Author: Dan Dickinson

Slashing, meshing and bombing

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I’m a bitter critter. My Bomb The Blogosphere t-shirt didn’t arrive in time for the mesh conference (which starts Monday). I was so looking forward to stirring up some shit.

.:.

For some reason, a colleague asked me today if I remember Clint Malarchuk. Specifically, if I remembered seeing the video of the game where he had his throat slashed and nearly bled to death on the ice.

Uh, yeah. I remember that. Apparently, so do lots of people, ’cause they’ve put it on YouTube. Warning: do NOT watch that video if you don’t like the sight of blood. Seriously.

[tags]mesh conference, clint malarchuk, youtube[/tags]

Je deteste le marketing

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I finished my first (and last) marketing assignment this week. Here’s what I told a friend about it:

“I believe that, were I to print mine, an Indian somewhere would shed a single tear. Moreover, every employee on Madison Avenue would feel a cold chill down their spine, and the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto would all get nosebleeds. I, myself, shall know the very meaning (or translation, as it were) of schadenfreude if I get anything above a C-.”

I’m not the only one who said this. Everyone I’ve talked to in the class thought the assignment was ridiculous, and as far as I can tell everyone just shat out 3 pages of gobbledegook and hit the ‘submit’ button.

Hooray for higher education.

[tags]mba, marketing[/tags]

Hockey, drinking and soccer/football

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Freakonomics + NHL = dishonest parents?

.:.

This Malcolm Gladwell post is chock full of interesting stuff (which he nicely distills so that I don’t have to read anything complicated myself), especially the following:

“One of the curious facts in the study:  in both the United States and the United Kingdom, the more money you make and the more education you have, the more you drink. There are roughly twice as many heavy drinkers in the best educated English cohort as there are in the least educated English cohort. So much for class assumptions about alcohol.”

Huh. Who knew?

.:.

Toronto is getting a Major League Soccer team. I had no idea. But I might actually go. I have no desire to shell out my life’s savings to watch a hockey team I despise (not that you can get tickets anyway), and I don’t particularly care about/for the Jays or Argos. I occasionally buy Raptors tickets, but am less inclined to do so in recent years, for obvious reasons. I’m guessing the tickets will be reasonably priced, at least.

[tags]freakonomics, malcolm gladwell, toronto fc, mls[/tags]

"I think I'll leave it at that."

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SmartEconomist [free subscription required] estimates that the Iraq war has cost between $750 billion and $1.27 trillion, and could cost another $380 billion to $1.4 trillion…even if it stopped today. By their reckoning, $1.27 trillion would be the “moderate” estimate.

.:.

From MSNBC: Even ringtones can be racist sometimes.

.:.

From the Star: this pollster has a pretty skewed view of our prime minister:

“The Canadian and U.S. leaders could not be more different…Stephen Harper is a genuine intellectual, brilliant in his understanding of issues. I think I’ll leave it at that.”

Still…while few Canadians would consider Harper a high-grade intellectual, he’s right about Bush.

.:.

Farewell, Veronica Mars. [warning…if you haven’t seen the season (series?) finale and you care at all, don’t read that article. spoilers abound.]

[tags]economics, iraq war, racist ringtone, stephen harper, dubya, frank luntz, veronica mars[/tags]

His meat was locust and honey

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I made another CD for my father last weekend, and sent it off along with some maple-flavoured chocolate that we picked up in Montreal (at Suite 88, whose site is still dead, dammit!). The lineup:

  • Old Crow Medicine Show . “Wagon Wheel”
  • Cowboy Junkies . “Misguided Angel”
  • Blanche . “Superstition”
  • Grant Lee Phillips . “Susanna Little”
  • Holly Golightly . “Without You Here”
  • Isobel Campbell And Mark Lanegan . “Black Mountain”
  • Jack Rose . “Sunflower River Blues”
  • Cat Power . “Could We”
  • Robbie Faulks . “Cry Cry Cry”
  • Clearlake . “Trees In The City”
  • Robert Cray & Shemekia Copeland . “I Pity The Fool”
  • Rocco Deluca . “Gift”
  • Pedro The Lion . “Criticism As Inspiration”
  • Royal City . “Under A Hollow Tree”
  • Constantines . “Soon Enough”
  • Sarah Harmer . “I’m A Mountain”
  • Sebadoh . “Perfect Day”
  • Lonnie Pitchford . “Lonesome Blues”
  • Neko Case . “John Saw That Number”
  • Sinead O’connor . “All Apologies”
  • Set Fire To Flames . “Fading Lights Are Fading”

Little blues, little indie, little CanCon. That should hold him ’til xmas.

[tags]blues, indie, gifts, music, chocolate, suite 88[/tags]

Breakin' shit down

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From Cinematical: Mara Leveritt’s book Devil’s Knot about the West Memphis Three has been optioned, and could be made into a feature film. Regardless of how well (or how poorly) the film is made, it can only help draw attention to their cause. Here’s hoping it gets made and more people become interested in finding the person who really killed those three kids.

.:.

The head of Homeland Security in the US has declared that the media will henceforth be embedded with government agencies during natural disasters. Presumably this will be to keep the public from seeing and hearing the, you know, facts about what’s actually going on. [from Antonia Zerbisias]

.:.

It’s been a nervous couple of days for us pet-owners. One of our cats — Michael, the smaller/stupider one — ate some string on Sunday night. About eight or ten inches worth, which can be fatal to cats (as it gets bunched up in their intestines). A couple of phone calls and a visit to the vet later, he seems to be ok, but they told us to keep a very close eye on him as things can turn very quickly. As such, we’ve been practically in the litter box with him for the last couple of days, and have found ourselves doing unpleasant things like breaking up his shit to see if there’s string inside (there is). This, I have decided, is a sad state of affairs. The things we do for our kids…even the furry ones.

Anyway, he seems to be ok for now. Fingers crossed.

[picture from QuestionableContent]

.:.

[tags]west memphis three, wm3, devil’s knot, homeland security, chertoff, cats[/tags]

Toronto: "the wilds of Ontario"

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Is there any more certain sign that you’re right than that you’ve pissed off Fox News and the National Review? This line, in particular, was a spectacular mix of racism and stupidity that must have Neil doing cartwheels:

“If it’s not Mexican fence-jumpers trying to dictate legislation to us, it’s fur trappers from the wilds of Ontario insulting our head of state.”

Zowie!

.:.

[tags]Neil Young, impeach the president, ITMFA, fox news, national review[/tags]