I wish I was on a beach in the Bahamas. There might be a cool breeze; it might not be quite so insanely hot and the cocktails, unike the one I just invented, would not be so disgusting. I stuck some coconut milk in …
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The digital video subscription service BritBox, which currently serves the United Kingdom, United States and Canada, has added classic Doctor Who material to its streaming repertoire as of Boxing Day 2019. The service, which streams British television series and films from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, has added 627 pieces of Doctor Who Classic era content, made up of episodes, spin-offs and documentaries. Most notably for Doctor Who fans, this includes both animated reconstructions and telesnap reconstructions of missing episodes. The Tenth Planet, The Moonbase, The Ice Warriors and The Invasion were all added, featuring the surviving… Continue reading
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Happy New Year – Happy New Who The Christmas season may be over but we have a new season of Doctor Who to look forward to – starting tomorrow (ABC TV, Thursday, January 2, 7.30 pm (6.55 am IView). We’ve all waited a year to see what Showrunner Chris Chibnall and his Doctor Jodie Whittaker can do in their second series together. And they are back with what, if the cast list is any indication, is looking-like a blockbuster two-part episode “Spyfall”. Surprisingly this episode marks the debut of Stephen Fry in the Whoniverse and he will be in some… Continue reading
2019 saw an abundance of world-class palindromes, and for that we are grateful. As I have made clear in earlier posts, a palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same forwards and backwards. Famous examples of palindromes include: “Madam,…
Podcasts are where the art of conversation meets the art of podcasting. This revolutionary new form of entertainment and information (podcasts) has never been hotter, and 2019 is the proof. There were more podcasts made and listened to in 2019…
Yesterday, I sent out a version of this blog post to Conservancy's donors as a fundraising email. As most people reading this already know, I work (remotely from the west coast) for a 501(c)(3) charity based in NY called Software Freedom Conservancy, which is funded primarily from individuals like you who donate $120/year (or more :). My primary job and career since 1997 has been working for various charities, mostly related to the general cause of software freedom.
More generally, I have dedicated myself since the late 1990s to software freedom activism. Looking back across these two decades, I believe our movement, focused on software users' rights, faces the most difficult challenges yet. In particular, I believe 2019 was the most challenging year in our community's history.
We will, perhaps, never know what inspires Man to travel. To go from one place to another using a plane, boat, or simple old-fashioned feet (walking) is an impulse as old as time itself. Perhaps it arises from the ancient…
After I learned to ride a bicycle my horizon expanded. I was soon pedalling all the way to the bus stop without stopping to touch the ground. Riding my bike was as close as I could get to flying. At school I had learned that the Mongolian horsemen lived in …
This site just got a bit of a makeover. I changed the layout and the theme, and I wrote about the how and the why in a Backdrop CMS Showcase article.
That got me thinking about the previous designs this site has had in the past. So I went hunting and found the different versions of my site over the years. The dates are approximate, generally the year that version was last used before I changed to the next one. The earlier versions I got from static HTML files I have backed up on my computer, the rest were from the Wayback Machine.
In May 2019, my research group was invited to give short remarks on the impact of Janet Fulk and Peter Monge at the International Communication Association‘s annual meeting as part of a session called “Igniting a TON (Technology, Organizing, and Networks) of Insights: Recognizing the Contributions of Janet Fulk and Peter Monge in Shaping the …
Continue reading "Reflections on Janet Fulk and Peter Monge"
I found what appears to be a “turtile” on the whiteboard in the Community Data Science lab at the University of Washington. [See previous discussion for context.]
Imagine … you enter a restaurant in 2019 … the ambience is wonderful, the music is perfectly inviting … you have a hunger inside you, and only one thing can satisfy that hunger: FOOD. Or, instead, imagine this … you…
Toilets are everywhere. Every American bathroom has at least one … and when you run the numbers, you quickly realize those numbers add up to a huge number (of toilets). Indeed, when it comes to using the bathroom (or, more delicately, “going…
And they’re baaaack – Whovian’s returns to the ABC on January 9. Host Rove McManus made the announcement on his Twitter earlier this week. “We can confirm times for the return of #WhoviansAU *deep breath*,” he said “Join us at 8:55pm on Thursday 9 January because ep 2 of #DoctorWho drops on iview Monday 6 January at approx. 7am (AEDT) and airs at 8pm on Thursday 9 January on @ABCTV”” Rove and his team of super fans are also back, with Whovians, the show that asks the what, where and why of Who. Airing Thursday nights after the ABC’s broadcast of Doctor Who, Rove will… Continue reading
In 2019, it seemed you couldn’t pick up a tabloid at the grocery store or read an entertainment news site without encountering the latest celebrity gossip. What accounts for our fascination with the scandalous lives of rich, successful, and beautiful people,…
Memes are quite interesting. They are the lingua franca of the online world. Simply put, if you want to thrive online you must know about memes. While our parents used to stay up-to-date via reading newspapers, our generation keeps its finger…
We define our world by the ideas we have. From the stories of our lives, to the grand sweep of history across nations, to scientists looking through microscopes, ideas help us understand what we see. Indeed, ideas define the thoughts inside our minds. They…
When you press the button to turn on your television, you’re actually turning a key that unlocks a different world. That world could be a sophisticated drama, or a top-class cooking show, or an informative news special. It could be an…
His false claims about the withdrawal agreement reveal an utter lack of interest in Brexit’s consequences for Belfast and Dublin
The difficulty for other governments in dealing with Boris Johnson is to figure out whether he is lying or merely ignorant. There was so much weirdness in the general election campaign that it was easy to miss a moment that would have once caused something of a sensation. But in this new era, it was barely remarkable that a friendly foreign government had to intervene to say that important statements by a British prime minister were patently untrue.
Whether you think toads are frogs, or something else entirely, 2019 was the year we all agreed: Toads are getting it done like never before! These amphibians are, simply put, terrific. Here are the TOP TEN TOADS OF 2019: 10. Grumpy…
2019 was a year defined by advances and refinements in technology. From the latest consumer goods to noble experiments in cutting-edge labs, this was the year technology assumed center stage in American life. And when you think about it, it…