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happy birthday, ol’ golden voice
I came late to Leonard Cohen. I’d heard of him, of course – what Canadian growing up in the 60’s and 70s hadn’t – but I never really heard him until about twenty years ago (at which point I was nearly 40 and he’d have been homing in on 60). At the time, I was…
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Implementing CLisa
Wyecomb was training the pulsing blue point of a laser scalpel on a factory seam behind the felled unit’s left ear when, distantly, he heard the cough of a jeep’s engine followed by the slam of his screen. He did not look up, but called out. “Leave them on the table, Lieutenant.” “Leave what?” Wyecomb…
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we were wizards, once
George Lucas, one of the true pioneers of the digital filmmaking era, presciently named his visual effects company Industrial Light and Magic. Perhaps, in his visionary way, he foresaw a future in which the miraculous became mundane, when the work of effects had lost its magic and become just another job to be done. Because…
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getting an education: priceless
It being graduation season, the air is abuzz with newly released studies evaluating the ROI’s and CBA’s of PhD’s and MSc’s. Each new finding stirs up a fresh flurry of discourse about the ‘worth’ and ‘value’ of a university education. It’s not a new discussion. The debate over whether a university education is ‘worth it’…
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remembering ray
The third week of April 2013 was, by any measure, a bad one, filled with dark feelings and horrible events. The epicenter was Boston but the aftershocks were felt far and wide, from Vancouver to London and beyond. The Boston Marathon bombings transplanted a new, more foreign form of terrorism onto American soil. It’s a…
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survey says: don’t ask me
I took a short business trip recently and stayed overnight at a hotel at which I have previously stayed, not once but half a dozen or more times. I love the hotel. It’s great value, great location, and I recommend it to anyone I know who’s heading to that city without hesitation. After this visit,…
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The Repossession
Middleton had only been inside The Bitter Edge maybe half a dozen times – just enough to maintain what his conduct guidelines deemed ‘appropriate community visibility’ – but the instant he walked in, he sensed something was out of the ordinary. The place was packed, as usual – it was the only bar on the…
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be elsewhere always
I’m not sure exactly when, but sometime in the past couple of years western society took the well-worn quasi-zen credo of ‘Be here now’ and turned it completely on its head. The contemporary mantra is surely: be elsewhere, always. You’ll see it in any pocket of western society: everyone is consumed by ‘that hopeless little…
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Old Maid Marionette
“I would have Johnstone,” said Margaret, resolutely. She stood with her back to her father, and listened for his reaction. She could hear the faint scuffing of his boots on the floor as he shifted his weight around. “It is your choice, my dear, of course. I cannot say that I am entirely…” She interrupted…
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it’s the stupid economy
Venice is sinking. No news there. But the threat to that indescribably beautiful, unique and fragile city is being exacerbated by, of all things, excessive cruise ship traffic. Ever-larger ships, arriving in ever-larger numbers to the congested, enclosed lagoon in which Venice sits are displacing ever-larger volumes of water. The effect on Venice is simple…
