really a believer in that view myself, but I'll leave y'all to make up your own minds.

Ciao!

Hello! I would like to go and see 1967 and all that at the Church Farm House museum in Hendon. Anyone interested? I'm told it runs till the middle of March, so time for you out-of-towners to plan a trip here if you want to...

Thinking of having a party this Saturday evening. NOT in aid of my flipping birthday. But i've been twenty-five for about ten years now* so as it's time for a change, i think this week i will turn twenty. I know it's quite short notice considering it's a Saturday night and everyone has plans for Saturday nights. But are any of you likely to be free / interested?

Also - my band is playing on 21st at Departure Bar, and then again on 24th in Baaarnsley. Come and see us! We're quite good these days.**

*This is an exaggeration for comedy effect. (I love ruining jokes by explaining them.)

**Maybe.

Please contribute your writings (or drawings or photographings or musings or whatevers), on the subject of food and drink and bodies and appearance and so forth, to
Fearsome Hunger.

Please.

Go on.

Ah, go on.

I've put the deadline back. AGAIN. To 1st March. But only because i really want your contribution. And i really want to get it done soon, so please send me stuff quick. You can always edit and re-send it if you suddenly realise you missed a bit.

You'll get a free copy. Well, it'll be a free zine anyway. BUT you'll also get my undying gratitude, and the satisfaction of seeing yr name in print, and of making me all cheery that you've done something for the zine. And curry, if you like.

That's http://uk.geocities.com/fearsome_hunger_zine/ go go go!

Guess who finally got a second-hand computer?

Hint: not your aunty Mabel.

Yesterday, from a train, i saw a very respectable-looking businessman in a suit, probably in his fifties, emptying a packet of chocolate buttons into a packet of monster munch, and tucking in with glee. I have never witnessed this phenomenon before. It strikes me as an odd combination - but am i just uneducated as to a very common snack amongst middle-aged commuters?

I also saw a tub of hair gel and was convinced it said "amazing slime", but upon closer inspection it actually said "amazing shine" - not as good if you ask me.

Was listening to the radio this morning and heard this item and was delighted:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2007/01/05/big_voice_feature.shtml

This will be like a newsletter when i have anything to announce.

For the moment...

Happy festive nonsense to you!