This week, comedian John Oliver landed a huge journalistic exclusive when he travelled to Russia to interview none other than Edward Snowden. Here is the clip, but bizarrely it cannot be viewed in the UK at the time of writing, so fire up your VPNs or proxies. I have to Read more…
Last Sunday night Citizenfour, the Laura Poitras documentary about Edward Snowden, won the Oscar for best documentary. This is a great development for those of us who believe that the Snowden revelations constitute one of the most important events of our time, and hopefully it will prompt a wider examination Read more…
Many years ago I started reading The Wheel of Time fantasy series (yes… I know…) I started with Book 5, which I think is still the best of the franchise, just before it descended into a nightmarish description of clothes, and endless comments on the act of braid pulling. My Read more…
In 2002, Joss Whedon created a science fiction series called Firefly. You will be forgiven for never having heard anything about it, the show was cancelled during its first season by Fox, leaving us with only 14 episodes. But the series became an instant cult classic, it was a charming Read more…
Those interested in alternative business models for the music industry may have heard about singer Amanda Palmer‘s astounding success in crowdfunding her next album through Kickstarter, where she managed to collect $1.2 million USD in donations from her fans. Whichever way you look at it, this is an incredible achievement Read more…
I find it amusing that the important political debates of our time is being fought not in the op-ed pages of the New York Times, but in your choice of graphic novel. The question of the day is not whether you are Socialist, Labour, Conservative, Tea Party, Libertarian, Democrat, or Read more…
Yesterday we got a very interesting lesson about law enforcement online. Imagine that you discover your rights are being violated in some way, and you are almost certain that you are on the right. Traditionally you had three options: do nothing, contact the offender to negotiate, or file a lawsuit. Read more…
The Hollywood Reporter’s legal blog is carrying a story about yet another lawsuit involving landmarks and/or statues. The Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro is suing Columbia Pictures for copyright infringement over the exclusive rights it holds on the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, one of the Read more…
Back in 2007 I wrote about a YouTube phenomenon called Ok Go. This is a Geek Rock band from Chicago which became prominent after the music videos for two of their songs (Here It Goes Again and Million Ways) went viral. I loved their quirky lack of self-consciousness, and the Read more…
Beautiful animation based on xkcd comic 442. Sharing through CC can create some amazing derivatives, but we already knew that. I Love xkcd from NoamR on Vimeo.