Daily Archives: February 14, 2012

9 posts

Black History Month: Irene Morgan Kirkaldy

In 1944, alone and recovering from a miscarriage, Irene Morgan boarded a Greyhound bus in Gloucester, VA. She found a seat in the black section of the bus and settled in for the long drive home to Baltimore.

The packed bus stopped in Middlesex County, VA, where a white couple boarded. The driver confronted Morgan and demanded that she vacate her seat. Morgan refused. The bus driver drove to the local sheriff’s station and the sheriff boarded the bus with a warrant for Morgan’s arrest. Morgan tore up the warrant and when the sheriff went to grab her she kicked him and fought every step of the way.

“He put his hand on me to arrest me, so I took my foot and kicked him,” she recalled in You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow!, a 1995 public television documentary. “He was blue and purple and turned all colors. I started to bite him, but he looked dirty, so I couldn’t bite him. So all I could do was claw and tear his clothes.” Continue reading →

Tribler Will Be the Death of Copyrights and Patents

Ten years ago, DC Comics published the seminal “Death of Superman” comic book series. In this storyline, Superman takes on a monster called Doomsday, who *spoiler alert* kills Superman. Doomsday was created in a lab on Krypton by a mad scientist named Bertron, who then subjected Doomsday to the harshest possible environments and situations. Consequently, Doomsday died. A lot. However, each time Doomsday died, he would be reconstituted by Bertron, and adapted to whatever killed him. He died thousands of times, and through this forced evolution eventually became virtually indestructible, at which point he turned on Bertron, killed him, and went on a galactic rampage.

New developments in file sharing software now threaten to release a digital Doomsday, and copyright and patent holders may sooner rather than later find themselves in the role of Superman. Continue reading →

QOTD: What’s the Most Expensive Item of Clothing You’ve Ever Purchased?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1ebBsl5WhI

On this especially, non-special “holiday”, many people will be spending truckloads of money to make their lovers happy. As a perpetually single slore, that’s not my concern. I want to know about money spent on yourself. Making you look fabulous for that mate you may or may not have/find. Continue reading →

Manufacturing Coming Back To America

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE Manufacturing and the head of President Obama’s jobs council, announced on Monday that General Electric Co. plans to hire 5,000 veterans over the next five years and invest $580 million to expand its aviation business. He was speaking at a jobs conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by General Electric. Continue reading →

Float Like a Butterfly, Sell Like a Queen: RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 4 Episode 3

“Stay true to you, XOXO.” And with that generic, underwhelming sign-off, LaShauwn has been cast off into the great Beyond. Latrice is sad that her baby is gone. I know she had a special fondness for LaShauwn, but come on Latrice, you’re mama hen to most of these bitches, and they need you! The Princess describes how awful it was to be on the bottom even though we’re reasonably sure it wasn’t her first time at that rodeo. Also she’s annoyed that Jiggly called her out. Oh well, that’s how the game is played, sweetie! Hit the jump, and let’s break down this week’s episode.
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A Few Interesting Canadians

You Americans sure do love your celebrities. It’s kind of baffling that a failed presidential candidate (or even a failed presidential candidate candidate) can become a household name; not just in your country, but across the border and around the world. Herman Cain, really? Were he and his ilk really worth the obsession?

Canada has exported a few superstars, of course; Bryan Adams, Justin Bieber, Celine Dion. (You are most welcome to keep them). But we don’t exalt our power players to nearly the same degree.

Here are a few Canadians who, through actual achievements, are generally recognizable throughout this land. Continue reading →

Canadian Music: Beyond the Bilge

Look, we’re sorry about Snow. And Celine. And Avril. And we tried to stop Bieber. Really, we did! But the little man is like some indestructible combination of Godzilla and the Lucky Charms leprechaun. Oh, yeah, right, Nickleback. Ok, they were on purpose – it seemed funny at the time. However, that is no reason to assume Canada is a musical wasteland of soul-patches and mirrored sunglasses. There are good Canadian artists. There are, in fact, great Canadian artists. Better, there are many great Canadian artists. A veritable cornucopia of…alright, I’ll stop. But seriously: there’s lots.

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