Bruce gets his rocket launcher

This amuses me greatly: KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Bruce Cockburn got his rocket launcher – briefly, in Afghanistan. The singer-songwriter was among a group of entertainers visiting Canadian troops serving in the war-torn country. He drew wild applause when he sang one of his hits, “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” which prompted the commander ofcontinue reading

Preposition watch

They’re endangered. From a BlogTO review of Te Aro: This newish Leslieville cafe may not have a ton of tables to plunk a laptop, but the beauty of the space more than makes up for it. What is so hard about turning it into English by adding “on which” before “plunk”, or even just “onto”continue reading

Hell is other people (in Toronto)

I’m not sure how or when it happened, but at some point Toronto residents became the unhappiest and least pleasant people on the planet. What’s behind the transformation? Is it the sudden growth in population through the last two decades that has made the city so miserable, or the proliferation of Tim Horton’s (Toronto wascontinue reading

Fast melt

The current issues of the New Yorker and Vanity Fair both have good features on the end of Iceland’s short tenure as finance superpower. Both are worth reading, but if you only have time for one, Vanity Fair‘s piece, by Liar’s Poker author Michael Lewis, better captures the insanity that took hold: I spoke tocontinue reading

Thoughts for thinking…

Engrossing piece from edge.org below (linked in aldaily, where I found it), with a large number of thinkers answering the question “What will change everything?”  Interesting for the variety of perspectives as much as the content of some of the answers.  Guaranteed to make your brain get bigger, or at least provide some perspective oncontinue reading

Take me to Neverland

Welcome to the TinkerBell economy. If we all believe and clap hard enough, the hope is that it will pull through. – Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism coins a term for the upbeat forecasts that call for an inexplicably quick end to the Great Unwind.

And now, a word from our spammers

SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP DEAR AMERICAN: I NEED TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE. I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED THE NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OFcontinue reading