technology
Why can’t Johnny blog?
A growing number of teachers and parents say Ontario’s current school curriculum will graduate scores of children who are 21st century illiterate. Inside the fight for more technology and social media in the classroom. Every school day from September to June at 3:30 p.m., Aerin Guy meets her nine-year old daughter at school. On this… More »
How a pioneering Globe reporter helped introduce Marshall McLuhan to the world
Kay Kritzwiser, a feature writer assigned to the Globe and Mail’s weekend supplement, The Globe Magazine, had never heard of Marshall McLuhan when, on a mid-November morning in 1963, her edior, Colin McCullough, asked her to write a profile of him. She visited the Globe’s library and took away a Who’s Who entry and a… More »
After Vancouver's riots, how to tame social media mob justice
After the sheer surprise of Vancouver’s Stanley Cup riots had dissipated, Canadian commentators tried to figure out what it all meant. Most beat their usual political drums—months later we’re blaming the pinko anarchists, capitalist pigs, and beer companies for making their products so darn tasty and portable. But this being 2011, many who broke windows… More »
This45: Navneet Alang on blogger-of-the-future Tim Maly
Tim Maly seems like he might be from the future. Since 2007, Maly has, like so many others, written a blog on subjects he cares about. His is called Quiet Babylon, where he writes about technology, architecture and urban spaces. But in 2010, Maly made the brave and unusual decision to quit his regular job,… More »
This45: Joyce Byrne on open-source biologist Andrew Hessel
The Pink Army is preparing an ambitious invasion, and Andrew Hessel is its general. This is one war you can actually feel good about supporting, though: namely, the fight against breast cancer. Hessel is the founder and managing director of Pink Army Cooperative, the world’s first open-source synthetic biotechnology firm. Founded in Edmonton in 2009,… More »
This45: Clive Thompson on zero-growth economist Peter Victor
Could you live on $14,000 a year? Could everyone in Canada? And could we live on $14,000 a year for the rest of history? That’s the sort of uncomfortable, prickly question Peter Victor likes to ask. And the way you answer might say a lot about the future of the planet. That’s because Victor is… More »
On a borderless internet, how will we nurture Canadian content?
In 1999, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission took a hard look at the then-burgeoning internet. They then did what many Canadians would consider a very un-CRTC-like thing: they decided not to regulate it. That may come as something of a surprise, as we tend to think that if the CRTC has a thing, it’s… More »
Technology, ethics, and the real meaning of the "Rapture of the Nerds"
Aging sucks, says Michael Roy Ames. At 45, he sees signs of his own mortality every time he looks in a mirror—the greying and thinning hair, the creases in his face. Ames doesn’t despair, though. He expects to see the day when scientific advances will reverse his aging process, replace his body parts as they… More »
Guerrilla Gardening video game sows digital seeds of change
Can a gardening video game change the world for the better? In a medium that features an overwhelming focus on war-themed shoot-’em-ups, a video game about social change through gardening is a definite change of pace. And if the duo behind Guerrilla Gardening have their way, it will also inspire players to raise a trowel… More »
How Canada's new copyright law threatens to make culture criminals of us all
Industry Minister Tony Clement’s iPod contains 10,452 songs, he told reporters on May 26, most of them transferred from CDs he bought. It’s a widespread practice generally known as “format shifting,” and in Canada, it’s illegal. The minister didn’t shamefacedly admit his crime in an embarrassing gaffe; he called a press conference and announced it… More »
