Have you heard that 1,100-year-old Maya ruins have been uncovered in the US state of Georgia? Did it seem a bit hard to believe? There’s a reason for that. If…
I found this in a massive pile of un-read links. It’s a conversation between progressive journalist Bill Moyers and Andrew Bacevich, author of The New American Militarism: How Americans Are…
The best part of James Gleick’s The Information was, for me, his history of communication and information technologies. Here’s a terrific article that applies that lens to baseball: “The History…
One of my favourite comedies has always been “The Burns and Allen Show,” the old TV vehicle for the comedy team of Gracie Allen and George Burns. The show’s entire…
Those who think that the danger of war is past are living in a fool’s paradise. We are faced today with militarism more powerful and more dangerous than that which…
This photo is used in James Gleick’s The Information, in which I am currently engrossed. The building is Bell Labs, the hottest of hot spots for engineering and technology for…
I had the chance to visit the amazing archeological site that consists of the entire Greek island of Delos. Beyond the aesthetic appeal of such a large, ancient, and naturally…
LITERATURE: SO THEY NEVER DID LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER: I have recently finished ‘The Collected Fairy Tales Of Hans Christian Anderson, and am about 80% through ‘The Collected Fairy Tales…
TODAY IN HISTORY: ANNIVERSARY OF ‘THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES’ ********** It was today in 1859 that Charles Darwin published ‘The Origin Of Species’. It can be argued that this has…
Yesterday was the anniversary of JFK’s assassination. This short video by acclaimed film maker Errol Morris is at the New York Times’ site as part of their commemoration of the…
A while back, wmtc had a discussion about the supposed controversy of the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays, after I read the book Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare, by James Shapiro.…
Roy Blount contemplates the original Winnie-the-PoohI have one last snippet to share from our recent, brief trip to New York City. My friend NN, who writes this blog, surprised me…
It's that time of year again, the week when no one dares show their face on Canadian television, or indeed in any public place in Canada, without a red poppy…
Guest post: Allan reports on "An Evening with S. Brian Willson", a benefit for the War Resisters Support Campaign, Monday, November 7, 2011.(Willson speaking at a church in San Francisco,…
My own government labeled me a terrorist and attempted to murder me. My story is strongly relevant for activists today in this climate of an unending 'war on terror.'S. Brian…
Earthquake.jpg On the heels of yesterday’s report detailing Cuadrilla Resource’s admission that their fracking practices were responsible for small earthquakes in the U.K., new report...
Richard Gwyn talks about his new book Nation Maker, the second volume about the life and times of Sir. John A. Macdonald covering the period from Confederation until his death…
Malcom Gladwell spins a fascinating story about the strange origins and ultimately twisted fate of a fabulously complicated yet practically hapless bomb-sighting device developed at extraordinary expense for the U.S.…
This post - like its subject - is old but still relevant.Over the summer I read Life, Keith Richards' memoirs. When I blogged about it here, I was loving it,…
There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions,…
