Reactoss

Saving this for when I need a pick-me-up. Feel free to use it for your own mood enhancement :)

The fight against BP's sponsorship of art galleries

Personally, I like this:
Meanwhile, despite the heavy security at the door, two Liberate Tate art-activists managed to infiltrate the party wearing large floral bouffant dresses underneath which were concealed large sacks filled with oily molasses. Calling themselves Toni Hayward and Bobbi Dudley, they began their performance in the crowded central gallery. At first drips began to fall from their handbags. “Oh, I seem to have a leak” whispered one of them to the lined up waiters dressed in brilliant white, who kindly provided napkins to stem the spill.

Soon the sacks under their dresses burst releasing tens of litres of ‘oil’ across the shiny parquet floor. As a crowd formed around them, the two donned BP branded ponchos and scrambled on all fours trying to clean up the mess using their high heel shoes to pour the slick back into their handbags, but to no avail. “Compared to the size of the gallery this is a tiny spill, a drop in the ocean,” they apologised to the viewers, “we’ll definitely have it cleaned up by, say, August”.

The polite crowd that had formed continued to watch appreciatively for another 20 minutes, amidst a sea of camera-phones. Many began debating among themselves whether this was art or not (“I think it is. I like it”), whether Tate had organised it, and what their personal aesthetic reactions to it were (“If I had seen this outside, I think I would have felt as I do seeing it… inside”). More than one invited artist openly described this to their fellow drinkers as the most sophisticated work in the room.

Click Here

For those who had been following my blog but aren't aware, I've been maintaining an Australian cookie swap for the last couple of months. If you're interested in finding out about it or joining in the sugary goodness, go check out aus_cookie_swap and sign up for the July swap. It was a pretty awesome success last month with plenty of gluten free and vegan people to make pairing up easier and it's a great way to build up your cookie recipe selection.

And besides, what's more exciting than coming home after a crap day at work to find a delivery of freshly baked homemade cookies on your door step?

Mutant toads found at Gladstone

Monday, 03/05/2010

Researchers in Central Queensland are trying to find out why tens of thousands of cane toads have abnormalities.

Almost 10 per cent of toads found around the port city of Gladstone have things like missing toes and extra limbs.

CQ university researcher Dr Scott Wilson says the race is on to try to determine why the city has such an elevated rate of mutant toads.

"Things like pesticides, herbicides, nutrients like nitrates, phosphorates and things like coal dust and other chemicals can induce these abnormalities," he says.

"So it could be a cocktail of chemicals or it could be one particular one, so that's one thing that we're going to look at next."

I just came across this article.

I think that now really is the time that people need to get informed about who is controlling the world's food supplies. As they say in Food, Inc.
, you get to vote three times a day, make those votes count. Show the corporations that you want better food, safer food, more sustainable food, not sterile food that needs to be manufactured in a lab every year. What's going to happen when Monsanto owns 90% of ALL of our food rather than 90% of "just" the soy, corn and canola (and now they're pushing for alfalfa as well!)?

What power will one corporation have when they have control over the world's food supplies?

If you haven't heard of Monsanto or would like more information, this is a good starting point. It does't matter whether you are in Australia, America or anywhere else in the world, Monsanto is controlling a lot of your food and every day, they are bullying farmers into submission. As consumers, we have the power of demand, so use it.

Be informed. Make conscious choices everytime you put something into your shopping trolley.

daysofchange.org is having their official launch tomorrow (Friday, 30th April) on the Central Park lawn in the Perth CBD. Starting 1st May, daysofchange.org is encouraging all Western Australians to make small differences in their lives. It is being created as a social network where people can share their experiences and encourage each other along the way. Everyone who registers is encouraged to print a "pledge card" with a list of small differences that you as an individual can make that will add up and create a huge positive impact if a lot of people make them. They are aiming to engage 200,000 West Australians (10% of the population) in the pledge this year and are hoping to expand it throughout the country next year.

If you're not in Perth, check out their website here or have a look at their checklist if you want a neat little list of things you can do to be a bit more environmentally friendly. If you are in Perth tomorrow, take an early lunch break and head down to Central Park (southwest corner of Hay and William Street) - I hear they may even have free solar-powered smoothies!

If you haven't heard of it yet, Academy Award nominated Food Inc. has been spouted as "the most important documentary you'll ever see". I managed to tag along to a media screening on the weekend with a film critic friend of mine and honestly, it was better than I ever imagined it could have been. I found so much important information in Food Inc. and it was presented in such a clear and accessable manner. If you're in the Perth area, Luna Leederville will be screening the doco from 20th May and I really recommend you check it out. If you're not in the area, keep an eye out for screenings otherwise click below to buy the dvd (you can even reduce your carbon footprint and buy a used copy).


Food, Inc.

Just emptied my savings account to buy a toilet...yep, that's what I get for being a hippy and insisting on getting the 5-star water efficiency one with the hand basin that drains into the cistern. Well, glad I have a prepaid CSA box, those veggies are going to be mighty handy while I'm living off ramen for the next month.


More info...

ON A hot day, you can smell the Cadbury chocolate factory even before you step inside. Lying on the banks of the Derwent River, just north of Hobart, the factory is a popular destination for sweet-toothed tourists, who come to find out more about the process of combining three ingredients - cocoa, sugar and milk - to make Freddo Frogs and family blocks of chocolate.

But there's one thing that the tour guides don't discuss: the secret in every bite of chocolate. You can't taste it or see it, and it's not listed on the wrapper with the ingredients. It's carbon dioxide.
Read more...

I've always been a fan of Vegan Dad's blog. I have a number of recipes bookmarked but I think this was the first thing I've actually made. I was trying to work out what to do with the packet of tempeh that I had taken out of the freezer to defrost so I raided his blog and came across this recipe for Italian Meatballs. Mixed with a rich basic pasta sauce and topping tubular spaghetti, these completely hit the spot. The fennel flavour is quite strong but it works. I might try it with other spices down the track but I was really quite happy with the way these turned out as per the recipe. I was a little impatient and didn't simmer the meatballs in the sauce for very long but I can imagine that it would give them more depth to their flavour. I also didn't bother to simmer the tempeh first because, frankly, I like the taste of tempeh.

I took some of the leftovers to work to have as a little meatball sub and whilst they didn't hold up as well as I'd have liked, I can't be sure if that was due to the microwaving or just the general squishiness of the ingredients. The smell was enough though to have a number of co-workers pop their heads over my cubicle walls excitedly asking what delicious thing I'm eating for lunch.