Buy Me Once (BMO) is a form of green or ethical consumerism which believes that ‘with every dollar you spend you have an impact on the planet and its people’. The benefits aren’t just individual: as more consumers move towards an ethically or environmentally positive product (or away from a negative one), the theory is that businesses will take notice and change their practices on a larger scale. We want ‘to challenge manufacturers to build products that don’t break so easily. (We know they can!),’ says the BMO website. Yes, they can, but will they?

Last month I received a legal letter accusing me of defamation. Someone who was very close to me for many years – but now is not – had read a piece of short fiction I had published and decided a minor character was about them. Like every writer ever born, I have gleaned sentences, character traits and events, and I’ve hodgepodged it all together to try and convey an emotional truth. It’s what we do, right? Never once had I considered defamation.

Like heads of business, Australian vice-chancellors are raking in pretty big salary packages, making the notion of asking for handouts a bit odd. They earn an average of $800,000 a year – twice what the prime minister does, at least ten times more than academic staff, and, we can assume, a hell of a lot more than administration staff (and yet, an acquaintance I spoke to recalls being regularly hit up for donations when working in university admin).

Soon after the Sydney siege began featuring live in the media, a photo of a cuffed ‘terrorist suspect’ – his face clearly visible – was circulated on social media. The image was picked up by the mainstream press and published online. The only problem was that the person depicted had nothing to do with the siege.

Two girls with swollen bellies are comparing stretch marks in the girl’s bathroom mirror. It looks as if kittens have clawed out of their insides. ‘Almond oil is fucken useless, man,’ one girl complains. ‘I’ve got three more today,’ her friend replies, scratching at her skin distastefully. ‘Yeah, but you’re tan so can’t see them. I look like a white tiger.’