Amor de Cosmos

Vancouver FC aka The Whitecaps Brand New has an insightful article on the evolution of the logo of...

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:08:28 +0100

Vancouver FC aka The Whitecaps

Brand New has an insightful article on the evolution of the logo of Vancouver’s soccer/football team

Love the Avenir typeface. But it is hard to take the nickname ‘Whitecaps’ referring to the mountaintops rather than the waves.

Copyright termination It’s obviously based on the American experience, but this audio discussion of...

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:52:37 +0100

Copyright termination

It’s obviously based on the American experience, but this audio discussion of copyright termination is fascinating.

In it, copyright guru David Nimmer, UC Berkeley Professor Peter Menell and UCLA Professor Doug Lichtman discuss copyright disputes of Superman, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, Lassie, and Winnie the Pooh.

Canadian gaffs and practical amusements Pal Ryan gets the blame, along with Canadian Notes &...

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:30:20 +0100

Canadian gaffs and practical amusements

Pal Ryan gets the blame, along with Canadian Notes & Queries editor John Metcalf, for the sorry state of Canadian criticism in The Walrus. Ryan is non-plussed.

David Frum Canada’s newly-built places are often homes to new Canadians. These areas...

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:30:00 +0100

David Frum

Canada’s newly-built places are often homes to new Canadians. These areas carry too little memory of Canadian history and Canadian accomplishment. Public memorials, statues and other reminders of the Canadian past are crowded into older central cities. As things stand, the Surreys and the Woodbridges could be any suburbs anywhere. They too need their connections to the shared national story — a story their residents have volunteered to join. As with the landscaping projects, there could be a contest to build 100 historical monuments in the country’s 100 fastest growing urban zones: their own memorials to Canada’s wars, to the expansion of democracy and human rights, and to both proud and tragic moments in Canadian history.

It’s a good point, even if it is from a Frum.

The five most difficult countries to visit Law is Cool) Some how-tos on visiting Afghanistan,...

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:38:32 +0100

The five most difficult countries to visit

Law is Cool)

Some how-tos on visiting Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, North Korea, and Somaliland.

Writing advice from Ian Fleming From the Guardian, 1962, ‘How to write a thriller’ I never correct...

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 01:34:55 +0100

Writing advice from Ian Fleming

From the Guardian, 1962, ‘How to write a thriller’

I never correct anything and I never go back to what I have written, except to the foot of the last page to see where I have got to. If you once look back, you are lost. How could you have written this drivel? How could you have used “terrible” six times on one page? And so forth. If you interrupt the writing of fast narrative with too much introspection and self-criticism, you will be lucky if you…

Former Frank editor makes Gram Parson’s musical Michael Bate, founder of the Ottawa edition of...

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 01:34:55 +0100

Former Frank editor makes Gram Parson’s musical

Michael Bate, founder of the Ottawa edition of Frank and its longtime editor, is also a fan of Gram Parsons.

building-blocks: [campaign poster] In 1970, Hunter S Thompson...

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:57:43 +0100

building-blocks:

[campaign poster]

In 1970, Hunter S Thompson campaigned on a ‘freakpower’ ticket and was very nearly elected sheriff of Aspen, Colorado.

Aided and abetted by artist Tom Benton, who designed this poster.

A typeface explains his viewpoint McSweeney’s Listen up. I know the shit you’ve been saying behind...

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:58:59 +0100

A typeface explains his viewpoint

McSweeney’s

Listen up. I know the shit you’ve been saying behind my back. You think I’m stupid. You think I’m immature. You think I’m a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I’m Comic Sans, and I’m the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.

The Paris Review The latest edition has Robert Crumb and Katherine Dunne, both of whom I can always...

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:58:59 +0100

The Paris Review

The latest edition has Robert Crumb and Katherine Dunne, both of whom I can always use more.

That Bloody Sunday inquiry in full Every word. All ten volumes. Anyone who says the inquiry missed...

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:58:59 +0100

That Bloody Sunday inquiry in full

Every word. All ten volumes. Anyone who says the inquiry missed something, just point them there.

Telegraphs and code words Code words for the day of the year [Some enterprising telegraph...

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:58:00 +0100

Telegraphs and code words

Code words for the day of the year

[Some enterprising telegraph operator] realised that telegraph senders charged per word rather than per character—thus transmitting “it is on” would cost the same as “raynor is maschalophilous.”

For example ‘crisp is short hand for “can you recommend to me a good female cook?” and ‘flank means “a fire is raging here. please send engine.”’ But then the operator created 366 (even leap year!) codes to cover every single day.

Have a happy Joltingly.

US labels create fake lobbying group for Canadian copyright change Boing Boing It’s really...

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:58:00 +0100

US labels create fake lobbying group for Canadian copyright change

Boing Boing

It’s really telling that the opposition to the Canadian DMCA has come from real grassroots: artist groups, citizen groups, technologists, educators, disabled-rights groups, archivists — people who don’t hide their funding or their affiliations behind false flags. Meanwhile, the only support for this law has come from slick, fraudulent PR campaigns that shroud their origins in secrecy in order to disguise the fact that this is just the same four record labels running around in circles, wearing several hats, pretending to be a crowd.

Canada needs a population of 100 million people - then we will be respected Global Brief (um, who?...

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:46:00 +0100

Canada needs a population of 100 million people - then we will be respected

Global Brief (um, who? *) says that as a middle-weight country, Canada does not get the respect that it deserves. It’s got the money, it’s got the know-how, it got three-Ocean access (sucks, don’t it, Austria) but with 30 million population, nobody is going to care.

That’s why tripling the population to 100 million or more will make it a player of consequence in international affairs.

The Canada of 100 million has a far larger national market and the attendant economies of scale and scope – for ideas, for debate, for books, for newspapers, for magazines (print and online), for all species of goods and services. It poses a far more impressive cultural counterweight to the US – now only three or four times larger, instead of ten or eleven times. It has many large, dynamic, global cities – more than just Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, or perhaps even Calgary – that, superior division of labour oblige, serve as incubators and competitive arenas for innovation, productivity and creative ambition – all derivatives, as it were, of humans rubbing up against humans.

And it goes on like that for awhile. Sure, fine. Let’s do it.

* According to themselves, Global Brief is Canada’s confident, 21st century answer to The Economist, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Le Monde Diplomatique and a host of other world-class international affairs media platforms. Also, they are ‘top-tier.’

How the Mainstream Media stole Danny Sullivan’s story without credit Danny Sullivan, of Search...