Uninhabited Spaces

Lawrence King (1993-2008) On February 12 Lawrence, an openly gay eighth-grader, was shot in the head while in class at his Oxnard, CA school by a 14 year old male classmate after Lawrence had asked him to be his Valentine. Within days Lawrence was declared brain dead and removed from life support. Words fail me...

25 years ago today U2 released "War", their third album, and one that solidified their status as a group to be reckoned with. In the influential music magazine NME Bono explained that "War" was as much a reaction to the music scence itself as it was a more political statement of the times: "People are growing disillusioned with pap, with the wallpaper music and the gloss. It's as if someone has eaten too many Smarties over the last couple of years, and they're beginning to feel ill as they look at all the wrapping paper strewn around the room." "War" is certainly a product of its time, with references to the Troubles of Northern Ireland, the threat of nuclear winter, and the rise of Poland's Solidarity movement. It was made during the Falkland Islands conflict and, ironically, one month after the record was released Ronald Reagan announced his plans for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Latter dubbed "Star Wars" by a ...

- The American people woke up this morning to learn the tragic news that Europeans won all four acting Oscars the night before. A Congressional panel led by Kenneth Starr will launch a full investigation - In an act of stellar creativity the folks at K-ROCK have named the new entertainment complex in downtown Kingston the "K-ROCK Centre", adding it to the pile along with Kingston Centre, Cataraqui Town Centre, and the Queen's Centre. - Scientists in Norway have unveiled plans for a "doomsday" vault being tunneled into a mountain, where key plant seeds will be stored to protect them from environmental or military catastrophes. - Since homosexuality is illegal in Iran the government will pay for transsexual surgery to "correct" the individuals diagnosed - In the wake of the high-profile tragic shootings at universities and colleges in the U.S. and Canada a student organization called The Students for Concealed Carry on Campus is gaining momentum across ...

Kirk: You're not going to admit that, for the first time in your life, you made a completely emotional decision based on desperation? Spock: No, sir. Kirk: Mr. Spock, you're a stubborn man. Spock: Yes, Sir. [i] In the original 1960s television series Star Trek a central thematic arc was the inherent conflict between logic and emotion, as depicted though the character of half-human Mr. Spock. According to Spock the most logical course of action is always down the path of reason. He found humans to be fully illogical, largely a result of their susceptibility to their emotions. As the series progressed, the Vulcan’s attachment to his captain and friend, James T. Kirk, and his fellow crewmates grows and evolves to supersede his logic. This caused some fascinating narrative tension, and allowed the viewer to question the role emotions play in their lives. Clearly, the need to understand oneself and our relation to others remains vital to the Star Trek ethos, for the second install...

A Homeland Security (DHS) fact sheet reports that President Bush is requesting $50.5-billion budget for DHS's 2009 fiscal year. According to this same document the mission of DHS is "to prevent terrorist attacks against the nation and to protect our nation from dangerous people". Hmmm... Now that's a magnificent sum of money and when you question the rationale you are immediately labelled as a liberal, terrorist-loving, pinko. But please bear with me, and let's have a look at data from The National Centre for Injury Prevention and Control for causes and numbers of deaths of Americans in 2005 (the most recent year for complete data): Heart Disease: 652,091 Diabetes: 75,119 Transportation deaths: 47,894 Suicide: 32,637 Firearms, 30,694 Homicide: 18,124 Drowning: 4,248 Terrorism: 0 Have a look at those numbers again. They are staggering. But here's the profound kick in the head that no politician is talking about: the American medical system is the leading caus...

How unfortunate. Kingston City Council has just announced that it has granted naming rights for its soon-to-be-opened sports and entertainment complex to local radio station K-ROCK. Now, let me be clear: I am delighted to learn that a company has stepped up. It's just a shame it's K-ROCK. This much-maligned complex has been the source of endless civic controversy (you know you have lost perspective when this is what riles you up) and I have no doubt that the large contingency of cynical and scornful residents will quickly adopt "CROCK" into the local vernacular if only to be able to continue venting their, ahem, cynicism and scorn. To make matters worse, the City is hosting an on-line survey to help pick a referrent, with such exciting choices as...get ready..."Place" and "Centre". I can just hear the barflies now..."Yep, off to watch the Frons at the Crock Pot".