Last week I was on leave from work. On Saturday morning I packed a tent and sleeping bag onto my bicycle. By lunchtime it was obvious that our region was going into lockdown. So, I unpacked everything and settled into a week of being a home-body. I long for the …
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With a federal election taking place in Canada on September 20, I’ve written an 800-word overview of the Conservatives’ housing platform. It’s available here: https://nickfalvo.ca/ten-things-to-know-about-the-federal-conservatives-housing-platform
The payments system is merely a technical and bookkeeping question, mundane in the end. The idea of operating it with only reserves puts in stark relief a far more important question: What is the point of banks at all?
So much of our lives nowadays are determined by the smooth functioning of technologies of which we know little. Even if the risk of a global breakdown remains remote, we will increasingly find ourselves helpless and panic-stricken in the face of even mild upsets to “normal” life.
With a federal election taking place in Canada on September 20, the NDP has released its platform, which includes important housing-related measures. I’ve written a ‘top 10’ overview of the housing components of the platform. My overview is available here: https://nickfalvo.ca/ten-things-to-know-about-the-federal-ndps-housing-platform/.
This is a beautiful piece of music! Uplifting, inspiring and emotional ❤️
A 30% increase in overdose deaths in 2020? Sure, the year of the pandemic. Most agree that isolation has been a huge causal factor, but what does isolation mean in a world patched together by social media? Rat Park and Social Baseline Theory help us see the full picture. Over the last few months there […]
Since 2018, I’ve had the honor of participating as a faculty member in the Gaylord College study abroad program to Arezzo, Italy. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted Italy early and severely. As a matter of fact, one of the first “calls” made at the University of Oklahoma was bringing home our students who were […]
A set of reference taxation quotes from MMT economists
Hi Everyone, you may have wondered where I’ve been for the last few months. The truth is, I, like most people must at some point in their lives, needed to take a little break and figure some things out, needed to go on some long personal journeys, needed to meet some heroes, needed to just not do this website for a short amount of time, but don’t worry, I’m back now, and I’m bringing the feels on the way in.
Before I present this essay, I would like to offer my deepest thanks to the people who kept supporting me on Patreon during this soul searching. I owe you everything.
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Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker to leave Doctor Who in a trio of Specials, culminating in an epic blockbuster Special to air in autumn 2022 as part of the BBC’s Centenary celebrations. Having been in charge of the TARDIS since filming for the Thirteenth Doctor began in 2017, Showrunner Chris Chibnall and the Thirteenth Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, have confirmed they will be moving on from the most famous police box on Earth – and the universe. With a six-part Event Serial announced for the autumn, and two Specials already planned for 2022, BBC One has now asked for an additional… Continue reading
This food timeline started as a way to explore the revolution in Australian food that has occurred during the baby-boomers’ lifetime, but has since expanded to include more about the previous decades (and century) as well. Also included are overseas events and trends that had an impact here. The entries are brief, but there are lots of links if you want more information.
This has been fun! We all remember those Doctor Who Weetabix cards from the 70s. The previous post is my attempt to replicate the style of them... with varied success.
Unfortunately, for all their skills as observers of the world, journalists are notoriously unable or unwilling to see how the business that subsidised their story-telling actually worked and the economic forces that destroyed them
Game of Thrones star Jacob Anderson is set to make his debut on Doctor Who later this year, playing Vinder as the BBC unveil the new trailer at Comicon in the US . As a recurring character throughout the series, Jacob’s new role will see him join forces with the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan Lewis (John Bishop) as the Doctor faces her biggest ever adventure battling evil across time and space. Known to millions as Grey Worm in Game of Thrones, Jacob is a star of stage and screen and has appeared in many television series… Continue reading
The past few weeks I've been trying out some new techniques in Photoshop to create original art - specifically figures of various monsters and aliens from 20th century Doctor Who. I've done loads of them - probably around forty. They all need to re-formatted for the blog which I plan to do over the weekend. In the mean time, here are some cut-out sheets based on them.
These are larger jpegs than I would normally post and don't contain watermarks. Feel free to download them and print them out - preferably onto either cartridge paper or card depending how strong your printer is feeling today! Although they are A4 sized, they should print at A3 size without too much loss of quality. Kids will probably enjoy them but I just did them for fun and in homage to the old Weetabix cards of the 70s.
Someone suggested I print them as postcard packs. We'll see.
[ This is a crosspost from my professional blog at Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC). I encourage you to use that copy of the post as the canonical linkage for this essay — I crossposted here merely for posterity and to reach a wider audience. ]
Two schools of thought about the purpose of copyleft have been at odds for some time. Simply put, the question is: are copyleft licenses designed primarily to protect the rights of large companies that produce electronics and software products, or is copyleft designed primarily to protect individual users' rights to improve, modify, repair, and reinstall their software?
Someone tell Boris Johnson: you can’t bake your ‘oven-ready deal’ and then remove a key ingredient (even if it’s a sausage)
Ask a stupid question and you get a stupid answer. The Northern Ireland protocol is a stupid answer: it imposes a complex bureaucracy on the movement of ordinary goods across the Irish Sea. But it is the only possible response to a problem created by Boris Johnson. The reason it keeps coming around again and again, like a ghoul on a ghost train, is that it requires Johnson and his government to do something that goes against the grain of the whole Brexit project: to acknowledge that choices have costs.
There used to be a gameshow on American radio and TV called Truth or Consequences. It was so popular that a whole city in New Mexico is named after it. It’s where we live now. In each episode, the contestant was asked a deliberately daft question – and when they failed to answer it, they had to perform a zany or embarrassing stunt.
Fintan O’Toole is a columnist with the Irish Times
Director Brigid van Wanrooy reflects on what she has learnt about the important contribution of information management and asks you to consider whether APO really is replaceable.
Stolen Generations survivors have had their trauma acknowledged and apologies have been made. Despite this, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander … More
Basic income is a monetary illusion. Here’s how the trick is done and why it always fails.