Bullying

The NSW Legislative Council is currently holding an Parliamentary Inquiry into bullying of children and young people. Anyone can make a submission to the inquiry - the deadline is 13 March 2009.

•

The online Sun Herald has three short articles today about cyberbullying in Australia. In brief: the Internet is a huge part of the lives of children and teens, but many teachers avoid the net, and are therefore clueless about cyberbullying. Kids as young as five are involved in "online harassment and denigration"; about one in three kids 10-14 are cyberbullied.

When MySpace ends in tears

Teased so much he wanted to die

Children know their tormentors refers to a survey by Girlfriend magazine in which 67% of respondents reported cyberbullying. Obviously there's some self-selection there, but nonetheless, hundreds of Australian girls said they had been bullied online or via their mobile phones. Girlfriend is running an I Delete Bullies campaign, including a Code of Conduct.

•

Finally, the Daily Fail lol ran an article quoting an expert as saying Bullying can be good for you. This is mostly of interest for the very obviously fake rant about the nanny state and thugs, which I see has mysteriously risen to the top of the comments.

Relijun

David Attenborough on his hate mail: "Telling [the Radio Times] that he was asked why he did not give 'credit' to God, Attenborough added: 'They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator.'" (The Guardian makes it sound as though this is new, but I've heard Attenborough say the same thing before. He's facing the same theodical problem that Darwin did.)

Farmers are the most regular church-goers in Australia.

(no subject)