I would’ve guessed the longest lasting torrent would’ve been The Anarchist Cookbook (uhm, probably a bad idea to link to that, eh?) 😉 but it’s not. Instead, it’s RECIPES!!! Exactly ten years ago a Pirate Bay user uploaded a torrent linking to “Top Secret Recipes” ebooks. Today, this torrent is the oldest surviving torrent file […]
It’s actually kind of goofy how much I look forward to doing a Freedom to Read Week display at the library each year. A couple years ago, I did one at Central and this year, I got to do one for my new branch. Luckily, I still had my “Caution” tape but unlike before when […]
Wired magazine asks if what we’re seeing in Sochi is a manifestation of some of the tropes of current dystopian literature like “Hunger Games”, the “Divergent” trilogy, etc. – a gleaming, authoritarian rule masquerading as a utopia but with a barely hidden sub-class, propaganda, televised spectacle, corruption, rigged competitions, doublespeak, etc. It’s an interesting idea […]
Today saw the opening ceremonies for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Lots has been made about Russia’s anti-gay laws and the statement by the mayor of Sochi that their community of 400,000 people has no gay people which have drawn protests from everyone from the Head of the UN to Google to the Canadian […]
More and more companies, whether they actually buy Super Bowl ad time or not, are releasing their ads early, starting social media campaigns or otherwise trying related techniques to get as much attention as possible for their product. One of the best viral videos that wasn’t actually a Super Bowl ad came from Newcastle Brown […]
Glad to hear the Balcarres school backed off their initial ruling that a student’s “Got Land? Thank An Indian” hoodie was racist and/or offensive to let her continue to wear it. But I still think they made the wrong call in the first place to censor the student’s wardrobe choice. (As for the CBC commenter’s question, […]
I had a few ideas of how to wrap up this series of Atheist Advent posts – a look at how politics and religion intersect, a review of my theories of why people (really) are religious, a disclaimer about the nature of offense in general. I will spend some time on that last point. My […]
There was a method to my madness in posting a Tim Minchin song as my Music Monday selection for each of the past few weeks during my “Atheist Advent” series. It was all to lead up to Minchin’s ultimate achievement and one of the best non-traditional Christmas songs I’ve ever heard – funny, insightful, wistful, […]
