By guest blogger Brian Brennan The Robert William Pickton murder trial has started in New Westminster Supreme Court with 350 media types from around the world accredited to cover the case. Most of these reporters — including two former Vancouver prostitutes blogging for the so-called “citizen journalism” website, orato.com — are filing for same-day or […]
Trailer Park Girl
Review by Catherine Nutter Tanya Chapman’s debut novel, King (Coach House Press, 224 pp., $21.95), is a coming of age story as gritty as diamond dust. Chapman’s hard-drinking characters are wildflowers, gracing the liminal space between trailer park and open road. Small but shining jewels of truth are revealed in the smoky beer-funk of a […]
Bye bye books?
Times Online has a worthwhile article provocatively titled Could This Be Final Chapter in the Life of the Book. That’s just a tease, however — the article is really concerned with Google’s book search and issues of copyright. It’s a bit desultory and concludes out of the blue that teachers should be concerned with encouraging […]
Babies and non-smokers first
Marnie Ko One week ago, I sat in a packed walk-in medical centre with my child, waiting restlessly to see a doctor on a Sunday. I had hoped the clinic would be faster than the nearest hospital, and while our visit was urgent and could not wait until a weekday, it was not a life […]
Jack Layton: thanks a lot, buddy
There is a reason that the New Democrats will never form a federal government. They keep making the same mistake over and over again: Stupidity. Years ago, I actually thought the NDP had a reasonable chance at not coming off as butt-stupid until Audrey McLaughlin’s shrieking interjection during a televised three-party debate: “But what about […]
Let the multiplexes die
Film distribution in Canada is in trouble, at least if you believe the Globe. Seems Canada is one of the top pirating countries in the world. Hollywood execs are threatening to delay — or even halt — distribution of their films here. So there’s a chance that future hits like The Hills Have Eyes 2 […]
Naked Geeks
Who are the 12 greatest computer geeks of all time? Can you put names to the following 12 clues? There will be an answer key at the end of this blog entry. Difference engine. AI test and work on defeating Nazi enigma encryption during WWII. In 1983, geeks 3 and 4 below received an award […]
Dumb and dumber
By guest blogger Brian Brennan Update to story below: CBC Radio announced on January 18 that it is cancelling the pop-culture show “Freestyle” effective mid-March and replacing it with an as yet unnamed daily arts magazine program hosted by Jian Ghomeshi. A CBC executive told the Globe and Mail “this does not mean an increased […]
Peace, 10 minutes at a time
There is a way through the mess in Iraq. But it will require patience and impulse control, something that — like my kids — Americans currently seem to lack. It will require talking to people who dislike each other intensely. Americans have been able to do this in the past: Nixon opened China and Reagan […]
Damn the Nephews for All Spam
Sing, ye gods, the anger of us all, for countless spams that fill our in-boxes. Many a brave soul has attempted to filter them to a junk folder, only to have filters fail in the face of bogus text. And who is it who must bear the blame? It is the nephews, the brothers-in-law, the […]
