I don't want to come off as the equivalent of a Cosby defender at all, in fact I'm suspicious based on the various allegations that have come up from different individuals. However, my prediction is that this is going to move into the "court of public opinion" because of the media and Ghomeshi's celebrity, which…

The fact that we still have 9 months of US media coverage of the presidential election to sit through here on the Canadian news; despite not being able to vote. Also I can tell that the Jian Ghomeshi trial is going to become a media circus that rivals the amount of time spent on south of the border issues. Ghomeshi…

He was trying to have a meetup in Winnipeg at a mall at 8 PM (the mall closes at like 6 on a saturday). A bunch of people on Reddit were thinking of infiltrating the group and tossing dildos at him, which is rude but also kind of funny.

I finished "a Darkness more than night" by Michael Connelly. If you like Connelly's Harry Bosch series like I do, then you'll like this one.
I started "the spies of Warsaw" by Alan Furst. This one is set in Warsaw in 1937 and appears to be more cloak and dagger than his other books I've read. Those were more to do…

Let me know how "dark continent" is. I read "Hitler's Empire" about 5 years ago and thought it was decent. I admit that between university and general interests I'm pretty much tapped out on WW2

I started "Natasha's Dance: a cultural history of Russia" by Orlando Figes. Its good so far, albeit dense. I also admit while my knowledge of Russian and Soviet political history is above average, cultural matters and literature are less so.
I'm 80 pages away from finishing "a darkness more than night" by Michael…

Its time for "great job" internet and this to receive a layoff notice.

Thanks, I'll look into it. I should add that another of the themes of the book is the relationship between the upper class white establishment and how themes of "respectability" related to the relationship with the black (through Jim Crow) and working class Italian communities. Krist doesn't shy away from the uglier…

I'm twenty pages away from finishing "empire of sin: a story of sex, jazz, murder and the battle for New Orleans" by Gary Krist; so i might as well review it now. This text spans the history of New Orleans from 1890-1920 and is broadly centred as the struggle between "vice" and "reform", centred on the rise and fall…

Saturday I went over to some friends of my parents with them and my brother and his girlfriend. We had some really good lasagna and played cards against humanity until midnight. Earlier I watched the first half of Leicester versus Aston Villa. It was a pretty boring and one sided game because Villa are doing…

Haha, they played that and a lot of other "hip" versions at my elementary and junior high schools (Winnipeg, MB). I think the doo wop version was by "the nylons".

Still reading "Empire of sin" by Gary Krist and "a darkness more than night" by Michael Connelly. The copy of empire of sin that I got as a gift was missing pages 182 to 215 because of a publishing error so I had to get it replaced. I haven't done much reading this week for various reasons.

I finished "the ruin of the Roman Empire" by James
O’Donnell. The
book passed well enough but I did have some thoughts raised. The scope of the work is the history of
the formerly Roman Mediterranean from immediately before the fall of the
Western Empire in 476 to the decades of Byzantine-Persian conflict before the
rise…

I need to get this out of my head,
probably tl;dr. I’m a 26 year old
male in western Canada and I need to get some perspective on where my life is
going. Until earlier this year I
was living in Southern Ontario pursuing graduate studies but for various
reasons I dropped out. I have
since moved back to my hometown and am…

I read "the plantagenets" back in early September and found it to be engaging and heavy on the palace/political intrigue. One thing that struck me was that it was fairly "great man" in its historiography, but this is to be expected given the subject matter and time period. I'd definitely recommend it as a general…

Time to talk to your country's department of Labour. Are you thinking/able to get another job if the labour market around you is good?
PS: sorry to hear that.

This really sucks. I had a similar thing happen to me in undergrad where someone who I thought was in my core group was actually talking shit about me and contributing to making my life miserable. The only thing I can say is that years later its definitely addition by subtraction; I don't have to live anywhere near…

I finished "Faceless killers" by Henning Mankell. The positives: the writing is decent even when translated Swedish-English and the plot and pace does pick up in the second half. Its also surprisingly topical even if written in 1990 (asylum seekers, the alleged crisis of law and order in Swedish society). …

Turn ons: BENGHAZI!!!

The Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan killers, those in the west who move from legitimate criticism of islamism to indiscriminately tar sections of the population (thinking of conservative party brass in canada) for selfish purposes, Vladimir Putin.
On a completely lesser level Charlie Sheen's handling of the HIV diagnosis…