Author Archives: Maggie de Barra

Discover Music: Musicovery.com

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The Coolest New Website Since Twitter

songs

The second I heard about Musicovery, I just had to try it out. The formula seems pretty simple:

tool1. Head to Musicovery.com and sign up for a free account.

2. Use the mood map to pick how you are feeling at that particular moment. Energetic and positive? Or dark and calm? You can also click the dance tab and use the tempo and dance map to pick your sound.

3. Now select a decade or use the arrow sliders to choose the years for all your music. Feeling like some 80’s rock? How about some 70’s disco?

4. Next up: pick your genre! Jazz, classical, world, funk; they have it all!

Once you’ve filled out your little music survey, these cute music bubbles pop up.

 

You can skip through songs, ban the songs you don’t like, and add the best to your favourites. The greatest part is that the more you use Musicovery, it will start to get to know you (in a non-creepy way) and remember your tastes and choices.

There’s really no way you can go wrong here. It’s totally free and will introduce you to some awesome new music. So do yourself a favour and try it out, you won’t regret it!

Update 03/16/09:
I think I spoke too soon. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is. They changed the format, and now I like Musicovery.com a little less.

Fur is Green (.com)

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The Fur Council of Canada Wants You to Consider a New Vision of Fur

On Thursday afternoon, my TV class screened the features that we had all been working on during the past week.

My group (#3) focused on the Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel. It went really well, except for that one hiccough during filming when we were ordered off the property at Blair station. It was alright though, we didn’t cause a scene.

One of the most interesting features covered the Fur Council of Canada’s new Fur is Green campaign.

They offer an interesting take on why wearing fur is actually ecofriendly:

Green Fur? To each his own I guess. I wonder if PETA has caught on to this.

Electoral Board Upholds the Disqualification of Bruce Kyereh-Addo

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Next Step: Constitutional Board

Bruce Kyereh-Addo’s disqualification stands as is today, after the rally in the Atrium and his appeal to the Electoral Board last night.

Some of the most interesting parts of this ruling include:

“Regarding the Facebook ad, the Electoral Board finds you in violation of the CEO Ruling of January 23, 2009. While there is no evidence that you or anyone on your team purchased the Facebook ad, the ad still benefited your campaign, and thus constitutes a violation of the code.”

This rationale enforces the Electoral Board’s position on the actions of supporters and volunteers of the candidates:

“Actions of supporters are done with free will, but they do have repercussions.”

The full Electoral Board Ruling is available online here.

Atheist Bus Rides the TTC

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Ask and You Shall Receive

Today, Philip Chin from the Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign sent me a link to FLIKR pictures of the Atheist Bus ads on the side of some TTC busses.

“I think the pictures add a degree or normalcy and tangibility to the campaign. Once people see the ads running for a few weeks in Toronto without any problems, hopefully they’ll be more receptive to us in other parts of the country,” said Chin in the email.

Check out the slideshow here.

Read Kicked off the bus, an editorial in the Ottawa Citizen by Justin Trottier, president of the Freethought Association of Canada.

Photo courtesy of Philip Chin from the Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign.

All Aboard the Atheist Bus

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The Little Campaign that Could

Well there seems to be quite an uproar in Ottawa about the Atheist Bus ads.

Early last week, Ottawa was picked to be the next city for the Atheist Bus Campaign.

OC Transpo rejected the ads, and the Freethought Association faces a lot of challenges ahead before the campaign gets approval in Ottawa.

The matter will be further explored before full city council next Wednesday.

The ads were expected to roll out on Toronto buses this week, but I haven’t seen one yet. Here’s hoping.

CUSA Election Appeal Hearing: Let’s All Sit

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Can We Sing Kumbaya?

I just got an invite on Facebook about a sit-in to show support for CUSA presidential candidate Bruce Kyereh-Addo. The description states:

“Bruce has received word from the CUSA Constitutional Board that his appeal hearing will be held on Tuesday, February 24th. This will be Bruce’s chance to challenge the false and unsubstantiated electoral violations that caused him to be disqualified on the day he won the election with 1,744 votes to Erik Halliwell’s 1,569. Please come out to support Bruce and hold CUSA accountable to the wishes of its members.”

We are not there to be violent.

We are not there to be scary.

We are there to show that the voice of the students cannot be ignored by those who think they are our masters.”

The demonstration is four days from now, in the Atrium at 5:30. We’ll see what happens. I don’t think I’ve ever been to an event where the organizers have to warn that we are not there to be violent or scary.

I’m biased, but I really hope that the decision is overturned. I want Bruce as my president.

A Guide to Living with Greenpeace

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I Get a Hemp T-Shirt

On Sunday I was stopped outside of the Rideau Centre by a man working for Greenpeace. Normally I don’t stop for people who are handing out flyers, or strangers who are beaming at you, clipboard in hand. But, I was in such a great mood, my friend and I stopped to see what he was all about.

He was trying to recruit more members. Alright, that sounds ok. We get a newsletter, and The Greenpeace Living Guide which is printed on recycled paper with vegetable ink.

To be legitimate members, I guess we have to contribute some money. The sun was shining for the first time in Ottawa for a while. It was a beautiful day. So I signed up, and agreed to contribute $12 monthly. It won’t break the bank, and I get a Hemp shirt!

Oh Greenpeace, you had me at vegetable ink.

Demand Better Candidate Disqualified

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Bruce Kyereh-Addo, Presidential Candidate of the Demand Better Slate is Disqualified by CUSA Electoral Board

The Charlatan is reporting that Bruce Kyereh-Addo,the Demand Better presidential candidate, was disqualified after committing several offences.

The issue revolves around some Facebook messages that supported the Demand Better slate, and one report that Kyereh-Addo punched a wall near the voting office.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens, the votes haven’t even all been counted yet.

More information on the Electoral Board rulings can be found here.

Citation Exaltation

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The Internet is Neat

I’ve been cited/crosslinked. How weird to be looking up sources for my current Atheist Bus in Ottawa story and find one blog post attributing the news to my Atheist Bus story.

CUSA Elections 2009

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Please Don’t Vote

Do. Not. Vote.

That’s the message that some Carleton students want to spread through their viral video that has caused quite a bit of controversy during election week.

Elections for the Carleton University Student’s Association (CUSA) are held this week, February 11th and 12th.

The “Don’t Vote” video went up on DC++, the filesharing network on campus, as well as on YouTube last week. It was pulled down in about a day. The Chief Electoral Officer banned all audio/video campaign material. The “Don’t Vote” video doesn’t mention either slate, Demand Better or Because It Matters , and it doesn’t feature any candidates from the two sides. It’s in the style of the celebrity-filled “Don’t Vote” video that was popular during the U.S election.

New media is a fantastic way to reach out to important groups of students: first year students, off-campus students, international students, and the students who brush past volunteers in the tunnels because they’ve heard it all before and have lost faith in CUSA.

I’ve been handing out flyers in the tunnels. Instead of wasting paper, a more efficient way of spreading the word would be to use audio and video material to introduce candidates and their platforms to the student population.

New media is the key to increasing voter turn out. If audio and video campaigning is ruled out, I say eliminate Facebook campaigning as well. That would be fair.

If the candidates can use Facebook to campaign, then they should be able to use YouTube. Period.

The “Don’t Vote” video was pulled early on, but some internet savvy individuals have duplicated it and put it right back online.

I love the video. I’ve watched it more than once. I even sent the link to my mom.

Check it out below.

I don’t know how long this will stay online, so watch while you still can.

And don’t forget to vote on February 11th and 12th! You can vote all over campus: the Atrium, the Loeb tunnel, Residence Commons, the tunnel level of MacOdrum Library, the tunnel junction between Staecie and Herzberg, the St. Patrick’s Building, Minto Centre and even in Athletics. All you need is your student card.