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May-June 2010

Borneo experiment shows how saving the apes could save ourselves

Shawn ThompsonWebsite

A reforestation scheme in Borneo could radically reshape wildlife protection, land conservation, and indigenous stewardship—simultaneously. Halfway around the world, on the eastern side of the island of Borneo, near the oil city of Balikpapan, a new tropical rainforest is being created out of what was once a poisonous wasteland. It is a story of radical […] More »

Body Politic #13: Trouble in Cougar Town

lyndsie bourgon

Aside from the fact that single older women have enough stigma to deal with, the “cougar” trend has been a rampant part of pop culture for years now. And while, for some reason, the thought of an older woman dating a younger man draws giggles and raised eyebrows more often than not, up until this […] More »

Listen to This #012: Human Rights Docfest

Graham F. Scott

In today’s edition of Listen to This, contributor Andrew Wallace talks with Sophie Langlois, Director of Human Rights Docfest 2010, and Selena Lucien, one of the documentary festival’s Community Partnership Coordinators. Human Rights Docfest is a national film festival on international human rights issues, and a partnership between Journalists for Human Rights, the National Film […] More »

Friday FTW: CanCon Commie Comedy!

claudia calabro

Once upon a time, saying a film looked “Canadian” meant that it looked “low budget.” Gone are those days. Take for example, The Trotsky, one of the latest Canadian films to fall into the national and international spotlight after doing the rounds at various film festivals. Starring Canadian Jay Baruchel as Leon Bronstein, a 17-year-old […] More »

Canadians have no reason to be smug about Arizona's racial profiling law

Graham F. Scott

Canadians like to feel good about our official policy of multiculturalism, and in general there’s plenty to feel good about. But as the introduction of the ominous new law SB 1070 in Arizona in April swept the news—a law that allows police in that state to demand proof of citizenship from people in public and […] More »

Diaspora wants to be your private, decentralized, open source Facebook

natalie samson

If you’re like me and you shudder to think of the store of personal information you’ve inadvertently let loose online, you’ll be happy to know that a few altruistic software programmers are on the case. Four NYU students recently decided they’d had enough of heavily centralized, corporate-minded social networking sites. They took on the task […] More »

Wednesday WTF: Britain can do coalition government. Why can't we?

jesse mintz

Britain’s five days of post-election limbo are over as David Cameron, Conservative Party leader and now Prime Minister, announced Britain’s first peacetime coalition government since the 1930s.  Ushering in an era of cross-bench unity, Cameron’s Conservatives will join forces with Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democratic Party.  Cameron has appointed six Liberal Democrats to the cabinet, including […] More »

Tuesday Tracks! Shad, Born Ruffians, Wintersleep

luke champion

This week Tuesday Tracks gets excited about suburban hip hop, trades in human interaction for some catchy guitar lines, and gets concerned about bratty kids. First: “Yaa I Get It” is the first track off Kenya-born, London, Ont.-raised MC Shad‘s upcoming release TSOL. His previous effort The Old Prince used wit and humour to separate himself […] More »

Margin of Error #4: Inside Maclean's dangerously empty statistics on teenagers

allison martell

The online version of Maclean’s recent piece on young women really doesn’t do the print version justice. “Inside the Dangerously Empty Lives of Teenage Girls” was splashed across the cover, along with two dangerously empty looking girls. As usual, the cover suggested something more comprehensive and controversial than the actual article inside the magazine—in this […] More »

This Magazine nominated for three National Magazine Awards

Graham F. Scott

This happened a couple of days ago now and we’re only just now getting around to blogging it, but we’re very excited to tell you that This Magazine has been nominated for three National Magazine Awards. Industry awards can be pretty inside-baseball, but this is an excellent opportunity to highlight a few of our many […] More »

John Duncan in the Globe and Mail on Afghan surge hype

Graham F. Scott

John Duncan, who wrote about the Canadian military’s Afghan misadventures for the March-April issue of This, contributed an op-ed to Wednesday’s Globe and Mail on the much-touted Afghan surge. Ominously titled “The insurgents will be back,” Duncan’s editorial argues that Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan will simply sidestep any such troop movement, wait it out, and […] More »