Here in the online peanut gallery we tend to take particular notice of moves that shake the current dynamic of media and information delivery, and today’s tremor certainly has the potential to expand into a full-fledged earthquake. AOL, that stodgy and barely remembered provider of dial-up which used to litter our doorsteps with “free” installation CDs and tried to make the internet proprietary,has announced a $315 million purchase of the Huffington Post.
Category: News
The Superbowl, a Canadian tradition?
Every year on Superbowl Sunday I like to open up a beer, plant myself down in front of the TV and continue the groove I’ve been working into the sofa for over a year. Ever so often, however, this former Canadian Lit student wonders why I feel so compelled to saturate myself with American programming? Then I counter, why can’t I just be entertained by the awesome power of the “bread and circus” of my day? But really I can’t help but think of the implications of being in a culture that is so heavily influenced by its neighbor. Although it has happen before; remember that time Carthage got jealous of Rome?
Viva La Muslim Revolution! (Part 1 of 2)
On December 20, 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor tired of having his produce regularly confiscated and with no money to bribe municipal officials decided to burn himself alive in protest. Little did Bouazizi know at the time, his brave act of defiance would spread through Tunisia in a matter of days following his death on January 4th.
Pump up the bandwidth, pirate the Internet
When an invading army or the leaders of a coup want to assert their control over a country, the first stop is usually the local TV station. Take control of the airwaves and the rest will follow.
Egyptian Protestors take back bridge! Amazing video footage
If you’ve been keeping up to date with the goings on in Egypt you’ll know that the Egyptian government, with President Hosni Mubarak still technically in power, gave the order to shut off the internet for the entire country on Thursday. He hoped that this would quell protesters and decrease their power to assemble. What emerged instead was a renewed zeal among the protesters in a fight for their freedoms following a 30 year rule by President Hosni Mubarak. Protesters rallied together using grass roots campaigns to mobilize, such as this pamphlet describing techniques and things every protester should know.
The people are in control: Egypt, revolution and the days ahead
Five days of protest. At least 100 dead. Thousands injured. One sacked government. A new Prime Minister and Vice President. An army, and a country, in the balance. And the rage continues…
We woke up this morning to find that hundreds of thousands remained on the street in the face of a renewed curfew and promises of violence for those who disobeyed it. Soldiers so far have either not been ordered to use force to subdue the populist movement, or have refused to do so.
Speak Truth to Power: the revolutionary power of people in Egypt and Tunisia
For us dozy and docile westerners, for whom a protest means anything from a couple hundred to a couple thousand people chanting for an hour or two before going home, this past week has been startling in the extreme.
First, a wave of popular anger unseated a seemingly stable government in Tunisia in a matter of days. Then, while the shock waves from that event were still sinking in, today’s news out of Egypt came like a lightning bolt.
The perfect scam: put a meter on the internet and don’t pay for what you’re selling
If you close your eyes and think hard enough, you can almost see the smirks on the faces of the telecom giants. If you let your imagination run wild, you can even hear the pitch that sold them on their latest course of action.
“No, sir, it’s better than cable TV,” beamed some middle management type, proud of his discovery, “with cable TV, we pay for content and then charge our customers based on how much they watch. If we start charging for the net the same way we charge for cable, we get the same cash from the consumer without having to fork out anything to those…
Is Canada heading toward a spring election?
So it seems Canada might be going to the polls come April or May for the fourth time in seven years. None of the political parties are saying they want an election, at least not publicly, but you can already smell the hate in the air.
Stephen Harper fired “warning shots” at opposition parties last week by running television ads attacking each party leader on a personal level. This prompted retaliatory ads by…
Welcome aboard the earthship
Welcome to the Earthship. No, it isn’t a ship made out of earth, and no, it isn’t a spaceship made to boldly explore where no one has gone before. It’s an innovative type of home, typically built of recycled and reclaimed material, where the household itself functions like an ecosystem. The ecological footprint is minimal to nonexistent, and most of them are completely off the grid, using solar panels and wood stoves for heating, and semi-artistic designs for temperature regulation. Some use composting toilets, or just a plain outhouses in friendly year-round climates.