Young Billy seeks advice from notorious serial killers
by Luke Rodgers on April 29, 2008
In a strange and entertaining social experiment, in the late 90s Bill Geerhart “launched a letter-writing campaign to some of the most powerful and infamous figures in the country, posing as a curious 10-year-old named Billy.” These people included Donald (…)
Props to the Ontario Government
by Luke Rodgers on April 29, 2008
Ordered my replacement birth certificate (old one is being used as a bookmark in some forgotten book somewhere in the Concordia University library): Friday.
Replace birth certificate arrives: Tuesday.
Who says we don’t have a fast, efficient bureaucracy.
The unmarked envelope it arrive (…)
The ethics of race- and ethnicity-based statistics
by Luke Rodgers on April 28, 2008
Since the Vichy government, France has been more than just reluctant to collect statistics based on race, ethnicity, skin colours, etc. — it has positively banned such activities, and recently ruled that a sociology professor’s survey which sought to collect (…)
Washington DC bike rental program — not enough critical mass?
by Luke Rodgers on April 27, 2008
According to the New York Times, Washington DC will launch a public-private partnership initiative to provide 120 rental bikes at 10 locations across the city, available for a $40/yr membership.
Good idea, but you have to wonder about the numbers. I’m (…)
Great conference on bikes; less great over-reliance on “tipping point”
by Luke Rodgers on April 27, 2008
I was at an excellent conference yesterday called Bike Summit 2008 that brought researchers, policymakers, politicians, etc. from across North American to discuss biking, infrastructure, public transit and all that stuff.
What was a bit less excellent, though, was the continual (…)
Track biking in San Fransisco
by Luke Rodgers on April 20, 2008
Slavoj Zizek web 2.0
by Luke Rodgers on April 18, 2008
Some thoughtful and entertaining musings from everyone’s favourite neo-Leninist:
Zizek’s reivew of Simon Critchley’s Infinitely Demanding appeared in the February 2008 issue of Harper’s, and in the current, May 2008 issue we are treated to Critchley’s response. (Disclaimer: I haven’t read (…)
Stiglitz: Iraq war to cost US close to 5 trillion USD
by Luke Rodgers on April 17, 2008
In an interview in the March issue of New Perspectives Quarterly, Joseph Stiglitz suggests that the Iraq war will cost 3 trillion by “conservative estimates” (the most recent figure I’d heard), but is more realistically expected to cost nearly 5 (…)
