Posts by author
Brian Spears
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Watch How We’ve Changed the World
This series of very short videos compiled from images posted on NASA’s Earth Observatory, are shocking, and a little terrifying. See an artificial archipelago shaped like a palm tree appear off the coast of Dubai; watch Lake Powell and the…
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Send Them to Sudan
Longtime 826 Valencia volunteers Nicki and Ryan Moore are ready and willing to travel to Sudan this summer to assist in the opening of a new secondary school in Marial Bai, Sudan, but they need your help! The Valentino Achak…
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Saturday Morning Links
When I get more coffee in me, you’ll get more witticisms out of me. No disrespect. A clash of the titans occurred at Book Expo America–Slog The Stranger’s Paul Constant met up with our own Stephen Elliott. DRM programs can…
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Poetic Lives Online: Links by Brian Spears
A movie about poets? I’m amazed that it got made in the first place. We linked to it earlier this week, but I think it bears relinking–Martin Earl’s observation on how women seem to be the real groundbreakers in contemporary…
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This Will End Badly
I’m a union member and a union supporter, but this is not good at all. The Los Angeles Police Union has a $30 million investment in the group that just bought the San Diego Union-Tribune. (We can discuss the wisdom…
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How 1984 Killed George Orwell
George Orwell, who died at the age of 46, was one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, and arguably, given the way the Bush administration adopted many of Big Brother’s tactics, the twenty-first as well. A google…
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10 Things You Didn’t Know About Orgasm
Probably safe for work, at least if you wear headphones. Mary Roach at the TED Conference.
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Evan Roth Vs. Everybody
The world of copyright law is not a place where one finds much in the way of bright-lines or simple dichotomies. Or even heroes. So it shouldn’t be surprising when people who set themselves up as defenders of concepts like…
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Brian’s Saturday Morning Links
How y’all are? I don’t know why I’m channeling Justin Wilson this morning, but bear with me and we’ll get through this. Verizon has some local cops in Ohio upset after refusing to turn on a 62 year old man’s…
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Poetic Lives Online: Links by Brian Spears
Blogging in the poetry world tends to slow in the summer months in my experience, but we’re not quite there yet, so there’s plenty of bloggy goodness from this week. Here’s a taste. Charles Bernstein asks if art criticism is…
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Did You Miss?
Some great interviews this week: with Lena Dunham, Philippe Lioret, Carlos Cuarón, and James Toback. We searched for an unassailable masterpiece, talked about phobias in 2666, and followed Dan Baum’s story. And in case you have problems keeping up, you…
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Our Robot Overlords are Coming
And we’re helping them learn. Okay, that’s a bit apocalyptic, and I for one welcome our new robot overlords, when they eventually show up. The link is to the latest tweenbot story from Engadget, where a group of roboticists in…