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Dith Pran September 23, 1942 - March 30, 2008 The film "The Killing Fields"(1984) marked the birth of my social conscience. I was all of 13 but so profoundly affected by the horrific events depicted that it led to my involvement with Amnesty International and, later, a youth delegate in the model United Nations in the Ottawa region. This was the first time I had heard of the Khmer Rouge or understood that film could do more than merely entertain. The movie tells the compelling story of Dith Pran, a journalist and interpreter who somehow endured becoming one of Pol Pot's forced labourers and who, through his bravery, wit, and convictions escapes the notorious killing fields where thousands of his countrymen were executed. How unbelievably sad to learn that we lost this true hero earlier today to pancreatic cancer.

30 years ago this month U2 won a talent show in the town of Limerick, earning them some cash and--more importantly--the ability to record their first demo tape, which they went on to do inApril of 1978. Many folks know the rest of the story, or at least the great albums and songs that have come out of it. One of the pleasures for me as a U2 fan has been the way that the band has interpreted their own songs live over these past three decades. "Where The Streets Have No Name" is a great example of a song that has been transformed over the years, and an astute fan can tell you what band era any particular live version of that song came from. Another great pleasure is hearing interpretations of U2 songs by other artists. While some don't always work others own songs outright and take them to another place. Enjoy some great U2 covers here .

A longtime U2 fan and collector, I have finally stumbled across the finest remix of a U2 song in 20 years. Please grab your headphones, plug them in, turn up the volume and click here !

Our language is in a sorry state. With the advent of IM, email, text-messaging, and the shift in educational philosophy we are losing our ability to use our language correctly. As a public service, and hopeful corrective, I recommend all to read the following site's guide to the use of proper English .

A new film about Jesus Christ has emerged from Iran, and is getting a great deal of attention, including an award from The Vatican for promoting interfaith understanding about a figure important to both Christian and Islamic beliefs. In a striking difference from the Bible, however, the film "The Messiah" extrapolates on elements of the Qu'ran, suggesting that it was not Christ but rather Judas that was crucified after he was transformed by the angel Gabriel into Jesus' likeness. The film also offers two endings, one from a Christian and the other from an Islamic perspective. I have not seen this film but I applaud any attempt to broker common ground. I suspect that the vast majority of Christian folk have no idea that Jesus actually plays a large role in the Qu'ran, and is revered as a major prophet by Muslims. Indeed, any effort to remind us that we are more alike than different is worth supporting.

I am pleased to share that I have recently received and accepted an offer of admission into the Queen's Master of Education program. I will be a part-time graduate student so I can continue to work, and my program will begin in July. I am interested in examining the effects of the privatization of Canadian universities, with a specific focus on business schools. My aim is to research the following question: To what extent has the privatization of business programs affected the quality of management education at Canadian business schools? My research interest arises out of my professional experience as an administrator at Queen’s University since 2000. Having been a manager of Canada’s first “private” MBA program I have had first-hand experience leading and driving privatization. Currently, I am a fund-raiser for Queen’s School of Business, furthering the linkage between private interests and higher education. I have also served on the Queen’s Senate Internal Academic Review Commi...

Alas, the wondrous experience of my trip to Chicago came to an abrupt end as soon as I arrived at O'Hare to check into my flight. Despite the fact that I was 2 1/2 hours before my scheduled departure of 6:00 pm, the check-in counter process took a solid 35 minutes, as the staff spent inordinate amounts of time with four passengers who seemed to need help booking a world tour. I began to get rather grumbly and tried to calm myself down, as one of the three check-in agents essentially ignored us and kept scribbling notes, walking around, picking up the phone, scribbling more notes and then after about 20 minutes of this waved the woman in front of me over rather begrudgingly. This was an omen of things to come. In any event I got my two boarding passes (to Toronto and then on to Kingston) and proceeded to the fun adventure that is U.S. airport security. I killed some time at a cafe, bought and browsed some magazines, and then it came time to head to the gate for the 17:25 boarding ti...

Chicago has put a spell on me! On Thursday night we went to Pizano's , one of the original deep dish pizza locales. It was packed, and the pizza was a unique creation. We loved it. We then walked over to one of the finest blues clubs in the land, called Blue Chicago . Since we had arrived just after opening the place was pretty much to ourselves and we got the first booth next to the stage. The atmosphere was genuine and the artwork (see attached example) was awesome. After a couple of drinks the 4-piece band, BTS Express, warmed up with some stunning grooves. They were remarkably tight, and they just lit the place up. After a couple of songs they were joined by vocalist Big Time Sarah, one of the club's featured "Mojo Mamas". She was simply awesome! When she took a break I bought a CD from her, and she was kind enough to sign my liner notes with a dedication. Saturday night, however, was even more memorable. We started the evening off by going to see U2 3D , the firs...

Chicago is certainly living up to its sobriquet of the "Windy City". In fairness, though, my stunning inn is just a block and a bit from Lake Michigan so the winds are coming off a huge mass of very cold water. The picture attached shows the north end of the downtown. The tall black building is the John Hancock Centre. I am staying just three blocks north of it. After a harrowing cab ride from the airport I settled into to my suite around 1:30, which gave me plenty of time to stroll down "The Magnificent Mile", which is Chicago's version of New York's 5th Avenue or Toronto's Bloor St, albeit with much better architecture. I think I walked for about an hour, with a stop in Millenium Park before heading to my ultimate destination, the famed Art Institute of Chicago . This musem has easily the best Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection anywhere in North America, and I was suitably impressed and blown away. They seemed to have an endless collecti...

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".

The cult of celbrity is a mighty powerful thing. Where once the death of an actor would have been regulated to Entertainment Tonight. MuchMusic, and the like, in our fame-obsessed culture Heath Ledger's passing was the lead on every major television news station and top-of-list of every global news websites. The same day Heath's death was announced in the media, a major report was released with the nearly incomprehensible news that since 1998, 5.4 million people have been killed in Congo in its onging civil war. Unfortunately, you didn't hear about the fact that 45,000 people continue to die each month in Congo because all of your news sources were competing with TMZ and Perez Hilton to cover an actor's death. I am a news junkie and I can attest that I only found out about the Congo horrors because I stumbled across the report. In other words, that 5-million people have died (equivalent to the entire city of Bangalore being wiped out) in Congo was not being screamed fr...

Sleep...Sleep tonight...And may your dreams be realized U2, MLK 1929-1968

I've been a fan of Daniel Lanois ever since his stunning debut album "Acadie" was released in 1989. Lanois is mostly famous and renowned for his singular production work on albums that have defined our times, with artists such as U2, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, and Emmylou Harris. Amidst all the work to create and produce landmark recordings with these musicians and others, he has managed to release his own albums, featuring his distinctive sound. His newest release, "Here is What Is" is the accompanying soundtrack to his soon-to-be-released documentary film of the same name. I can't stop listening, and losing yourself in Lanois' soundscapes is a rare pleasure. You can sample and download the album here .

It's hard not to be pulled into the frenzy that is the 2008 Presidential primary. These are indeed fascinating times, with historic candidates in Senators Clinton and Obama. The much-noted "comeback" of McCain is worthy of a made-for-TV movie, although it's not clear which came first, the comeback or the media hype about the comeback. Still, in a previous post I had written McCain off altogether, so I stand corrected. I note that Clinton has moved 12 points over Obama, and I suspect that this lead will maintain itself nationally unless Obama's team can mobilize segments which do not typically participate in the federal election process. My sense is that America is, at heart, a conservative lot that will vote with caution rather than hyperbole. What one tells a pollster over the phone is often different that what one does standing in the booth, for there is nothing at stake in the former. "Undecided" typically means status quo, and few folks will be p...

As 2008 dawns, may we resolve the following: 1) That banks will no longer offer sub-prime mortgages to those who can least afford them 2) That car companies cease to run television advertisements that show their products on windy mountain roads, that tell us to "hurry in", and whose illegible terms flash for a mere ten seconds 3) That news media organizations stop confusing celebrity gossip with relevant happenings 4) That "big box" chain stores adequately train their staff on customer service and product knowledge 5) That hope replaces fear, and knowledge replaces ignorance in the White House

What a sour pickle political correctness turns out to be. To wit: in a promotion reel CBC TV announces its "holiday" lineup of movies. Of course, every single movie in the clip montage is a Christmas movie. On every news and talk show you'll repeatedly be told "Happy Holidays" by the on-air talent, as they sit on their sets replete with Christmas decorations. As I write this, I am watching CBS 'Early Show' , which is being called a "holidays" edition, and they have a phalanx of special guests singing "holiday music" which all, of course, turn out to be Christmas songs. Now, I am not non-Christian, but if I was I wonder how I would react to all this smoke-and-mirrors. Even as someone raised in the Christian faith, I find this linguistic dance rather disingenuous. If these are truly meant to be so-called "holidays" broadcasts then why aren't there menorahs and kinaras on the sets? Where are the dredles? Why aren't w...

It's occured to me more than once the strange phenomenon that is the disaster flick, that popcorn blockbuster, is a very curious beast indeed. Poor New York is by far targeted more than any other city on earth, as the setting for large-scale battles between humans and aliens or superhumans and their foes, as the case may be. Over the last ten years we have seen icons around Manhattan destroyed in movies such as "Independence Day", and "Godzilla"; the city done in altogether in "The Day After Tomorrow", and badly damaged in this past summer's "Transfomers" and the "Spiderman" franchise. Opening this week is "I am Legend", where the island become home to one last surviving human and overgrown with weeds, and forthcoming is the much-hyped "Cloverfield", in which some unseen nemesis throws the head of Lady Liberty through a few skyscrapers. How many times did we hear witnesses of September 11 say that the tragic ...

Reporting on Bush in the Washington Post , Allen & Broder (2004) noted that “White House aides describe a president who gathers a small circle of trusted advisers, listens to brief debates and then offers swift, gut-based solutions to problems”. Gergen concurs, writing that Bush “takes a minimalist, big-picture approach to learning about an issue…he [asks] that memos be kept to two pages or less. He has said publicly that he rarely reads newspapers and relies on his staff to summarize the news for him” (2003). Although Bush has a relatively small set of advisers and any dissenting voices are effectively muffled (Allen & Broder, 2004) Woodward reports that “there is an aspect of baseball-coach, even fraternity-brother urgency in Bush” during potentially divisive meetings of the National Security Council (2002, 261). Writing about President Bush’s leadership style in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, Bob Woodward notes that “He wanted action, solution. Once on a course, he dir...

[released December 1, 1982] As some of you may know, I am a December baby, and I distinctly recall my 11th birthday party in 1982 because my aunt Margaret gave me an album with some black fellow reclining in a white suit on the cover. Yes, I typed "album" as it was a vinyl record, one of the few I owned at that time. The others I had plundered from my mom's impressive 70s collection (Styx forever!). I had no idea who this Michael Jackson character was, and as far as I can remember none of my friends had a copy of what would become a landmark pop culture phenomenon, so I guess for once in my life I was ahead of the curve. 25 years later and I can't help but have a bittersweet reaction to this cover. Michael was a legend and somewhat of a hero to millions of fans. Somewhere along the way he got lost. For the sake of nostalgia, I prefer this youthful and compelling Michael, and just keep in my mind the memory of putting "Thriller" on my turntable for the first...

A sad but compelling display of utter bullsh*t from Washington, DC, care of TPMTV. Please click here for a summary of the best of the worse testimonials of 2007. You just couldn't write this stuff. And we wonder why the citizenry has lost faith when the privileged eat cake and let the icing fall from their lips so carelessly and without worry...