Month: December 2015

Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday December 31, 2015

We’ve reached the end of 2015, and just like in the old days on the Gang of Four, the Open Sources Guelph team will send out our first year on the air by carefully categorizing what happened in the last 365 days under four broad topics that we, for some reason, are calling awards. There’s no actual trophies, but there is lots of conversation and self-congratulating about our cleverness. Before heading out to ring in 2016, rake out 2015 with the last show of the year. Continue reading “Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday December 31, 2015” →

Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday December 24, 2015

political_movies

Merry Christmas! To celebrate the holiday season, and to enjoy a well-earned break, this edition of Open Sources Guelph will be a special one. Or rather it will be a special. This week, the show is all about our favourite political movies. From the struggles of standing between competing parties in the Danish parliament to comedic efforts to beat the odds and be elected President of the United States, from the struggles of a Communist fighting the Spanish Civil War to the reconsideration of an American pariah, these are our selections for favourite political movies. Continue reading “Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday December 24, 2015” →

Happy Holidays – Or Else!

happy holidays

Spannerbook

Sometime early next April, I’m going to load up my computer with every single song I can find about the working life and play it loudly on a continuous loop at my desk for my co-workers to hear. It will be a wide range of stuff; the majority of which will be obscure and long lost like the Red Army Chorus singing “L’Internationale” or “Car Wash” by Rose Royce.  The ones that I really like will get played over and over. I’m going to leave it on overnight so when I walk in at 8am, there is no pause. If anyone complains, I will admonish them openly. Why don’t you like Mayday? Don’t be such a scab! I will counter complain – why can’t you respect my Marx given right to excessively celebrate the actual most popular holiday in the world? When I whistle “Working Man” off key every day…

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Sense and Reason Prevails on Victims of Communism Monument

canada-communism-victims-memorial-location-controversy

Although probably ranked outside the Top 50 list of the Liberal government’s main priorities, there was good news for those who are not fans of gaudy, pushy, and high-political new monuments in the Capital area. Minister for Heritage Mélanie Joly told the press yesterday that the budget for the Memorial to the Victims of Communism had been cut, and that it would not be constructed on land immediately next to the Supreme Court of Canada building. Continue reading “Sense and Reason Prevails on Victims of Communism Monument” →

A Bridge Too Near

niskard

Spannerbook

I’ve always loved the electric atmosphere generated at a contentious City Hall meeting, no matter the issue. Due to other more pressing duties in my life, I can’t commit massive chunks of time to the civic beat these days but I did pop in last week for long enough to hear the engineering department’s dissertation regarding the upgrade of the one lane bridge on Niska Road. A seven hour juggernaut is a high endurance test but to their credit, plenty of people stuck it out for the duration. The only time I have spoken on the record at City Hall was in defence of the environment, regarding the lack of respect shown toward it by a well known slumlord in town. I’ve never become one of The Usual Suspects in the crowd though, those same people that show up with a sheaf of notes and make identical arguments time and…

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