Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday December 13, 2018

As a holiday treat, this episode of Open Sources Guelph is going to try an avoid any discussion about our old friends Don and Doug. For the first half of the sow, we’re going to aim for an international flavor by talking about the wave of protests in Paris the last month, and the fact that there seems to be no way out for Brexit. Closer to home, we’ll talk about advocating for a local detox centre, and the always fascinating topic of censorship… of Christmas songs. Continue reading “Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday December 13, 2018” →

Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday November 22, 2018

This Open Sources Guelph is going to be a dire one. We’re going to talk about Brexit, which is going about as well as everyone expected. We’re going to talk about sex abuse, which seemed to have been baked into the culture of a prestigious Toronto school. We’re going to talk about the lack of support for trans rights in the governing PC Party. And we’re going to talk about our country’s environmental failures. Hold on to your butts. Continue reading “Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday November 22, 2018” →

Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday January 19, 2017

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we enjoy the last few hours of the Obama era, which we may recognize in the years to come as the Age of Reason. Well, we have reason to be concerned, as do the thousands of people making their way to Washington this weekend to protest the incoming president and we’ve got one of them on the show. We’ll also talk about the problems with our own country’s leader, the problems with trying to lead another country out of a lucrative alliance, and we’ll mark the end of one of the worst abuses of judiciary power of the last 10 years. Continue reading “Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday January 19, 2017” →

Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday August 18, 2016

So what’s in the news? It seems like it’s non-stop Trump zaniness, but this week on Open Sources Guelph, we ask a more important question: is this the end of civilization? One major magazine seems to think so, and we’ll break that down and figure out if we’ll remember one week in July as beginning of the end of society. After that we’ll talk about swimwear, cars, and power! But while that sounds like we’re doing some kind of manly man show, these are actually serious political issues that need to be discussed. Continue reading “Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday August 18, 2016” →

Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday August 4, 2016

Oh man, how we long to go to the circus agin… Instead this week on Open Sources Guelph we resist the urge to talk about all those things zapping the oxygen south of the border, to tackle some serious issues. Terror has made the news again, but not because someone shot something up, or blew something up. Water is in the headlines, mostly the lack of it, but also the taking of it by big water bottling companies. Then we’ll follow the tracks to Churchill, because the train don’t run there anymore. And then we’ll wrap up with trip overseas to Britain where they’re still feeling the after effects from the Brexit. Continue reading “Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday August 4, 2016” →

From Spanner Book: A Home Which May Have Never Existed

Spannerbook

It’s a completely Canadian thing to possess a perfectly formed alternative national identity that surfaces on occasion. It tends to emerge when there is a soccer tournament or some other international event happening that precipitates putting a small flag of another nation on your vehicle. It’s always a bit more complicated for those of us from the UK because the soccer teams of each nation within the kingdom united compete separately, except in the Olympics. The 2012 Great Britain olympic men’s soccer squad had no Scots or Northern Irish on it. It was pretty much a foreshadowing of the Brexit vote. They got clobbered as well.

I am continually pressed into service to explain the finer points of the UK and always get the feeling when I’m finished that whoever asked still doesn’t get it or their eyes glaze over when I say things like “…after the Act of Union…

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Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday June 30, 2016

We’ve got a bad feeling about this… On this week’s Open Sources Guelph, we depart from our usual format of two topics and an interview, or even four topics and no interview, and go with one topic and an interview. The momentous topic in question that requires a half-hour of discussion: Who would win a fight: a taco or a grilled cheese sandwich? But seriously, there was a pretty big vote in Britain last week, and it had widespread reverberations across the world, that continue to spread as everyone involved asks a simple question: Now what? So there’s that, and we call the police! No big deal, this was a pre-planned visit and not emergency. Continue reading “Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday June 30, 2016” →