Nuclear Boy

Above is a video that (I assume) has been created to educate Japanese children about what's going on with the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It simply must be seen to be believed. On the one hand it's admirable that there's an effort to inform the children and put the crisis in terms they can easily understand. On the other hand, the video's summation of what happened at Chernobyl (at 1:45)... Well, lets just say it's quirky.

Props to Liz for the link.

From Around the Web - 11/18/09

An excellent close-reading of Larkin's "An Arundel Tomb" that was recently featured on The Poetry Foundation's Poetry Off The Shelf podcast

A hilarious blog about bad writing, and how to excel at it

A great piece on Charlie Kaufman's continuously inspiring and perplexing Synecdoche, New York

An interview with the always fascinating Slovoj Zizek


The genetic explanation for religion


Ontario is about the allow Naturopaths write prescriptions... Wait, WHAT?

A hilarious and awesome xkcd comic

A hilarious and in-depth article on the (potentially destructive) wave of "cuteness" in contemporary culture

The Problems with Cycling in Toronto, a Manifesto of Sorts

As I start to write this I feel like letting out a sigh of relief and release: finally. I've been trying to write something, anything on here for what feels like weeks, though I suppose it's only been a few days. After a few geeky and not particularly invigorating posts and then a whole slew of video embeddings, I'm finally getting back to my ramblings and ravings.

I've been super busy at work promoting an event my organization is putting on this week, the international premiere of a documentary called "So Far From Home." It captures the stories of five journalists from conflict regions who put themselves at risk in order to do their jobs. If you're in the Toronto area you should come out and see the film. There's also going to be a panel discussion with the featured journalists after the screening, moderated by CBC's Carol Off. For more info, here are two links to the Facebook event listing and the press release. Anyways, that's why I've been so busy and unable to write.

Now that I'm done with that lengthy preamble, on to the meat of what's been on my mind lately...