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I’m Ditching the Huffington Post
I have now officially removed The Huffington Post from my news feed and have stopped following it on Twitter. Not because it’s too left or too right. But because it’s too vapid. Theoretically, an...
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Ulysses Unseen or How Apple got into the Censorship Business
Remember Apple’s “1984″ commercial — the one where the woman smashes the giant video screen while thousands of blank-eyed automatons look on, and then a voice tells us that “On January 24th Apple...
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No news is – well – no news.
Today we learn from the associated press (via the Toronto Star) that “The FBI and Homeland Security Department say they have no indication that terrorists are targeting the U.S. or its citizens as part...
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The ebook piracy experiment
A couple weeks ago, in the Telegraph, Adrian Hon announced: “Your time is up, publishers. Book piracy is about to arrive on a massive scale.” He conducted an experiment: to see how long it would...
View ArticleThe Social Significance of a Humungous Public Funeral for a Fallen Toronto...
Toronto has just witnessed the largest police funeral in Canada’s history, with 12,000 in attendance and a 2 1/2 hour procession through the downtown core to mark the death of Sgt. Ryan Russell who was...
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The IARPA’s Metaphor Program
The Atlantic Monthly reports that a tiny secret U.S. intelligence group, the Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity (IARPA), has inaugurated The Metaphor Program with the mandate to develop a...
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Why Do Journalists Hate Tom MacMaster?
It’s fascinating to observe what counts as news. Posts on the Gay Girl in Damascus blog counted as news when they were sensational. When they sold papers. Amina’s posts ceased to count as news when...
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Marshall McLuhan Centenary
To mark the Marshall McLuhan centenary (a day late), I offer a photo I took on Wednesday (a day early). It’s a sign on the U. of T. campus and reads: “Faculty of Law – McLuhan Program In Culture...
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Mental Illness Stereotypes, Amy Winehouse, & Anders Behring Breivik
Mad Pride Week finished more than a week ago. I had intended to write a piece on it but couldn’t find a hook. Until yesterday, that is, when two very different stories trended all over the social...
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Occupy Wall Street – But Keep It Simple
As the Occupy movement creeps ever closer to Toronto, we who support it brace ourselves for the inevitable backlash, not only from voices of power, but also from an eerily complacent middle class....
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My Struggle With Sexuality
I’m puzzled by the warning that appears before a lot of TV shows: The following program contains scenes of violence, language and sexuality; parental guidance is advised. The violence warning I...
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#13 – Cambodia – a book for people who find television too slow, by Brian...
Marshall McLuhan summarizes his book, The Gutenberg Galaxy, with: “The theme of this book is not that there is anything good or bad about print but that unconsciousness of the effect of any force is a...
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#14 – The Gutenberg Galaxy, by Marshall McLuhan
This is the 14th installment of my January Book Project, an unexpected deviation from my reading list. The Gutenberg Galaxy is remarkable as an academic work both because it has wormed its way into...
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All Aboot Writing Online In Canada Eh
When Canadians do the hokey-pokey, that’s what it’s all aboot. Can someone please tell me what it’s all aboot-er-about that there’s a proliferation of (American) TV shows that invent and then ridicule...
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Don’t worry; it was only a ‘gang-rape’
Yesterday, I tweeted: “BBC reports a woman was ‘gang-raped’ in India. What, pray tell, do the quotation marks mean?” I was responding to a BBC headline concerning a Swedish tourist whose husband was...
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But What About Miss America’s Boobs?
People are shocked to discover that there are racists in the twitterverse. After Nina Davuluri won the Miss America 2014 pageant running on a platform (sounds like politics, no?) of “Celebrating...
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10 Reasons Why I’m Quitting Facebook
On Christmas day, I intend to commit an act of love by deleting my Facebook account. My reasons aren’t terribly mysterious. They relate to concerns that have been widely discussed by all sorts of...
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No News Is – well – no news
Today we learn from the associated press (via the Toronto Star) that “The FBI and Homeland Security Department say they have no indication that terrorists are targeting the U.S. or its citizens as...
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Experience Survival
I saw this ad on Queen Street: Experience Survival, a Discovery Channel advertisement that shows a young bushman creeping through the grass with a bow and arrow. I’ve seen the ad in different...
View ArticlePublishing Is Religion
It isn’t exactly news to point out that publishing is in crisis. Now that digital text can be delivered in a format which offers a viable substitute for the physical book, there are fears that the...
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