For non-Canadians, here’s just a little bit of context about our “also ran” national newspaper, in the form of a few quotes from from the Wikipedia article on it: The Post was founded in 1998 by Conrad Black to combat what he believed was an “over-liberalizing” of editorial policy in Canadian newspapers Its editorial page featured the opinions of well-known… Read more →
Author: Mr. McLaren
Graph says it all
Note the time window there: that’s 20 years, not hundreds. (The information & content at the parent site, the Corporate Accountability Project, has a pretty high sensible-to-crazy ratioAlthough there is still some stuff there that is far enough to the left of me that I think it’s crazy–and I’m pretty far left. But hey, there should be people out there… Read more →
Dadhood
This is the first Father’s Day when my (2-year old) daughter understood the concept of the day. She gave me a present she made herself. I try to keep most of my “I am the sappy Dad” stuff off this blog, but I’ve got to tell you that having Sarah so excited to give me a Father’s Day present was… Read more →
A little miscellany
This headline made me laugh. I often wonder if headline writers do this on purpose, as McDonald suggests, or not. I find this face averaging tool fascinating. It’s one thing to pick a few attractive faces, average them, and see that the resulting face is more attractive than the majority of source faces, but it’s a whole other thing to… Read more →
How much civil disobedience can you buy for $7.63?
The politeness of this letter is in no way commensurate with the amount of swearing that the precipitating incident invoked: June 11, 2007 RE: Inventory Number LC XXX XXX XXXUS CBSA Casual Refund Centre 1583 Hollis Street Halifax NS B3J 1V4 Dear Madam or Sir: Today I received a package on which I believe an incorrect value for duty was… Read more →
We are living in the future
OK, first the good bit: Right now, today, I can order a programmable T-shirt. (Link from Fred). Sure, it’s only one-colour, and simple stuff right now, but the step from “no programmable clothes” to “simple programmable clothes” is a lot bigger than the step from “simple programmable clothes” to “tricked out programmable clothes”. I can’t stop thinking about this. I… Read more →
A few comic book things…
If you have any doubt why people speak Berni Wrightson‘s name in tones of awe, check out these images from the Frankenstein portfolio he did back in the 70s: That’s just a detail from one image. You can see the rest over at Golden Age Comic Book Stories in these posts: one, two, three, and this discussion of background and… Read more →
I guess it had to happen…
Yes, the word is: …along with his brother and former co-director Paul, Chris Weitz is going to take on the biggest fantasty-literature property as yet untouched by movieland: Michael Moorcockâs Elric saga. While I’d love to see Hollywood’s version of the Dreaming City, Arioch, and even of the Runeswords, I think making this as a special effects extravaganza will miss… Read more →
Let me get this straight…
…some business man GOP party chairman can sit in Arkansas and call for more attacks on American soil in order to swing people behind Bush and the war in Iraq, and never realize what his realpolitik notions mean in terms of actual lives. Meanwhile, soldiers actually in the field get it. Grrr. Read more →
He’s not Stewart…
…but Rick Mercer is probably the funniest current events comedian we have here in Canada. I got a chuckle out of his recent From The Desk of Stephen Harper bit. Here’s one little bit: 4. Open and Accountable government. Yes the catch phrase open and accountable will not go away. We are prepared to use it every day and every… Read more →
Learning from porn.
In certain applied sciences, and engineering disciplines, it’s a kind of basic truth that the money and push for research comes from military applications. Indeed, in many areas you can look at what the military is developing now and with a little creative foresight you can have a sense of what street level technology will be like in a decade… Read more →
Breaking The Silence
I am really going to have to look more seriously into the power of Spreadshirt. I wish I could think of a pithy phrase that encapsulated the “Martha Stewart did two years straight up, and you couldn’t even do 4 days–Martha would make you her bitch” idea. Read more →
A pop culture holding action
Two other projects and my day job have temporarily distracted me from keeping up with this blog. As a penance, and a way of quickly knocking out a post, I present some video links that I’ve run across in the course of doing one of those other projects. Each of these can be offered as a solid argument that EVERYTHING… Read more →
Six Years!
Well, that’s six years married, and I’m still pretty much completely over-the-moon happy about it. Of course this is because my wife gets better looking, smarter, funnier, and more dangerous every year, but she still seems to love me, even as I get slower, lazier, balder, and more domesticated each year. I appear to be a very lucky man. Read more →
A Big Box Of Books
At least once a week, and often more frequently, a box of books shows up here at the ranch. I am always as excited as a kid on Christmas, even when I know what’s in the box before I open it. Sometimes, though, I have no idea what’s in the box, and then I open it and I am blown… Read more →
